Hi! Just so that we definitely don't get bored, here we have another project car, that we left unfinished about 5 years ago.

We have a chance the continue working on it now, so in this video I'll tell you more about what kind of a car this is,

What is our progress with it so far,

What the future plans are and what we want to use it for.

This is a 2004 CLK55 AMG that I brought into the country about 6 years ago, completely stock.

It has a naturally aspirated V8 engine, called M113,

From factory it's a 360hp NA engine, paired with a 5 speed auto trans, and pretty long diff ratios.

It's a lovely sports car, sounds beautiful, but it's not really made for agressive driving. You can hammer it a couple times, has a good vibe, but nothing more really.

There was a Black Series version made out of this CLK back in the day,

We have a similar plan in mind, however we won't make an exact replica, rather a unique car.

The basic idea with this build is to make a car that is properly built for pure driving.

By that I mean there is no electronic systems getting in your way, the car isn't thinking instead of you, it doesn't shift gears for you.

You are the one driving, and it can almost do what a modern day drift car can do combined with a little bit of comfort and usability. How we're going to do that, I'll tell you in a bit.

As usual, let's take a look at a carVertical report, about a CLK.

Here it writes this car has been damaged,

It was first registered in America in 2005,

From there it went to the Czech Republic, and from there to Hungary.

Mileage is 200,000 kms (125k miles), there isn't much that happened to it.

Damage! The front had a pretty significant damage to it apparently.

It was sold for $725, that isn't much. It is also a 5.5L CLK, but it isn't AMG. And here are the photos:

They wrecked the right front pretty badly.

If you want the check out your own car or a car that you plan on buying, use the link in the description to get a 20% discount.

Let's being with the suspension. The car got - it is not yet fully built in, just thrown in - a KW suspension that can do HLS and DDC.

HLS is Hydraulic Lift System, it can lift itself without affecting handling. This is not an air spring, it is hydraulic. You can lower your car and also lift it on both axles.

It is called HLS 4, you can also buy it for the front axle only, ours is for all 4 wheels.

If I remember correctly, you can use it up to 80kph (50mph), you can raise and lower it while driving.

For comparison, with a Lamborghini you almost have to fully stop, you have to drive really slow lift its front up and above 30kph it lowers itself back down. So this one's better.

DDC is Dynamic Damping Control, which means you can change the suspension's stiffness on the run.

If we were to put it into a newer car - this was ordered for a W204 C63 AMG - it would be plug and play, you just click it into the factory loom and are able to control it with the factory buttons to be in sport, comfort or street.

This car doesn't have the option, here you either use a phone to set and customize these options, or there is a dedicated button that you can use to cycle between comfort, street and sport modes.

My hopes are that with this suspension we will be able to achieve a usable setup for both track and street use as well with the least compromises.

In addition there is also a control unit and a motor part of the hydraulics to install, we have to make the tubing for the whole thing as well. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

We haven’t done those yet, so far we only tweaked the suspension to fit, because it is originally made for a different model. We needed some modifications for it to fit, but it looks like it is gonna be good and will work for us.

We'll talk more about the details of the suspension in a later episode.

The brakes are off of a CLS63 AMG, the front ones very relatively easy to fit, however for the rears we will need to swap out the knuckles.

About the externals: the car will get an aftermarket Black Series bodykit,

You can get these from the UK and from Poland,

They are pretty good quality, there are multiple versions. We already purchased one version, but we didn't really like it,

Because it was done so that the widebody section at rear clears the gas cap from under and the factory one overhangs several centimeters.

So the rear sits pretty high and it looks stupid, so we let that idea go and we are now looking for one that is more similar to the stock one.

It will never be an exact match, but you can achieve a really-really close finish.

The interior is going to be simplified, but it will look a little bit like factory. The rear seats might come out and maybe we'll put in a half cage.

The front seats are not staying factory either, I plan to use a Recaro CS sport seat or a newer model year AMG's half bucket seat for better side support.

The dashboard, door cards, etc will all stay, but we will retrim all of them with fresh leather.

We will retain a couple of the comfort electronics, AC for sure, audio system as well. And pretty much that's all that we need.

What is a significant difference from the stock interior is that the small auto gear selector will be replaced by a long Samsonas sequential gearbox shifter will poke out of there.

We will also hide a hydro e-brake somewhere too. Mercedeses don't have a literal handbrake, you engage them by foot, so we need a totally different solution here.

Here's the engine. This is also an M113, but there is a K-letter at the end, which means it has a compressor. In this configuration it has never been put into CLKs, they are either from W211 E-Classes, or W220 S-Classes.

So this is a factory supercharged engine with about 475hp. We have already made some changes to it, first of all the throttle was swapped to a bigger one, the supercharger pulley is now smaller and we removed the clutch from the charger,

Meaning it is directly driven, whenever you touch the throttle it is maximum power.

There are some bigger downpipes on it, but they are not the best ones, we might modify them later, on the other hand the coils are original, the injectors are stock. And as it is it put out 650hp and 950Nm (700lb ft) on a dyno, which is just brutal.

On top of that, the torque is being delivered totally flat from 3000-3500RPM upwards. It is gonna be a brutally strong motor, especially on the street.

It will stay very raw, we will put a MaxxECU into this as well, but somewhat in parallel with the stock electronics to retain the speedo and varius other systems on the interior.

This is why it's good that it already had a 55AMG engine from factory, at least they will be somewhat similar.

We'll put the AC compressor back on and after we're pretty much done with it. The loom has already been put on the motor, the charge air cooler and the oil coolers are already in the chassis,

So now we are going to put the engine in, hook everything up and relatively easily it will be ready for a startup.

We will have to touch the fuel system, because compared to the NA engine the new one will be close to double in performance. And the stock fuel system won't be able to handle that for sure.

And here's our gearbox, a 5-speed sequential Samsonas gearbox, already bolted to a V6 bellhousing, which bolts straight to the V8.

It is going to be mated with a 3-disk Tilton clutch, and a Tilton clutch bearing.

This box is definitely not going to contribute to the comfort, but I want to try this one first, because it will give a lot to the dynamics of the car.

As a B-option we have the diesel gearbox, we'd lose our pokeyness, but in return it wouldn't be so unbearably loud and so drastic to operate.

You put this one into first and it instantly hits once hard. On the street, I wouldn't want to sit through a traffic jam with it, but when going for a joy ride it will be fantastic for sure.

And as a last possibility, we could use its factory auto, or maybe we could make a newer model, because the auto trans that came with it is this old, classic Merc tranny, slow as hell, but bullet proof.

We could also make it work with BMW's DKG gearbox, that would also get us great results, but it is important for me to have a clutch pedal and have a manual.

So this is how this project looks at the moment, I really hope that we can finish it in a short time, because I think it will become a brutally crazy car at the end.

We will make a video at every major step with the car, so make sure to subscribe to the channel. And I'll see you again next week. See you then!