The old Mercedes-Benz W123 can be called many things. Among them are words such as reliable, luxurious, hardy, elegant, but fast is not a descriptor one usually associates with this series of Mercedes. These cars were known for the leisurely pace they could maintain thanks to a range of, mostly, diesel engines. Well, say hello to the world’s fastest Mercedes W123 stationwagon.

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Cult Following

Old stationwagons seem to have garnered a bit of a cult following. Click here to check out a V10-powered Volvo ‘wagon. This is especially true in the Nordic countries where they are used as drift machines. One Finnish outfit by the name of  Valtonen has a rather neat and very fast Mercedes that is quite different from when it left the factory decades ago.

Click here to check out a Mercedes W123 wagon with full AMG treatment including a V8 engine.

Ford Power

The world’s fastest Mercedes W123 has an engine that was taken from an Aussie Ford Falcon. Some of you may know it by its nickname: ‘Barra’. The straight-six unit displaces 4,0-litres. Valtonen has upgraded the internals to withstand over 2 bars of boost. The engine has been mated with an eight-speed automatic transmission from ZF. Valtonen has programmed 12 power levels, starting at about 190 kW and ramps up from there. The company isn’t keen to divulge a peak power figure, but what is known is how fast it is. At a recent event held at a runway the car ran 322 km/h (200 mph). You can see the end part of the run in the video below. The boxy Merc has uprated brakes at all four corners and has a parachute for top speed runs.

As Valtonen said to Double Apex: This car has been and is a test bench not a show car and is used daily. We feel it is important to test things ourselves and gather knowledge before doing similar work on customer cars. All work and custom parts are made inhouse.