Secret collection of 80s and 90s AMG & Brabus Mercedes - Car Caves

I'm down in Surrey to meet a chap called Neville who has got about four sheds like this with his car stash in and this is fascinating because he's really into mercs from the 80s and the 90s and specifically Niche tuned cars lesser scene versions of these vehicles and we've got a lot of cars to talk about today I can't wait there's also a smattering of American Muscle and hot Roddy stuff because that's what started Neville's obsession with cars so without further Ado let's crack on with a car Cave episode of the late break show I'm Johnny Smith [Music] thank you [Music] what I know what I want to ask you about this I mean I've had a couple of one two four Estates I love them what is auto fashion factory Spirit that's why I want to know what that is I've seen it here I've seen it there what's the deal so Auto fashion factory were a tuner uh and our tuna still going to this day um based in Nagoya in Tokyo or on the outskirts of Tokyo um started in the sort of late 90s specializing in w124s really putting putting heavy emphasis on um E60 conversions essentially I I started getting into with the AMG connection or all the um the Japanese tuning magazines and and these guys continually would surface to the top and and Inspire um conversions because they take conversions to a different limit you you're looking at this one which is a 36 well it's not actually a 36 it's a 320t okay uh and um I have a sister e50 or E6 e50 E500 sorry limited over there which we'll look at a bit later um and I've done these as essentially as tribute cars taking the inspiration from what the auto fashion factory did yeah the minor modifications and this one's a work in progress currently as you can see the interior is pretty much there it's too spectacular actually has an E60 limited um Central console which is very rare and very valuable I've never seen so many adjustable positions on Recaro so yeah a nice set of uh of recaros in there they were added uh steering wheel was added and then we've done a few we've done a few mods the wheels put an AMG suspension on it shocks and springs all correct um rear exhaust obviously and then the general idea the next stage will be to wide body really okay and put a wide body kit on it we have a set of AMG front Wings in fiberglass which came from Japan specifically for it really and it's a case of trying to find a set of Sills probably E500 Sills and then the rear will be custom built uh probably English wheel The Arches and roll of them yeah so they'll they'll look rather nice and then we're sort of there really with this one it's all very Japanese tuning spec complete with the Mad stickers I was going to say there's loads of stickers everywhere I looked um that's what they do you know you name it they made a sticker for it and uh some of the stickers you just couldn't even believe it was completely Bonkers and so that's a great uh great pleasure in sort of putting them in the right places following the magazine articles and and I think I've built a pretty good pair of tribute cars I think yeah and you collect the literature as well I do I do now Neville 190e one of quite a few that you own so this this is a Cosworth this is a Cosworth with a moserman single turbo conversion which makes it incredibly quick so as you can see massive turbo on the left uh yeah which was on the car when I bought it and that was the main reason for buying it is the general idea for this one was to do a wide body conversion uh to a 190e spec and um I thought it would make a great engine hence why I managed to find the the power pack emblem which is nothing more than uh than a an AMG pointer but it is real and it is cast iron and it's quite a rare piece they I think they did those on the Evo 2 for a few options yeah um absolutely love the interior on this it's yeah it's lovely I have a pair of Recaro Classics with the dog tooth or Hound Tooth whatever that particular insert is yeah which I thought would have looked rather nice in there those separate buckets yeah yeah very very good I think they were a recaros they're all recaros made specifically for uh Mercedes but um manual so yeah manual I'm not a great fan of manuals um to be honest it's probably another thing that put me off but I must be honest when you drive a manual in with it with the turbo it's it's a better yeah it's a better thing now hang on is this another 190 it is isn't it this is a 192.6 yeah um converted by Matty Charlesworth five-star Automotive as was as maybe still down in Bristol he built the car um it came from Kent built for a lady lovely interior AMG genuine kit and then I managed to find a brand new boxed suspension system for her so AMG shocks and springs really are on this one um Momo steering wheel I was going to say I'm looking at there's a brace of boost gauges and all other on the passenger footwell yeah so they relate to um what's going on so what you're going to find under the Bonnet which was a um conversion that was undertaken using a fuse of beckonsfield turbo kit that we had ah yeah we bought all the last spares from Hughes as they were clearing out and including a few turbos exhausts and um one was basically trial fitted to this car I mean it was it was quite quite difficult and we we did two of them so whatever we made