Tom Heap’s Mercedes 300CE.

We first had contact with Tom when he sent us a picture of his super low, static Mk1 Golf cab a while back. And more recently he sent us some more pictures of his latest car, a 1990 Mercedes 300CE. When we first opened the picture’s we were blown away, the thing has such an impact with such simple execution. This was one car we were looking forward to checking out in the flesh.

That time came at Early Edition as Tom had come down for the day, but as he’s obviously not running a VAG car he was banished to the carparks outside. Where dare we say it, was grabbing more attention than most of the car’s parked out there. Tom then came over to the Squared wheels stand where we were flogging stickers and tee’s, and we had a little chat about all things car related. This is when we talked about the possibility of running a feature on his car, and lucky for us Tom was more than up for getting something organised.At Early the 300CE sat perfectly over black centred Impul R5′s thanks to a self made air ride system, more about that soon. But not long after Early they had a bit of a spruce up with a lick of Audi white paint on the centre’s. Which in my opinion suits the overall look so much better than the black centre’s did, give’s for a much cleaner look.

That fitment.

Now let’s get onto the story of Tom and his 300CE.

Once Tom had sold on his Mk1 Golf cabbie he was on the look out for a new ride to work his magic on, and the search then began for a 190e. I know, the car pictured above, that we have mentioned a few time’s already is clearly not a 190e. While he was searching local forums, pistonheads and all the normal avenues for car purchasing, one of his friends told him about someone who wanted rid of their 300CE. Soon after that a deal was struck on a slightly neglected, white, 3ltr straight six 300CE for a bargain price.

As any self respecting car enthusiast, a standard car just doesn’t cut the mustard. And after being around for over 20 years, this 300CE was feeling abit sorry for itself with everything getting tired and worn out.

So the whole knackered standard suspension was ripped out and replaced with full set of E36 coilovers as surprisingly they are a direct fit. This now meant it was now running nice and low, infact it was that low a cat’s eye in the rain said goodbye to the sump and all the contents of the engine. After getting the car recovered by a friend and repairing the damage done by every low car’s enemy, Tom decided on a new way to get low and not risk smashing his sump again. Air.

As you can imagine though, there aren’t many air kit’s around to suit a nearly 2 ton 1990′s Mercedes 300CE. So this called for a custom kit to be made up to suit the 300, and instead of dropping the car off at some company to do all the work Tom decided to undertake it all himself. That consisted of re using the E36 struts up front, but then he had to make custom mounting plates for the bags. And at the back he swapped out the E36 struts for modified S13 unit’s and again custom bracket’s for the bags.

All natural camber in the rear too, no added shims or washers here.

The 300 isn’t going any lower than this without an engine raise either, as it’s currently sat on the floor when it’s air’d out.

The wheels. They are Impul R5′s, which Tom picked up at as old tatty 2 piece wheels. He then converted them to 3 piece and purchased some new wider lips to bring them to 9′s up front and a healthy 11.5J in the rear. And as you can see in all these pic’s the fitment is pretty spot on, so a job well done sir.

All in all we think Tom’s nailed it with his 300CE. But don’t get too used to seeing it like it is now in these pic’s, as he’s already got a few idea’s in the pipeline to change things up a little. And when he does, you can be sure to see some more shot’s up here.

Words and Photo’s : Tony.