At Retro-Spective we’re big fans of 1980’s and 1990’s German Classic cars as you’ll see, and the bigger the better in many ways (well with at least a six cylinder under the bonnet!).
Part of their attraction is that in our humble opinion these represent the zeitgeist of build quality, are fairly close to a modern car in terms of reliability and driving experience and yet have bags of retro car appeal.
Nothing sums this up better than the Mercedes 190E (AKA W201) that was launched in 1982. £600 million was spent researching and developing the 190; Mercedes subsequently said it was 'massively over-engineered’ and indeed nothing since has really compared build wise and 190E’s have been known to last for well over 300,000 miles.
Our feature car for today represents the pinnacle of the 190E range, the 2.5-16 “Cosworth”. Mercedes wished to take the 190 E rallying, and asked Cosworth to develop an engine for this project rally car. However the advent of the Audi Quattro with its all wheel drive and turbocharger made the 2.3-16v appear outdated, so insterad attention switched to the DTM (German Touring Car) Championship instead. As cars racing in this championship, had to be based on a roadgoing model, Mercedes had to put into this engine into low volume production series production, resulting in the 190 E 2.3-16. An enlarged 2.5l engine replaced the 2.3 in 1988. It offered double valve timing chains to fix the easily snapping single chains on early 2.3 engines, and increased output by 17 bhp to 204bhp with a slight increase in torque.
As BMW M3 prices start to hit silly money both 190E Cosworth look like relative bargains, and definitely classic cars of the future although careful buying is important as unlike the standard 190E models these are known to be more temperamental.
We found this 190E 2.5-16 on Car and Classic and it’s described by it’s owner for the last 6 years as probably the most original 190 Cosworth out there. We like to see history and this car has lots of history to back up its 126,000 miles right back to correspondence between Mercedes and the first owner arranging to pick it up from the factor including Pre delivery inspection report and a full MB service history with the first few years serviced in Germany (first owner was in the British army there). There seems to be plenty of receipts to back up the money spent by the current owner which includes new alternator, distributor, water pump, radiator and battery.
Its been off the road garaged for the last 2 years but has just had a full service including all filters (Air, fuel & oil) plugs and new disks and pads all round to prepare it for sale and comes with a re-assuring full 12 Months MOT. At £4,250 it’s not the cheapest Mercedes 190E Cosworth you’ll find but may well represent the best value out there today.
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