In Norway Time Attack is quite popular as a kind of motorsports, that’s why there are a lot of rare and interesting racing cars.
For example Mercedes C-Klasse from Mathias Kandevik looks very similar to the cars produced in the factory but if you will take a look into a vent opening in the carbon hood you’ll get that it is completely different from the stock car. Volvo letters under the hood proof this. But why in a C-Klasse? Matias is working for Mercedes service and he wanted to make a unique car for time attack. Actually this is not the first experience for Mathias in combining two different automotive products. His previous clock chasing car was BMW M3 E30 with the same motor, but the body was wasted and Mathias had to find a new “home” for the engine.
The engine, moved almost a half of meter from the stock housing is a B230FK Volvo 4-cylindered 2.3L, which comes from 900-series Volvo. The head is 16v B234F. It’s obvious that the motor was totally reworked — pistons and rods were substituted by forged parts, crankshaft was modified to make the bottom more turbo-friendly. The head is equipped with 280-degrees camshafts with 10mm valves lift. The air intake was made custom by hands and the throttle came from Volvo960. The air comes through KL Racing intercooler and the passes to the Garrett GT4094R with two 44-mm TiAL MV-R wastegates. Exhaust comes out via stainless custom exhaust with 3,5 inches in diameter. The fuel is pumped by a couple of Bosch Motorsport 044 pumps and it is injected by Bosch injectors with almost 1.7 liters in a minute productivity. MoTeC M600 manages the engine and with actual set up there are serious 525hp and 650Nm at 6000rpm. All there Swedish horses and Newtons accelerate Mercedes body with the help of… BMW transmission and differential! Gearbox is taken from M3 E36 and the diff belonged to a quite-antique 535M E28.
It’s clear that the body had to be reworked seriously — the firewall, transmission tunnel, suspension and engine housings were modified. Also there was spent a great work to reduce the weight of the car. Unnecessary parts were cut out, the roof, the trunk and the hood were substituted with carbon parts, side and rear windows now are made of Lexan. After the rollcage was integrated and a rear spoiler was installed the total weight of the car was near 1200kg with perfect 50\50 split between front and rear.
The interior is quite minimalistic. The dashboard was kept without changes, the instruments panel was removed and ETB DigiDash2 panel and AutoMeter boost gauge was inserted to display the necessary information.
The suspension is custom-built with uniballs and Sellholm Tuning parts. All swaybars are adjustable. Front brakes have 355mm rotors and Alcon six-pot calipers. Rear brakes are 295mm with Brembo four-pots. Wheels are 17” RAYS 57 Motorsport G07WT-II wrapped in Yokohama racing slicks.
And now the most interesting — Mathias constructed this car itself only. He spent 18 months to build it in evenings and weekends and the first six months he was living in the garage spending all the time when he was out of work. The result is awesome.
Tech specs
Engine Volvo B230FK 2.3-litre DOHC 16-valve with Garrett GT4094R twin-entry turbocharger, MoTeC M600 engine management system — 525 hp and 650Nm at 6000rpm
Transmission BMW E36 M3 5-speed gearbox, BMW E28 535M differential
Suspension Sellholm Tuning 2-way adjustable shocks and springs
Brakes Alcon 6-pot calipers with Alcon 355mm rotors (front),
Brembo 4-pot callipers with Alcon 295mm rotors (rear),
Wheels/Tyres RAYS Engineering 57 Motorsport G07WT-II 17-inch wheels, Yokohama 240-610-17 slicks
Photo: speedhunters.com, garaget.org, facebook.com/pages/Kandevik-Motorsport
