Clark Kent: ’86 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 16V Cosworth
Jimmy Carter gets the blame for a lot of things but you might want to tip your hat towards Plains, Georgia for this one. The unassuming jewel of a Mercedes-Benz, the 190E 2.3 16 Valve, was engineered in response to Carter’s threat to increase fuel economy and emissions standards to ridiculous levels. The skunkwerks at M-B called the folks in Northampton England at Cosworth Engineering to come up with a killer, fuel-efficient engine to put into their 190E body. The results were spectacular.They originally thought it would be a successful rally car and it would have been up to the task but the cost of campaigning a team was unmanageable. They began racing the 190E 2.3 in a series of equally matched cars driven by Formula 1 drivers. That’s how the public got wind that this unassuming baby Benz was something special. The US market received under 2,000 units mostly equipped with the 5-speed Getrag dog-leg gearbox. The engine was detuned to 167hp and the entire car was said by many to be over engineered to the max in Mercedes-Benz tradition. Today’s featured Benz is a remarkable car. It is a 3-owner car with only 55,000 miles. It has original paint and a great interior. Since it is a late-model Mercedes, it has a CarFax and we are told it is clean. The owner has service records, all the original papers and books plus the original Becker radio. Click here for the listing.