Carrera "Widebody" vs Carrera "S"

89911 · 11-27-2002, 10:47 AM

A local Mercedes dealer had a Black 97 Carrera Widebody today that I took for a ride, (I'm off today, bored, and why not, I always wanted to drive one. I didn't tell the salesman the chances of me buying one are about as good as it being 90 degrees tommorow!). While the Carrera on the dash had the "S' following it, the rear badge had no indication it was an S. I have seen these on other cars though. Why? The car was definetly a turbo body with big black calipers and 18" 225 and 265 wheels. As far as driving impressions, the car was running funny. Very rich and when you trounced the gas it bogged down. They said they were going to run it through there service department. Lots of low end torque. Needed lowered. Black on black, which wouldn't be my first choice. I don't know, didn't make me want to hand over the keys of my 89 any time soon.

john_colasante · 11-27-2002, 10:52 AM

The Carrera S is the 2WD widebody coupe made in '97 and '98 model years. Among other things is has the "Carrera S" logo in the intruments and it has a swatch of unique leatherette running along the whole interior. It has normal Carrera brakes and the wide turbo front bumber and rear flares. The normal wheels are the 7x17/9x17 Cups with factory rear spacers and the option wheel is the 8x18/10x18 Hollow Technolofy wheel from the Turbo with no spacer needed. Sometimes the rear emblem was deleted from the factory or maybe the rear lid was repainted and the emblem never put back?

89911 · 11-27-2002, 10:57 AM

I'm off today, so I have an excuse. Aren't you at work today, John? What is your opinion of this car? Oh, yes, the price. The car had 36K on it and they were asking $49,500 to start. Looks like it has has some "modifications" to the induction system and the wiring harness looked altered. Could explain the cold start reluctance. When does Metro put out there track calendar. You guys rule!!

john_colasante · 11-27-2002, 11:28 AM

I am at work but leaving soon. As for the car I used to like the wide body but now I prefer the narrow and that's what I have. The Carrera S is mechanically the same as the narrow car even in brakes. It's just 2" wider in the rear only. The wide cars seems to go for alot more $$ even today just for those 2". It seems the wide look is worth $5-$10K more than the equivalent narrow car.

As far as cold start problems I don't know what it could be. It should fire right up and smooth. This car sounds like it may have a "history".

Watch the Metro website for the schedule I look forward to seeing you at various tracks in '03 Mike.