for one was made for a second one yeah including this once it was finished it was taken to Jan speed you may remember yes and then set up on the Rolling Road and they made an exhaust bespoke for it from the turbos back this must be quick it was quick and and you know what I've only driven it once that's the the weird thing and and it was quite yeah ferocious the trouble is I think that one was far more set up better and and working better this is still a um a sort of a to finalize uh scenario but she's she's often running and working and operating well I've got a set of AMG split rims to go on her as a final sort of finishing um part although it's got a pair of energy wheels on at the moment but she's all there it looks really good now before we go too far obviously everywhere you look on in all of your sheds there's just the mother of all stashes of 80s 90s AMG Brabus yeah I've been collecting this for Paul I gotta say 15 20 years I can't I can't remember it's got to be 20 years and stuff that was readily available then has now dried to a drip so you sort of inadvertently stockpiled I sort of inadvertently stockpiled I Lang banked but of course with all the projects it's been very useful because it's enabled me to finish things see particular cars where say engine conversions have been done already the hard bit as I like to call it yeah and you then bring her back and put you know whatever you want on them and try and build them up and and that's the beauty I mean I've got a lot of kits here that will finish you know a wide body SEC a wide body one two four uh that's a 190 wide body brand new wow oh yeah 190 wide body if you look to the right Johnny you'll see the two lorenza well yeah you've got the Stratton Shockers New Old Stock New Old Stock and all the AMG Bilstein shock absorbers beneath bloody hell people in the know will know all the Springs Carlson AMG but um it's seriously impressive okay so not a Mercedes clearly a Trans Am a very very a very muscly muscle car 455 high output correct shaker hood shaker hood yeah so what's the story here then there's quite a few brought over to this country so you would see them in shows like shoestring and and and you know that was my interest Gumball Rally uh Gumball the original one and and and so it was an instant love and you know with this with a Jensen Interceptor that was my world that's all I was interested in that's all I ever wanted Jensen Interceptor Jensen intercept here that came before this um well so you had one I had one I've had two have you best day selling the uh buying the first one and then uh the best day was selling the second one I really think I think you know what do they say never go twice yeah I I have had this for quite a few years um and uh it's always had a little bit of a clutch problem and no one's really been able to sort it out but she is ferocious only wants to be driven flat out straight and it's it's what I call a drama car it is larger than life it's like manual we took it to the Red Hill cruise this year which is organized by dream cars they do that annually yeah and we were sort of uh juddering juddering around Red Hill in it uh which is the best way to describe it we sort of did the evening and got home and that's about it really it's nothing I've had it since early 2000s I had to jump on the bandwagon because they were starting to increase in value and much as I didn't want to manual uh I had to go manual because that's all that was out there and um that's not a bad thing now it's now it's not a bad thing because it's far rarer it is and it's what they all want in America quite frankly it is you forget how aerodynamic this era was no gutters nothing ducktail here this was all um this proper circuit race car isn't it it is yeah and uh I'm you know I mean Robin uh gray of Otto Pontiac based over in West London races one of these in a in a sort of a 78 guys a black one and I've seen that go around Brands hatch and it's phenomenal so you can modify them and you can get them to handle yeah around a track and it's something should I decide to keep this one um I would like to move forward with apart from getting the clutch problem done yeah it would be really really nice uh but she's noisy she's loud and as I said when you put your foot down it's just just go thump straight back in the seat big block big block manual it's pretty cool now it's pretty cool when did you own your Interceptor uh I was 18 years old and um you were 18 and you had a Jensen intercepted yeah I I could afford to insure it through and I'm gonna name drop Norwich Union thank you for that because they would allow you to put on your mini policy a three-month Edition to enable you to drive any car what and so when we were at college we had it a couple of times we had a bit of fun with it and uh it was beautiful I loved it it was it was a high compression inceptor so it was a 7-2 with a high compression engine in and it just drove lovely um nothing like this and I I just loved it and then I I had a little should we just say a little incident and um was never going to be able to ensure it again so we had to park company right and that was uh that was the end of it and uh so it went and it's still around though still around and it's it was a uh tax last year so crumbs okay whoever owns Knack 14m there you go that's the