Larry Chen: 400hp 2JZ-swapped Mercedes 450SLC Wangan Sleeper Video

Larry Chen Video Transcript

All right yo Oh my God it’s Paul dude it’s called all right so we’re at daikoku parking area again we love this place this is like the meat place this is the place oh yeah he wants to be a little bit just a little just a little bit just a little all right so

He’s the owner he’s the owner of this car that we’re gonna feature so the story is we were driving by we were we were actually not going to come here but uh we all needed to use the restroom and that’s what this place is this is a rest stop so we came

Here used the restroom turns out there’s so many cool cars here including this awesome Mercedes owners here he built it he owns a Wheel company so he actually has the wheels that are on it we’ll talk about that but my good friend Masa is here who actually works for top rank he

Helped us facilitate a lot of things this whole trip including a lot of stuff with my R34 GTR how are you I’m very good thank you for being in a video yeah Hard video no you’re in my video actually I’ve been in your video yes your video my video which will be upload

Very soon so right so we’re at daikoku parking area this is honestly the most iconic spot in Tokyo yes it is in terms of car meets yes and there’s a constant rolling car show here whether it be morning midday night any time of day of course it’s popping a lot more during

Weekends but sometimes weeknights this is a Monday there’s a lot of cool cars including this amazing Mercedes what is this thing do you know what this is so this is a 1977 Mercedes SL and this car’s engine is very unique okay yeah so of course this being in

Japan left hand drive you know it’s like boss status already but the fact is it does have an engine swap can we see the engine so if you look at like from this angle it looks like a normal 450 SL but the engine is special yes this very special

And of course it’s I feel like one of the favorite swaps for a lot of folks in the US when it comes to drift cars and all-around cool guy street cars but this is a 2J but what did he pull this out of he pulled us out of a Toyota Aristo

Which is basically a 2J sedan got it so in the US we had the Aristo 2 but it was called the GS and in the US we had the GS300 that had a n a version of this engine oh actually the engine is from the Supra 2J Supra oh it’s not from

Aristo it’s not from Arizona but the is from Riverstone okay so Transmissions from Aristo does that mean it’s automatic yes it is automatic so automatic transmission from Aristo to kind of keep the luxury Mercedes feel yeah and then this one’s actually out of of a mark IV Supra Mark for Supra yes

Sir so then um in this configuration like what else what has he done to make this fit did it fit okay or what what did he have to do so basically the mortar swap wasn’t that easy well obviously but it was made uh with in collaboration with his a guy who

Works at a like a like personal mechanic and also the engine swap is done by a shop called rwr which is basically a raw welt you know rwb Porsches yeah this world really yeah so it’s basically rwb is for Porsche but there is another group called rwr rwr which is like their

Like maintenance mechanic shop right and their team done this whole entire swap yeah I’ve known for a long time that nikai loves Mercedes last time we were here in May of last year he actually followed us around in his diesel Mercedes but um that’s pretty cool that

They actually did the swap uh how much power does this run power is making about like 400 400. uh like boost is about like he pushing like 1.1 bar a boost okay so what is that like 16 PSI yeah something like that yeah nothing too crazy yeah the

Turbo itself is a te06 turbo so which you guys can see obviously it’s not that of a big of a turbo and the motor itself is original a30 it hasn’t been bored all or strokered anything it’s basically just a mortar swap but yeah so basically normal setup um decent sized single turbos

So I’m not much of a Mercedes guy I love them but what motor did it actually come with so originally it came with the V8 4.5 liter V8 and was this something that he always wanted to do swap in like a turbo Japanese motor yes he is he wanted

To do this kind of like a quirky swaps and he did in this car what was wrong with the motor was it not running right did it blow up or something is that why he swapped it it wasn’t like that it was just original it came with like a mint

Condition like a good condition car but because the engine is an arm Block in a big V8 yeah the engine was heavy so he wanted to you know weight reduction in a way so that’s what I’ve been doing because how much power did the stock motor have like 200 horsepower

280 280 okay so you he did get a bump of about a hundred and probably 150 or more yeah yeah I’m guessing 400 is probably wheel horsepower so then um was there a lot of challenges did they have to cut anything to get it to fit because it’s

Longer than the V8 Yeah so basically the engine room was meant for V8 so it was kind of like an easier swap but basically yeah like it was more narrower too but the wiring was a little bit challenging so basically the EC is run by motec so well basically you have to rewire

Everything yeah full Standalone and then what about is is any of this stuff still working like in terms of air conditioning or anything air conditioning yes so and then that’s from the Toyota system Toyota system yes oh that’s pretty cool and then what about the radiator is that all right

Oh so they have a bigger core radiator yeah so it has a Mercedes OEM radiator but it has a more bigger course got it got it okay so there’s a z32 intercruiter on both sides God for the intercooler um I could see that the pipe the way it

Routes it actually goes into the fenders yes so this is something that the rwv guys all made yes they they make these because it’s good it actually kind of matches so then in terms of like the paint is this OEM did they have to refresh oh it’s been

Repainted but but it originally came like this got it it’s pretty cool um because it probably would be pretty easy for him to put in a manual transmission out of a mark IV Supra but to keep that Mercedes feel and to keep the luxury aspect of it he’s using

Aristo transmission yes and so that handles the power okay everything’s fine barely that’s a barely right okay so this Turbo’s capacity is about like four one is about like 400 horsepower so it’s kind of maxing out the turbo capacity as well so that’s kind of like intertwined with you know the automatic capability

And all this stuff too that’s so cool yeah you can just swap out the bigger turbos and push this car to like six or even like if you go Bonkers you can go thousand wow okay yeah so but if you do that then the automatic is going to blow it up right

