A guy is building a ‘97 S300 Turbodiesel for SEMA and aiming to roughly double its factory power.
Stumbled on this build and I kind of love the idea of it.

A W140 S-Class that still looks like a comfy, understated ’90s Benz, but with way more power than anyone would expect.

It’s Kanan Gubins’ 1997 S300 Turbodiesel, and stock, the OM606 3.0 inline six made around 175 hp and 243 lb-ft. He’s not swapping anything in either, since the goal is 350~400 hp out of the same engine.

The plan so far is a bigger HX35 turbo, custom piping, and exhaust work, but obviously a bigger turbo alone won’t get you there. It’ll need enough fuel, the cooling has to keep up, and the trans has to actually survive it. Nothing’s been dyno’d yet, so 350~400 is the target, not a result yet.

It’s also getting fresh paint and rust protection. Honestly, I hope they keep the stock W140 look as much as possible. That’s the whole appeal for me: a Mercedes that still looks like a comfortable sedan but has a lot more power than you’d expect.

The backstory is the best part though. Kanan found the car in Latvia, where his dad was born, drove it about 1,200 km to Vienna, then shipped it to LA as a birthday surprise. Apparently they’d been talking about this exact model for years, and it even shipped out of the same German port his dad left from when he emigrated to the US in 1950, and it showed up the day before his dad’s birthday.

Now it’s getting built for an unveiling at SEMA 2026 in Vegas. What’s been shown so far looks promising. Really curious what it ends up making and how much of the classic S-Class look survives.

If anyone’s going to SEMA 2026, keep an eye out for it. Would love to hear what it’s like in person.

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Put a set in my daily driver last October after seeing a bunch of forum threads praising the coverage... figured I'd share how they've held up after four full seasons of commuting 😅

They've been pretty solid overall. The raised sides have done a good job keeping melting snow, muddy water and gravel off the carpet, and they still stay put on the factory retention posts. After a full winter, the carpet underneath has stayed alot cleaner than it used to with regular mats 👍

The textured channels can hold onto dried dirt tho, so every now and then I have to hit them with a brush instead of just rinsing them off... There's also a slightly smoother spot where my right heel rests, but nothing has cracked, warped or worn through...

After a year of daily use, I honestly don't have much to complain about... they definitely look used at this point, but they've held up better than I expected considering the amount of snow, salt and gravel they see 💀

Curious how other people's 3W mats are looking after a year or two... anyone else noticed similar wear, or are yours holding up even better?? 👀