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Mercedes-Benz B55 B-Class created by Mercedes-Benz apprentices

Just relax for a second, this is not a production car and will probably never be one. But it is very exciting. A bunch of 12 apprentices working for Daimler at the Rastatt plant in Germany conjured up the idea of creating a Mercedes-Benz B55 V8 B-Class wagon... and then actually built it as a one-off project.


It's pretty cool, to say the least, and looks like a properly put together production-ready model. The team simply started off with a Mercedes-Benz B200 CDI and then set about shoe-horning a 5.5-litre V8 engine (also seen in the Mercedes-Benz E500) in as a replacement for the original diesel donk.

Instead of offering a yawn-inducing 100kW of power the little B-Class B55 now offers a 282kW wake-me-up at the push of the throttle. There's also 530Nm of torque available, almost double that of the standard B200 CDI's 300Nm potential.

Obviously, the task of wedging a big V8 into the engine space of the little runabout wasn't going to be easy. On top of the initial task of physically getting the engine in there, the team also had to convert it to rear-wheel drive (using an old Mercedes-Benz E430 setup) so the gearbox and drivetrain could handle to extra oomph.

They also matched the engine up to the Mercedes-Benz seven-speed G-Tronic gearbox to ensure power delivery could be repeated without the drivetrain dissolving under the loads of torque on offer. This also gave the students an excuse to fit the interior with a proper AMG steering wheel and paddle shifters.

It took the team around eight months to complete which included fitting an appropriately-sporty interior with hip-hugging seats and a 300km/h speedo. There's also the inclusion of bigger brakes and AMG alloy wheels.

Now the car can do the 0-100km/h sprint in just 5.2 seconds and go on to a top speed limited to 250km/h, instead of doddling from 0-100km/h in around 10 seconds like the standard B200 CDI. Our guess is it would probably drink a bit more fuel than the standard version though.

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