Auto Trader Zone: Mercedes 190E

Showing posts with label Mercedes 190E. Show all posts

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weird Tuning: Mercedes-Benz 90E Fastback Crossover from Russia

The Mercedes-Benz 190E is a great car, especially in Cosworth form. But not all people value the classic Merc as much as we do. Take for example this Russian owner who decided to make a one of a kind special out of the Mercedes sedan and call it the E90 crossover.

Classic Flashback: Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 and 2.5 16v Cosworth [with Video]

This is the tale of the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 16 and 2.5 16 sport sedans. Developed in collaboration with Cosworth initially for the rally scene of the 1980s, the flagship version of the 190E series eventually went on to dominate track-racing and ended up on the roads as well, putting up a good fight against BMW's iconic M3. Even though nine times out of ten, people would choose the Bimmer over the Merc, the 190E Cosworth's underdog status makes it an equally appealing car. As Richard Hammond put it: "it was Cinderella, but the coach never came".

But let's take it from the start. In the late '70s, the V8-powered 450SLC rally car started to show the signs of aging, so the Stuttgart automaker decided to replace it with a compact model. Jointly developed with Cosworth, the 190E never made to rallying though, as Audi took everyone by surprise with the Quattro, featuring four-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine. Mercedes' management didn't want to fight an battle it couldn't win so instead, they competed in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).

Back to Future Benz: Mercedes Retrofits 190 with Modern 204HP Diesel, Faster than the 190E 2.5-16 EVO II!

We often hear people whining and groaning about modern cars, either because they don't make them the way they used to or because automakers aren't making any technological advances. We say, you can't win them all, especially those that don't have a clue about what they're talking about. Nevertheless, we'd advise them to take a look at this uber-cool 'Back to the future' style Mercedes project that demonstrates the major developments in diesel technology over the past two decades.

In order to do this, the German automaker's engineers retrofitted a 1980's 190 sedan with an ultra modern common-rail diesel from the C250 CDI BlueEfficiency.

The 2.2-liter 4-cylinder clean diesel produces an output of 204 horsepower and a massive 500Nm or 368 lb-ft of torque between 1,600 and 1,800 rpm, which is more than twice the torque of the most powerful model in the old W 201-series, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II that was presented in 1990 and produced in a limited run of 502 units as a homologation special for the Group A DTM touring cars.

With the new diesel engine, the classic 190 accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in a mere 6.2 seconds. Now pay attention; not only does the 190 D BlueEfficiency manage to perform the standard sprint 11.9 seconds faster than a 190 D of the time (18.1 sec...), but more impressively, it literally trumps the 235HP 190 E 2.5-16 EVO II that accelerated from standstill to 100 km/h in 7.1 seconds!

For the record, the standard, BMW M3 E30 challenging 190 E 2.3 16V upon which the EVO II was based, completed the same acceleration in 7.5 seconds.

Despite the scorching sprint time and the fact that the 190 D BlueEfficiency has 72 more horsepower than the standard 190 D, the new engine in the old body consumes 4.9 lt per 100 km (NEDC) instead of the 7.3 liter figure for 1988 (51.1 mpg vs 32.2 mpg respectively).

In comparison, the larger (160mm or almost 6.3-in. longer than the 190) and heavier (+385 kg or +848 lbs) but also far better equipped C250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY that gets all sorts of safety and luxury features such as seven airbags and ESP, hits the 100km/h mark in 7.0 sec and consumes on average 5.1lt/100 or 46.1 mpg US.

Mercedes-Benz 190 D BlueEfficiency