Our autoTRADER.ca Find of the Week this week is a classic racing special. One that took an entry-luxury sedan and turned it into a fire-breathing touring car monster. Built by Mercedes-Benz, with an engine from Cosworth, and tuning from AMG before AMG was just another fancy trim level. This is a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II.
In the late 1970s, Mercedes-Benz was racing its big V8-powered coupes and sedans. Cars such as the massive 450 SLC 5.0. The company wanted to move to something a little smaller. Enter the new for 1982 190 E. This was the first compact sedan from Benz, and while these cars wore an E badge, the E was for fuel injected (einspritzung in German) not for the size. The next generation of this car would be the first one to wear a C-Class badge.
So Mercedes-Benz wanted to take the 190 E to the rally circuit. They had racing engine legends Cosworth develop a high horsepower version of the 190's 2.3L engine for racing. But at the same time, Audi was bringing all-wheel drive Quattros to the dirt, which didn't exactly do the 190 E any favours.
That meant rally was out of the question. Instead, Mercedes turned to the new in 1984 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft: the German Touring Car Championship. These DTM cars needed to be based on real road-going cars. Somewhat like NASCAR in the 1970s, if you wanted to put an extreme model in the championship, you had to build some for the road.
Into a street version of the 190 E the Cosworth engine went. The 16-valve 2.3L four used a Cosworth cylinder head designed using the company's Formula 1 knowledge. In race trim, it made 320 hp. For the road car, it made 185 hp and 175 lb-ft of torque. Still a big improvement over the 136 hp the standard car made.
The cars got more significant changes to the exterior as well. A body kit that added side skirts and a rear wing reduced the drag coefficient. It was fitted with quicker steering and a smaller diameter steering wheel. The gearbox was a unique five-speed manual with a dogleg first. Left and down, since first wasn't used on the track. More gauges were fitted to let the driver known about the health of the car were installed, and a larger 70L gas tank was put in place.
In the DTM, the 190 E 2.3-16 competed against BMW's M3 and Ford's Sierra RS Cosworth. The car was best known, though, for its inaugural single-make race at the then-new Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit. Where a then-unknown Ayrton Senna won against Lauda, Prost, and Hunt.
The DTM was extremely competitive, with automakers bringing out more and more power and bigger and bigger changes. BMW's M3 Evolution models added more tire and more power to push it ahead. Benz needed to fight back.
Mercedes-Benz revealed the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution in 1989. The Evo I had a new spoiler for more downforce, and wider wheel arches to allow bigger tires. The brakes were uprated, and a full self-levelling suspension was fitted that let the driver adjust ride height from inside the car.
The street car now made 202 hp, but the 2.5L engine was significantly revised with a shorter stroke and larger bore to let it rev even higher.
Then in March of 1990, the ultimate 190 E was revealed. The 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II. The Evo II included a standard AMG PowerPack. Thanks to the hotter camshafts, bigger throttle body, improved intake and exhaust and more aggressive ignition management, the short-stroke 2.5L four was now rated for 232 hp at 7,200 rpm and 181 lb-ft of torque. The racing version made somewhere around 350 hp.
This time the body kit was even more radical. It was designed by a professor from the University of Stuttgart. The massively flared wheel arches balance out the front bumper that juts into the next postal code. There are two spoilers in the back, one on the glass and one on the trunk lid, with the latter being part of the car's picnic table rear wing. It reduced drag even more and increased downforce.
Finally, the car would find real DTM success. It won the championship with Klaus Ludwig behind the wheel in 1992.
Mercedes-Benz built just enough of the cars to meet the rules requirements. 502 Evo IIs left the factory, all but the last two painted in blauschwarz blue/black metallic.
This car, our Find of the Week, is number 357. For sale in Vancouver, BC, this is a low mileage car, with just 41,000 km on the odometer. While many have seen upgrades like centre-lock wheels and carbon interior bits and switches of dubious function and quality, this car still has its Mercedes-Benz fittings, especially that so very delightfully 1990 checkered interior cloth pattern.
If you're looking for a piece of touring car history, when stock-looking cars battled it out, bouncing on two wheels in the corners on circuits across Germany, this might just be a true find.
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