With all of your help, people, I could calculate a circuit which sets the Vc value around 2.5V.
Thank you all! This was a good enough Sunday of electronics 
Back to work
Edit: the measured voltage drop @ 40mA for 337-25 was <0.1V
SPICE simulation in KiCad shows:
In reality, with some "creative" resistor placement, I got close enough. ~40mA, 2.48V Vce