uh that's the car and I think it's down in um Essex somewhere it certainly was anyway uh where it is now I don't know now I'm seeing color-coded painters body skirts curtains in the back Ed out trim such a big car I mean it looks big next to that and that's a big car it's a beautiful car um I got a phone call uh from my perennial car searcher advising me of this car sitting you know an underground car park in Fulham the owner needing to move to Egypt his father who died wanting to sell this car and it sort of brought back memories of a car that I used to Chase up in bryanston square I would see this chap driving this burgundy and then sort of Peg after him stop light and start chatting to him about it yeah and turned out to be the same car oh really and uh uh the guy had died sadly the dad if you like and the Sun um was was selling it oh my god did he leave his phone in there that's got a bloody telephone so um the first mobile phone for a car we we picked it up we got it running she elevated which was good got it to American Auto Parts my garage who work on things for me and um the gearbox gave up and that was to be a fun and games drama for this car because the gearbox has been in and out of this car about four or five times gosh but we got there in the end with it uh new gearbox governor and we're running and the rest is history as they say so we've gone through it front to back it's great a standard engine uh we did check to see whether it had the AMG cams sadly it didn't okay but uh you know so this thing looks yeah it's a nice nice engine not done many miles she's all running there's the hydraulic lift up so you pull the pull a choke ah there right lifts the car up and you drop the choke and it drops her down so it looks quite good you can sort of do your own leveling so you can't put an AMG suspension on this right that's the only downside okay uh because it is all hydraulic and uh you've got others though haven't you I've you've got others too talking of which let's go to another shed okay now although this is a car Cave episode of the late break show here at Neville's we ended up filming on the same day a barn find episode because in here is an exceptionally cool Mercedes probably his coolest I think that hadn't been started or used in about 20 years and it's all dusty and he said oh do you want to help me maybe see if we can get it washed and started I said hell yeah but I won't put it in this episode if it's already gone out I'll put it above my head now if not keep an eye on our social media on The Late break show and you'll find out all about it but rest assured it's wide bodied it's 80s it's fat [Music] now look at these two red and gold they look amazing these 190s this one first then Nev so Brabus evocate evocation if vocation is that the correct word um this was my first uh car my first foray into the Mercedes World um and it was just a standard 192.6 and it went through my wife and my business partner um back to me didn't know what to do with it so we had started collecting Brabus parts and um we built a a 192.6 Brabus for once of a better word you've had a long time I've had it since I was 26. gosh okay so 32 years wow uh so we we basically front spoiler correct shocks and springs yeah on the blocks the wheels you can see we had all the wood which I'd collected taken to uh Silver Crest over in West London who are brilliant wood Refinishers they did it all in the Brabus style following the catalog with Mr bra light zebrano that is looks good it does look good steering wheel and the rear spoiler yeah I think she looks good I look stunning we did the lower cladding in red make it very bright D Chrome the front so we don't have a star on the uh Grille yeah and uh what's going on under there if you open up we put some sort of traditional yellow Brabus um oh yeah plug leads an ab3 Brabus uh rocker cover which depicts um mild cam tuning how did you get into the homework thing this uh I got basically I got in through a good friend of mine called talby Baines who who basically inspired me on the uh the Mercedes SEC and the SEL uh he was my main form of inspiration and and taught me an awful lot uh and was a good supplier of parts to be honest uh so if I needed something and uh so that's how it started really Neville has reduced his collection he used to have like 40 messages I did I got to 40 at one point but it was a it was too much that's that's bad and it was a bit out of control that is how many you got now like nearly 20 down to 20 yeah we're getting there this is so gold gold painters I found this in Germany wow friend of mine drove to Germany picked it up brought it back uh uh Wheels were buckled so those are replacement pentas because like a lot of painters they don't they don't like life right that was hard enough trying to find a set of correct pentas it's got the correct wide body on steering wheel gauges and uh she's lowered with AMG shocks and springs it is a full-on genuine wide body so I didn't notice the lip difference between there's a bit of difference and if you look at the back of course they did them in metal and plastic at the back so if you look at my parts stash you can see an example of both but um this one I think is fiberglass on this which is an early car right so it probably would would have been very very wide on the sill