A customized Mercedes 6.2 Delite pulls into Jay Leno's garage.
Icon founder Jonathan Ward is a frequent visitor to Jay Leno's garage. This time he brought the latest of his company's Derelict projects, a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 with LS heart, intentionally distressed with Steve Rulewich, the client who commissioned it.
Unveiled at the 2022 SEMA Show, the Mercedes Delerict combines exterior patina and interior performance upgrades from the 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud to the 1952 DeSoto Wagon, which has been following the pattern of the Iconic Derelict.
Under the weathered paint, the Mercedes is a complete restomod. The car left the factory as a unibody, but the original bodyshell now rides on an independent Art Morrison chassis that includes four-wheel adjustable coilovers and independent rear suspension. It also features Brembo brakes, Wilwood power-assisted hardware, and Icon-designed power-assisted truck and pinion steering.
The 300 SEL 6.3 is the forerunner of the modern Mercedes-Benz AMG performance model. Mercedes took the 6.3-liter V-8 from the massive 600 sedan and put it in the smaller 300 SEL to create a kind of German muscle car. At the time, AMG was a completely independent tuner, so this was a pure factory effort dreamed up by engineer Erich Waxenberger.
The Red Pig and the general appearance of these sedans led Lulewicz to commission this creation. As to why they based the car on the rare 6.3 model rather than the more common six-cylinder model, Ward said that the higher-end interior fittings and other minor details justified the decision. Because the donor car was located in San Bernardino, California, it had relatively little rust.
The Delicto is still powered by a V-8 engine, but it is now powered by the supercharged 6.2-liter LS9 found in the C6 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The engine makes 638 hp at the crank in the ZR1 and about 500 hp at the wheels in the Mercedes; the LS9 requires a custom firewall and front inner fenders and is fitted with a "6.2" badge in place of the factory 6.3 badge.
Purists may scoff, but Ward stuck with the GM engine swap for reliability, power, and sound. Check out the full video and listen for yourself.
