Here at Diesel Army we don’t pay much attention to Formula Drift, we tend to be more of the tractor pull, mud bog, drag race persuasion. But coming screaming into the right hander, kissing the outer edge of the track, smoking the tires, and crossed up; this diesel Mercedes made us focus our attention!
This Mercedes C-Class wagon is one mean sideways saloon. Clearly it has left its soccer-mom pretensions long behind and adopted a more vigorous driver. We can’t tell you what has been done to the driveline of this monster drift car but we suspect some major tuning has gone into this German grocery-getter.
The engine note, has a high-rpm snarl, and turbo whistle not normally accompanied by such dynamic driving. The decision to transform such an unlikely vehicle as this W203 into a full blown skid-machine takes a little mad-scientist and a little dissidence and we like that. This car is a thumbed nose at the aristocratic status icon this car one represented, and brings it back to the diesel heritage Merecedes-Benz is known for among classic enthusiasts.
The driver of this C-Class is clearly comfortable in his ability to pitch the car around for maximum rotation. Getting the broadside nearly 90 degrees to the direction of travel we see that the only limit is a lack of opposite steering lock to hold the slide from over rotating. When paired against conventional Japanese drift car the Mercedes looks slightly less responsive, but appears to have the advantage when it comes to power.
We are interested in all forms of diesel, even drifting, so come on all you diesel enthusiasts be creative!