area as you can probably see yeah rubber boot tail spoiler really nice uh very standard interior and then of course the piece to resistance is the um what's under the Bonnet as they say because this has been fitted with a mozaman period Turbo which was done by Alex a mosamer and a mine single turbo basically took this off a car that we um that we found and uh basically re-engineered it back complete with the micro Dynamics turbo systems so the last thing to do on this is to put an exhaust on it and then we're ready to rock and roll but this is this one's done and and it's it's very nice that's cool ready to go what's the story with this one ever this is obviously in progress It's Dusty it was bought to do an AMG SEL and then I found the unicorn of a full Brabus kit which I've been searching for uh and then decided I'm gonna go full on Brabus with it to go with the 190 the 124 which we'll look at and this one um so I went over to West London it was a beautiful car 50 000 miles on the clockish and it was everything I needed and then when I looked in the uh glove box I knew I had to have it so the AAA Breakdown Cover card hrh prints noaf abdulaziz yeah okay so so it was the Saudi Embassy car yeah Royal Highness wow that's a bit cool one of the Arab princes I presume used as for diplomatic purposes out of Barclay Square but it it it's it's a it's a nice backstory because I owned also owned his car which was a a Gullwing SEC and it was exactly the same um SEC yeah sadly gone now but uh yeah we earned uh had that for a short while right so all black supercharger supercharger part of the Muslim and kit I assume um basically it's what Brabus used back in the day so I managed to find a donor car that had that on right so this is a 500 this is a 500 with the with the mozaman supercharger so nice that's where we are with that one and we've got a little bit of work on that one to finish but we're working progress shed three she had three I I am just walking past that classic Range Rover although it's obviously in progress isn't it it is yeah I mean that's uh quite a rare piece that's a Litchfield five liter um Range Rover built by TVR power Dom Trickett Alan Vernon Nash back in the day and um it's uh we're currently basically rebuilding it because of the tin worm okay which we've discovered but it's uh yeah very rare piece got a lot of rare Parts on it Harvey Bailey handling kit Tom walkinshaw racing shrouding and the roof spoiler I saw the spoilers on the back there you name it it's got it on it it was sort of used as a bit of a test piece I think so coupe124 four-door Saloon one two four both silver so this is a one two four Brabus evocation uh had a phone call from a chap in Germany who totaled his Brabus literally really all the parts came off were shipped here and uh we've been transplanted onto this yeah because this car originally came uh as a uh a cue car so it was bog stand of silver yeah lowered with a Sportline suspension yep but of course it had what it had under the Bonnet which you'll see um quick look this is a this is a genuine Hues of beckinsfield uh twin turbo installation oh and so it made the perfect car to add all the brothers Parts too turbos yeah so we uh we we put the uh the Brabus body kit the wheels came across a genuine set of shocks and springs the full exhaust system is all genuine Brabus steering wheel gear knob you name it it's yeah there's the floor tread plates yeah I'm seeing similar traits to the The Jig again is my auto fashion factory tribute yeah so this is an E500 limited uh modified to a degree so that well we've got AMG split rims on a wide body we've got a wide body which is standard um we've got AMG boot spoiler we have other modifications inside and um I've managed to track down a set of AMG E60 Springs we've got an AMG 60 air box on it when you have a look under oh hello yeah so this is uh another of uh of the um Ultra Blue leads AMG air box I mean that was a that's a lovely dream to find that was in Japan that's from an E60 we've got the uh the cross brace on there the older Auto fashion factory stickers yeah and I get the impression that the The Thrill of the chase for you finding the right like Natty Parts yes it is as I said it was it was doing a lot of research into what they used to do and sort of I used the best term is uh copying their uh their style and and um you know a chance to ever go to Japan I'd love to go and see it I'd love to go there I'd love to see their uh set up I'm um not sure how prevalent they seem to have gone into Porsche cayenne's a lot now but they still still involved but the days of the E60 conversions and the 36 conversions have stopped from what I can work out yeah and the cars are coming quite sought after if you can find them but uh yeah 381 PS 580 newton meters I bet it's a pretty quick car it's a lovely quick yeah it's five liter and uh goes really well next shed this is an interesting car I think I know what it is but it's it's not standard is it in any shape or form no this is a a Ford zodiac executive mark IV um inspired uh by a chat called John Payne who used to work at cage from Cars back in the day and he used to roll around in a white lowered mark IV executive with a three liter turbo nitrous a car with his buddy who had a Trans Am see where it goes this is you as a this is me as a kid on