One to Buy: 21,000km 1989 Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution 1
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Having quit circuit racing in 1955 following the infamous tragedy at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, the late 1980s saw Mercedes-Benz return with a top flight Sports car programme and an attack on Germany’s booming domestic Touring Car championship: the Deustche Tourenwagen Mesietrschaft (DTM).
Despite having been up against much newer DTM challengers from BMW and Audi, Mercedes’ radical line of Evolution specials based on the W201 class 190 E were regular race winners thanks largely to the works-backed AMG squad.
Crowning glory came when Mercedes won the 1991 Manufacturers’ championship and AMG became Team champions. In 1992 (when the Teams’ category was dropped), Mercedes won both the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles (the latter thanks to Klaus Ludwig).
In order to go racing with their 190 E-based Evolutions, Mercedes first had to build batches of at least 500 base cars which featured the kind of updates that would be seen on track.
The first of these, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution 1, was launched at the 1989 Geneva Motor Show and 502 were built between March and May of that year.
Many of were then pressed into day-to-day use, but a remarkably little used example will be going under the hammer at Bonhams’ Audrain sale in Newport, Rhode Island, on October 3rd.
Chassis ‘5985542’ was delivered to Japan in 1989 but not registered until 1995. The car’s first owner retained it for five years, covering 11,000km, and today that figure has increased to just 21,400km.
Importantly, the unrestored, matching numbers car is being offered complete with its original book pack to include the stamped service schedule plus the original tool kit.
