One of a Kind

Noted enthusiast John Olson and his unique 1963 300SE 32 – a blend of classic styling with contemporary power and technology – are on a remarkable journey together

Article John Olson

Images David Gooley & Susan Morehouse

What would you do if you acquired an attractive and iconic Mercedes-Benz from the early 1960s that was missing its engine? Dutifully find a correct motor and put Humpty-Dumpty back together again? If you had already performed a few specification-correct restorations, might you explore some other options?

Restore or go outside the box? 

That’s what went through my mind a few years ago when an engineless 300SE Coupe came on the market in rural Pennsylvania. A friend looked at the car and reported an excellent interior and paint, minimal rust, and even described the bucket rear seats as an uncommon option. Only one problem: It had no motor or transmission.

Coincidentally, I had been reading about pre-World War II Packard, Rolls Royce and Mercedes-Benz cars – with coachwork by the likes of Hibbard & Darrin in Paris, Walter M. Murphy Co. in Pasadena, California, and Erdmann & Rossi in Berlin – personalized to suit the tastes of individual owners. It must have been a luxurious experience for private individuals to commission what today have become recognized as some of the most revered of motorcars by the Classic Car Club of America and at prominent concours d’elegance events.

But what engine?

I couldn’t get this car out of my mind. For the next few days, I imagined myself personalizing it as those particular folks had done back in the prewar days. With the possibilities rolling around in my head, I bought the car.

For me, the car’s very elegant 1960s body design – attributed mostly to Paul Bracq – is its more profound feature. I began wondering if the ultimate compliment would be to combine this body with a great engine and my most admired Mercedes-Benz features from subsequent decades. During the next year I considered four different engines.

Finding another good, original 3.0-liter 6-cylinder engine would not be easy; with metal-sleeved alloy blocks, they also are expensive and difficult to rebuild. The engine design was shared with the last 200 300SL Roadsters, albeit with 60 more horsepower than in the 300SE. When I think about it, if this Coupe had its original engine, I probably wouldn’t have bought the car. The allure of the car started with that empty engine bay.

A 6.3-liter V-8 would certainly be exciting. But as important as that engine is in the grand sweep of Mercedes-Benz history – nearly every book about the marque mentions it – those engine bays were never designed for a behemoth iron-block V-8; a little more than a decade later, aluminum V-8s had come to stay. Then news of $4 gasoline – $12 in London – hit the press. Even a powerful alloy V-8 from the pre-fuel crisis period began feeling like a step backward.

I even dared consider one of the newer quiet, powerful 6-cylinder Mercedes-Benz diesels. A friend reported getting 42 mpg with his 1999 E300 turbodiesel, a 175-horsepower, direct-injection inline-six engine. These engines have wondrous low-rpm torque, and the days of smoking and rattling were long gone.

A few people recommended Sprinter van diesel engines as having easier electronics to master. If I did choose a modern engine, I would have to install the engine control unit as well, since these have become the all-knowing rulers of modern motorcars – just one reason why vintage specialists don’t like to work on them. By the mid-1990s, these ECUs were inescapable, monitoring and adjusting temperatures and pressures for everything imaginable. I did find a wrecked Mercedes-Benz diesel with only 6,000 miles, but the title got tied up in litigation; I lost interest.

Then I found exactly the right engine: a supercharged AMG-built V-6 from a 2003 C32 that had been in an accident with just enough body damage to be totaled, but with everything else intact.

The 1963 300SE Coupe had the identical wheelbase to the C32 and originally came with a 3-liter inline-six of similar weight. The V-6 oil pan was in the wrong place for the 1960s’ front sub-frame, but we could make that problem go away by using the entire C32 transmission tunnel, front-end and suspension. Acquiring a whole donor car plus part of another one was very cost-effective. Most 1990s Mercedes-Benz engines – gasoline or diesel – are married for life to their transmissions through the ECU electronics. After 1999, any Mercedes-Benz donor’s instrumentation, ignition, fuel delivery and catalyst exhaust system were also inseparable.

While I consider myself a good craftsman, much of the engineering was going to be beyond my capabilities; I would have to find a shop that was experienced in installing ECU management throughout the car, from EPA-approved fuel-delivery system to the alphabet of integrated pre-emptive safety systems (such as ABS, ESP, BAS plus SRS). The project would also require conventional “big-muscle” metalworking skills, various types of welding, good record keeping … what have I missed?

I chose Performance ASC in Hastings, Minnesota. Owner Chris Olsen has an uncanny affinity for working with modern electronics and his company is less than an hour’s drive from where I live, though many of our discussions and decisions occurred via phone and e-mail.

Choosing the AMG C32 as the donor for our Coupe exceeded all expectations: so much of the Mercedes-Benz technology I’ve admired during the 50 years since the 300SE Coupe was built comes with this one-stop package. Instead of a “What can we adapt?” scenario, the question became “How many modern features would the ECU insist we adapt?”

You are looking at the result. There were a few humorous tasks; for example the C32 has four doors. Early on, we had to lie to … er … inform the ECU that the rear doors were permanently locked. Other things like emission controls and night-sensing headlights were not on our priority list, but when the resulting performance is 0-60 in five seconds and over 20 mpg on the highway, who’s complaining?

The best of the past

The dream was happening. As I explored the options, I thought of various state-of-the-art features I had admired from past decades that could be overlaid on the timeless elegant styling of the 1963 Coupe.

