A bold claim about a legend.
In 1992, the Mercedes 190E Evo II won 16 of 24 German Touring car races beating out the contemporary BMW M3 to solidify the 190E as a true sports sedan. Homologation rules for the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) clearer stated a series of production road cars wearing the same exact body kit had to be produced. Mercedes built just 502 road-going examples of their winning 190E Evo II, making it one of the rarest Mercedes of the decade. Somehow none of this is enough to impress car Vlogger Davide Cironi.
Gallery: Vlogger Dares To Say Mercedes 190 E Evo II Is Not A Proper Sports Car
The 190E started out as a compact executive sedan focused on comfort and efficiency. As time went on, Mercedes decided to go racing to beat out the newly minted BMW E30 M3. This desire birthed the 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth featuring a Cosworth tuned 4-cylinder that revved to 7,000rpm and produced 167 horsepower.
As the DTM competition began to heat up, both BMW and Mercedes debuted more powerful race cars. BMW brought out the M3 EVO and Mercedes 190E Evo I. Both of these tuned up DTM homologation specials replaced their 2.3-liter engines in favor of a larger 2.5-liter inline-4s. In a final effort to edge out BMW, Mercedes brought out the 190E Evo II, which dominated the 1992 DTM series winning 16 out of 24 races, including both races that took place on the Nurburgring.
When it comes to racing heritage then, the Mercedes 190E Evo II is drenched in the stuff. Even Aryton Senna had a 190E and he knew a thing or two about race cars. By today’s standards, however, the 190E Evo II is slow and lacks power. The AMG tuned 2.5-liter inline-4 makes 231 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque which is even enough to trouble a modern VW Golf GTI. Even without the power, it’s hard to imagine the 190E Evo II isn’t worthy of the sportscar title.
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