Bob Smith

In the 2000s, AMG was the badge everyone wanted to see on the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz. At the time, this high-performance sub-brand usually meant meant V8 excitement, power, speed, and visceral noise. However, almost all AMGs came with automatic transmissions, and wouldn’t you just prefer a manual in some of them? A handful of owners agree, and have found a way to used junked Chryslers to give their Autobahn warriors the added thrill of a manual transmission. Perhaps best of all, this also seems to be one of the easier manual swaps out there, with the vast majority of components simply bolting up.

Now, let me preface this by saying that automatic transmissions aren’t inherently bad. They allow for more consistent launches than manual transmissions do, offer plenty of convenience, and can be fairly reliable. However, anything automated is likely to fall victim to comparison against future progress. Sure, an automatic transmission might’ve been incredibly quick-shifting for the 2000 model year, but a quarter-century of progress can make a praised transmission of the time feel a bit sluggish.

Meanwhile, manual transmissions all got pretty smooth with the widespread adoption of triple-cone synchros, and since the driver acts as the transmission control unit in a manual car, how fast a car shifts is entirely up to the skill of the nut behind the wheel. A decent manual transmission won’t feel any more outdated than it already is, which is part of the reason why older stick-shift performance cars frequently command higher sale prices than their automatic counterparts.

So, what do you do if you want a V8-powered AMG car with the added engagement and control of a manual transmission? Well, the easiest path forward would be to pick up a 2000 to 2003 E55 AMG or a CLK55 AMG, then go hunting for a junkyard-condition Chrysler. A Chrysler Crossfire, to be precise.

This small Chrysler coupe or convertible is essentially a first-generation Mercedes-Benz SLK assembled by Karmann in Germany, which means that everything under the skin came from the Daimler side of DaimlerChrysler. Critically, it featured the M112 3.2-liter V6 hitched to an available Daimler-sourced NSG370 six-speed manual transmission, and thanks to parts-sharing, that manual transmission bolts right up to the M113 V8 found in a ton of early-aughts AMG cars, along with a whole load of additional parts.

[Ed Note: I’d just like to point out that the NSG370 is the same manual found in the “JK” Jeep Wrangler from 2007 to 2018; it is a very agricultural (read: it vibrates a lot) transmission. -DT].

Let’s assume we’re using a W210 E55 AMG as a swap subject, a 349-horsepower 5.4-liter V8-powered midsize luxury sedan that only came from the factory with a five-speed automatic transmission. The pedals from the Crossfire will simply bolt in, as will the flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate from a pre-2005 Crossfire. Even the Crossfire shifter mechanism and clutch lines can be reused, and the front half of a two-piece Crossfire driveshaft will mate up with the rear half of a two-piece E55 driveshaft and work perfectly. You will need the brake fluid reservoir from an E320, and you’ll need to use a transmission mount bracket from a manual W204 C230 and slightly elongate the holes, but for the most part, we’re talking a wholesale swap.

Now, what about actually getting it to drive? Well, there is a low-tech way around the ECU’s shift interlock mechanism on early naturally aspirated 55-series AMG models. YouTube user Jikjakz demonstrated it, simply leaving the automatic shifter on his swapped E55 plugged in and just tucking it in the console. Ideal? Probably not. Functional? Surprisingly so. Beyond that, models running a Bosch Motronic ME2.8 or later ECU seem to need an ECU reflash to get everything online.

The end result seems absolutely awesome, as several owners have done the swap and produced some German performance sedans that look incredibly fun. Is it an E39 BMW M5? No, but it should be a whole lot less expensive than a decent E39 M5.

Best of all, so long as you can keep these cars from rusting, giving one of them a manual transmission should make it absolutely rock-solid. The M113 V8 is legendary for its reliability, and the only real common mechanical issue on these W210 E55s is failing conductor plates inside their automatic transmissions. I don’t know about you, but a reasonably mechanically reliable Y2k-era manual German V8 high-performance sedan sounds like a case of having your cake and eating it too.

Interestingly enough, one of these swapped cars found its way onto Cars & Bids in late 2022, where it brought in a sale price of $12,500. That’s certainly not crazy money, and although it means you likely won’t recoup the cost of the swap if you were to build one of these conversions and sell it, this price bracket means a conversion shouldn’t break the bank either, so long as you can do the wrenching yourself.

Oh, and if the W210 E55 doesn’t quite capture your heart, don’t worry. People have pulled this swap on basically anything with an M113 V8. If you want to go crazy, you could even theoretically swap a manual transmission and the 5.4-liter AMG V8 from an E55 into an R129 Mercedes-Benz SL, and that’s a really tantalizing proposition. In a way, it all comes full circle — AMG started out as a tuner for Mercedes-Benzes, and now you can tune early-aughts AMGs with Daimler manual transmission parts out of Chryslers. How fitting is that?

(Photo credits: Cars & Bids, Chrysler)

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