During a recent visit to the LOH Collection in Germany I saw this Mercedes-Benz 190E in a silver Berlin 2000 olympic games livery. It sat there among the other competition machinery, but more on that later. This 190E was raced by Ellen Lohr in the 1993 DTM season. It was still recognisably the 190E everybody knows, but underneath it was already evolving into a Class 1 car as Mercedes adapted to the new regulations.

Lohr drove this #2 AMG-Mercedes entered under the Berlin 2000 Olympic bid programme. By then the 190E had already established itself as one of the cars that defined DTM, but 1993 was really the beginning of a different era. Alfa Romeo had arrived with the technologically advanced 155 V6 TI, forcing Mercedes to push the ageing W201 platform further than ever before.

Seeing the car in person makes you appreciate just how extreme these late 190Es had become. The double rear wing, widened arches and purposeful stance leave no doubt about its intentions. It may have started life as a compact executive saloon, but by 1993 it had evolved into a pure racing machine.

continue reading