Rubber on the leading edge of the bumpers was first seen in the 1930s and briefly reappeared on the 1951-1954 300S cars, but disappeared until the 1968 280 S-Class. That was an easy addition.

Moving the gas tank to above the rear axle – as done in the 1970s – was aided by a cavernous trunk. Chris found several newer Mercedes-Benz fuel tanks that would fit at the front of the trunk, which concurrently provided space for a tire well below the trunk’s floor. Technically, the new tank location became an open underbody space outside the trunk and passenger compartments, a Department of Transportation requirement. A new spare-tire and spare-parts compartment below the trunk floor would be useful when traveling and became an additional crash absorption area.

Also from the same decade, air-conditioning ducts from the 600 and 300CD were combined with the 2003 climate-control system transferred from the donor car.

Tires changed substantially in the 1980s, growing in width and diameter while decreasing in profile. Fifteen-inch wheels from the 560 SEL/SEC would fit the C32 axles and enable much wider tire choices. We chose today’s Bridgestone/Firestone Potenza. The modern rubber formula and sturdy sidewalls proved tremendously capable when we exercised the car with high-speed laps at Thompson Speedway as part of this summer’s StarFest®. Despite hard cornering, the chalk we placed on the sidewalls wasn’t rubbed off. We can also thank the camber of our adapted AMG suspension for improved handling by leaning tires to the inside on corners.

The convenience of a power rear-window sunshade came in the 1990s, and was available to us from the donor C32, complete with coded dash buttons. It proved useful defusing glaring truck lights on the highway at night.

Rack-and-pinion steering came to Mercedes-Benz in the late 1990s. For personal preference, I requested that the aggressive C32 ratio be retained. The 300SL Roadster I drove four times in La Carrera Panamericana had only two turns lock to lock – one turn each way. Quick steering has saved me from several accidents. Variable-ratio power steering was considered, but it turned out that wouldn’t have been faster.

From the C32 sedan, the coupe inherited handsome high-backed, side-bolstered AMG bucket seats. They were far too good to discard, but they didn’t have the classic look consistent with the exterior of the car. GAHH Automotive and its Old-Timer program correctly matched the 1960s perforated waffle-pattern and color of the coupe’s rear bucket seats.

The anti-lock braking, electronic-stability program and brake-assist systems were combined in one communicating safety module by 2002. The safety restraint system with the driver airbag was separate, but these pillars of modern motoring seemed essential companions for the C32’s power.

The 5G-Tronic transmission that came in 2003 was able to observe, learn and react to each driver’s shifting intensity and rpm shift points to assimilate the best shifting points for mellow to aggressive drivers – and for this engine’s best-known strengths. The artificial intelligence is surreal transmission behavior in a car that appears to be from 1963.

Additive manufacturing, (more often called 3-D printing), which became practical in 2016, became a surprising player in our project. We used it to prototype and print more than 100 small- to medium-sized parts, mostly in ABS plastic and fuel/ethanol-proof Nylon. We were able to make copies of existing parts and remanufacture parts that are no longer available.

And the results?

Since finishing the car and covering 1,800 break-in miles, I have driven it from Minneapolis to Thompson Speedway in Connecticut for StarFest and back, then from Minneapolis to Monterey for Legends of the Autobahn® and from there up to Portland for the M-100 Lodefest and back to San Francisco, to Sun Valley, Idaho, for the Gull Wing Group convention, and finally home, a total of 8,200 miles in six weeks. I enjoyed the entire trip, without a single mechanical issue over the entire distance.

With each mile that I drive, at all elevations and on all kinds of roads, I can’t get over how good this car is – in my mind it is the best of every postwar generation of Mercedes-Benz built, better looking than the newer cars and better performing than the older cars. And all of this became possible because I decided to suit myself when I figured out how I wanted to rebuild a 1963 car that didn’t have an engine or transmission.

Specifications

1963 Mercedes-Benz W112 300SE 32 Coupe

TYPE: Two-door, four-passenger coupe

ENGINE: M112 AMG-built 3.2-liter supercharged V-6

(Lindström twin-screw 14.5 psi supercharger)

TRANSMISSION: 5-speed G-Tronic paddle-shift automatic

HORSEPOWER: 354 at 6,100 rpm  

TORQUE: 332 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm

PERFORMANCE: Zero-60 mph 5.0 sec   Top Speed 155 mph (elec. limited)

LENGTH: 108 in 

CURB WEIGHT: 3,670 lb 

FUEL EFFICIENCY: 19.2 mpg (observed)

Gorgeous. Intoxicating. Exciting. In the exterior details, unmatched – the best of the 1960s, and on the road, unbelievable – the best of the 21st century.

From the outside, the 1963 300SE Coupe with its classic Bracq lines, subtle fins and lovely matching hub caps gives no clue that underneath, there is a completely modern Mercedes-Benz.

Only the European-style headlamps and unusual shape to the headrests suggest that perhaps all is not as it appears.

Peeking inside is totally disorienting.

Instead of a classic 1963 interior, the gauges, accessories and trim are completely modern.

It is here that Olson’s creativity and craftsmanship must really be admired. 

The 3.2-liter AMG engine sits neatly in the engine compartment of the 300SE, with the engine cover painted to match the body.

Modern air suspension components.

Period documents and tools in the trunk.

John Olson, in his German hunter’s hat, doesn’t look at all as if he’s driven thousands of miles.