my bike yeah right going to look at the car park of catron cars because they all basically drove Yanks all of them uh or a lot of them yeah and uh so in the car park it was a veritable feast and it was always good at four o'clock to go and have a little look around and dream and then watch them as they used to drive home to Thornton Heath and wherever they lived but basically I always remember this car as a as a youngster and got in touch with John Payne through a friend of mine uh and we talked about it and it gave me a few of the ideas on what he did and basically chat called Dave Woodfield who's uh anyone in the hot rodding world will know on the zodiacs and zephas basically built it for me from scratch uh it's a real crunch but but you know put it put it together the period stickers around it and stuff are amazing so this is like a window into your world as a kid yeah reading custom car magazine and Street Machine correct Chelsea Cruz I'm guessing never went on the Chelsea Cruise funnily enough but uh would have loved to have gone yeah and um but yeah these these were the sort of things that were there I mean I I found this in South London uh Darren was the chap who owned it and met him and his mates in a lock-up and engine had already been done so he's got a five nine Chrysler oh has it um the hard work as I call it and then we basically did the rest of it um essentially it was very Rusty so it had to be rebuilt it's got a five nine basically an AMX Javelin yeah uh engine yeah linked to a uh uh Ford Mustangs is it C4 transmission would that make sense yeah the auto three speed Auto 3.1 um RS Capri rear diff link to Audi Quattro brakes would you believe really on the rear yeah apparently so I'm I think that's about right yeah Mercury Cougar like clusters they're great put some water meter gauges in which you may have seen subtly behind the original we've got a set of what I call Steve McQueen torque thrusts I think they're called yeah the the ubiquitous Mustang wheels sprayed in Aston Martin pant and green which I quite like it's a great color it's all that in High Park in uh on one of their cars yeah right another one two four a real AMG a 400e right 4.2 uh came from the Swiss Alps and uh a beautiful car it is a beautiful car those rims are great really nice and again we've utilized some of our stuff yeah a wide body lip kind of they are Japanese spec because they actually are fitted to the AMG spec um 400e and of course it has the 4.2 engine this is great which is lovely anyway it's a beautiful Runner yeah I was going to say this might be my favorite one two four of yours I don't know it's uh it's all up and running and very nice and drives very very well right another shed got some great wooden sheds I have to say you got a hot hatch yeah GTI engineering so Oak green Mark II Golf GTI a great great car 16 valve now yeah 16 valve re-2000 so um breathed on engine by GTI engineering one of their options you'll probably see the data plate on the front oh yeah um yeah 29th of March 1990. yeah so GTI engineering were to golfs what Stratton were to AMG yeah um a concessionaire selling basically bits and Bobs to add on to your golf team I remember I remember the magazine ads with these weird front grills in he used to sell a plethora of body kits you know Zender Cami yeah all sorts this has got an Aerotech body kit quite rare this was uh the Air Attack which was their own in-house built kit which was done by a Lotus engineer apparently so it's probably the rarest and I think the nicest it's got a Zender front which you've probably seen and I can't tell you what the rear is I think that's the Zender rear spoiler uh uh so this is still being finished this is yeah we got so far with it um and you got distracted yeah distracted yeah you know the score we just need to uh do a little bit of finishing on this one they're all in the queue it's been fantastic to watch uh and listen to Nev's sort of life story in cars I hope you've enjoyed this episode of uh car caves on The Late break show everything from that which is kind of where the car love started for Neville up to just so many different combinations of 80s and 90s tune works I've actually learned a lot today I really have very cool I missed my one two four as well if maybe you've got a car collection that you think is worthy of me coming to film get in touch with us in the description there's an email there if you haven't already subscribed to the show why not subscribe maybe you want to become a patreon I'll put the link in the description for that and you can view videos like this typically early and you'll get blogs from me a couple of times a week that was a gunshot it's time for me to go

Channel: The Late Brake Show

Views: 696,407

Keywords: jonny smith car reviews, carpervert, the late brake show, car cave, private car collection, secret car collection, mercedes amg, mercedes brabus, mercedes mosselman, mercedes 1000 sec gullwing, custom car build, jdm mercedes, best 80s cars, mercedes sec amg, mercedes w126 modified, vw golf gti modified, range rover classic restoration, mercedes 190e cosworth, tuned mercedes, ultimate garage setup, amg, classic amg, lorinser, brabus, mercedes 190e, mercedes turbo conversion

Id: STFBnwHso7I

Length: 32min 29sec (1949 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023