LOL Oh my, that does sound awsome indeed
What I do with my race car to prevent flat spots and prevent the cold ground from affecting the tires is I overinflate to 60psi for winter storage, and park all 4 wheels on dense foam mats. Some people use several layers of cardboard. No flat spots, and very easy/cheap.
Today, I did an oil change and transmission fluid change on my 94 S500. I am still impressed that this gearbox (722.3) is basically the same as the gearbox from my old W123 300D (722.idk). Does that make this a 1970s gearbox??
On the oil change: I broke one of those rear airbox mounts, got a new one on order, just be careful lining up the cowl side when throwing that big airbox back in. Other than that, no issues. This was my 3rd through FCP euro, and I've been doing their lifetime guarantee return thing which is paying off. Somewhere around $25 to ship all that oil and filter back, and each $86 order after the first gets refunded to me. So 3 oil changes has cost me $136 instead of $258.
As for the transmission fluid change, this was considerably harder than I anticipated. I found some threads here, but nobody seemed to have the problem I had where the driver's bank exhaust pipe crosses and blocks the torque converter drain plug access.
Check out that sweet open access in the service manual (Wow this job is going to be easy!)
Here was my reality. The one time I wish I had a 6 cylinder!
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This picture actually looks a little easier than it was. For reference that drain bolt is 1cm in diameter, and that gap is about 16mm. I didn't really have enough space to operate, I had to retract the exhaust pipe with a scary amount of force, giving myself a 20mm window, and even then the allen drive I used for removal was off-axis. Re-installation was worse, unless you have spindly 12-year-old fingers there's no good way to line up the drain plug and start it. Threads weren't perfect so there was an unnerving amount of force for the first two turns- I thought I was cross threading. Thankfully it worked out. But at minimum, buy yourself 2 new drain plugs for this job (pan and torque converter plugs are the same) to make things that much easier on reassembly, and CYA in case of stripped screw heads. A low-profile 1/4" drive 5mm allen socket, possibly cut down in length as a DIY, coupled to a wobble extension to get out of the way of the exhaust would be the way to go for removal. For reassembly, I was able to get it started, with considerable difficulty, with
this, which is a great tool.
In case anyone finds this while searching, here's the gestalt of what you need to know to do the transmission fluid/filter change:
Engine off off, in park, warm but not too hot (working by exhaust), lifted high on jack stands, line up torque converter drain plug in window: bump the starter until drain plug is near the window, and/or finish rotating it with a flathead on the flywheel teeth- there is access to the teeth just forward of the torque converter drain port. Drain the pan and torque converter via 5mm allen head bolts (make sure to have a big catch basin, elevated right up near the draining fluid, or else there will be spatter everywhere), driver's side of pan has 2 zip ties holding a wire in place- cut them, remove pan bolts, remove pan, remove filter (don't forget to pick off the cork gaskets), install new filter, clean pan, reinstall pan with new gasket, torque pan bolts to 8 N*m, torque drain bolts to 14 N*m. Refill 4L ATF thru dipstick tube, Start engine, run gently through P-R-N-D-N-R-P a couple seconds in each gear, then estimate how much fluid you removed, top up to just under that amount, then check level with car running or not, at cold or hot marks on dipstick.
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