So let’s talk about um the rest of the car if that’s okay with you can ask them about the wheels so this is his design or what what tell me about this setup so this is a hwa wheel that is his shop by the way he custom makes this wheel for old-school

Mercedes from like uh late 70s to now so basically this uh the story behind this wheel is he wanted the AMG wheel but the AMG wheel with this design only came with 16s but he wanted to put 17 so he custom made this just for this car this is probably the craziest brakes

I’ve ever seen on an old Mercedes F40 brakes on the front and 40. that Ferrari for Authority Ferrari F40 brakes or on this car uh rotors rotor diameter is about 350 millimeters so then how how did he know it was gonna fit is it all custom to

Make it fit and everything yeah it’s everything custom made he he measured it everything and put it F40 breaks in the front what about the rear a 430 brakes F430 yeah Mercy or from Ferrari from Ferrari jeez right here yo you’re crazy that is so cool wow okay all right man

It’s a sleeper yeah it definitely looks like a sleeper you know so he doesn’t want to put like an aftermarket like a Pog gauges and stuff to make it like look not to look like when we take a look at the inside so then all the gauges everything is OEM

All the gauges work yeah it’s all functional so including the shifter everything that looks stock yes yeah ECT power that’s that’s from Toyota aside from that everything is OEM you can’t tell at all like you really can’t I mean everything else so did he have to redo all this stuff

Yeah so only the front seat’s been re-skinned other others are just original in the rears it was original wow okay what about the headliner everything hold on yeah it’s original it’s original headliner too so he really did start with a very clean car oh so it was

Originally was this car was on a display for like a Mercedes dealership it was on a display but yeah he ended up buying that car and putting it onto it he kind of begged the dealer to really let them have it yeah so now The Border’s been swapped so

They’re not they’re like bit angry about it yeah so but what about other Mercedes people do they hate him yeah yeah it’s like half and half like some people are saying it’s cool some people are like what what are you doing why it’s just it’s so special

This is just so special I mean I’m I hope he understands that like we see so many different cars you know we I don’t know how many cars I’ve shot thousands of cars but this is really special just because of the Great Lengths he’s gone

Through to make it oh yeah yeah like the OE Quantum plus yeah yeah okay all right let’s go ready let’s go I think it’s gonna sound very good It’s great that it’s snowing huh yeah it’s okay I’m so curious to see how this thing is foreign So you’ve ridden in this thing before Masa actually I said exactly this position once ah okay yeah and dude you gotta have to be prepared man why it just sounds ridiculous it sounds ridiculous it sounds like a super you’re like you’re in the super basically oh

And I love Supras yeah but you’re in like a most bougie comfortable seat yeah so this was like the epitome of how did he get everything to work that’s what I wanted yes it’s Oh I wasn’t ready for that amazing wait what what the is too much power There’s so much power how does he drive this thing dude he’s a baller I see that oh my God it sounds so crazy see I told you when the gate opens it sounds like oh I’m volleyball The road stuff is just too cold so he’s not gonna push it yeah yeah no worries So cool yo I am just fully blown away right now oh so actually all these gauges are mechanical so they just hook up with the wiring stuff yeah and it’s it works it’s functional right okay that’s how he gets it to work oh so there’s a oil pressure gauge on

The left side on bottom right left yeah right but that’s not working but aside from that it’s all functional steel gauge and everything is still functional and then the steering wheel is still stuck everything all this is the the rack and everything all that’s the stock yes it’s all stock

No like let’s say like OE wait so then the transmission is it a four speed or a five speed four speed foreign Hmm two years I I’m just I I love it you know I I just I’ve never featured a car like this uh this Mercedes before and um it’s it’s very special this is like a very Japanese style but it’s just so well done it’s so clean including

Even this switch like the surround they wanted to match the like the the style the wood or whatever it is just the style of the Interior that’s great that’s super cool I want to know what what is he gonna build next s216 s126 a wagon so that’s it oh wow

So he’s making an S-Class wagon double one two six wagon not w124 which is an E-class one two six wagon yes yes Oh I love the way I love the way those look yeah I love the way those look so then what motor is he gonna put in it Self he’s not gonna swap the mortar okay he’s gonna make a um sedan body into a wagon body oh that’s pretty cool I love that yeah the w126 wagon where this guy’s wagon doesn’t exist yeah okay so he’s just gonna make it right himself that’s pretty cool so then

Um what else besides the brakes did he do anything else to the suspension or anything Suspensions Uh well pullovers are from Bilstein but they’re like a special one called well here’s a brand called God and the custom made these colors for specific people so because like he’s been so it feels a bit rough is he taking the loop back or yeah crazy Oh Oh my goodness that sounds so good how many of this together that’s a whiskey you’re on your passage there’s a wastegate on uh like so you can hear like the whiskey though it just doesn’t feel right for this to accelerate that fast yeah you know with

That sound too you know the game sound it sounds so good yo so did he have a mark for Supra before So it has a 1G in it got it oh it’s an old school one right right right what a great swap I’m yeah that’s a good one this is why we come to Japan to shoot these kind of cars yeah it’s for he likes to surprise people in this car yeah I’m very

Surprised yeah it worked yeah if you drive normally the police won’t care they won’t care about this car because this looks just normal it just it Blends in you know the thing is no offense to him but if if you see this car in Los Angeles in Beverly Hills it’s

Usually some 90 year old lady that’s driving this you know all right And plus they’ve had it since new probably you know look at look at the scenery behind you know foreign Well that was a good one I hope you guys enjoyed this video because I definitely enjoyed filming this thing hey thanks for watching if you want to support us directly go to larrychanprince.com I print and sign every single one of these this is the perfect gift Aura it’s the perfect piece

Of art for your wall oh Foreign [Applause]