Just how fast was the fastest sedan in the world in 1992? The legendary Porsche-built Mercedes-Benz 500E races the fastest wagons in the world: the E34 BMW M5 Touring and the Audi RS2 Avant, which was also built by Porsche!
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Veteran automotive journalist Jason Cammisa and SCCA hall-of-fame race-car driver Randy Pobst line up and race the Mercedes 500E (known later as the E500) against the RS 2 and M5, and the results are surprising. Will the Mercedes' 4-speed automatic kill its chances against the two other manuals — a five-speed in the M5 and a six-speed in the Audi?
And what's with the six-cylinder E320 dogleg manual wagon and its DOHC 24V 3.2-liter straight-six?
The 3.8-liter S38 is the biggest straight-six that BMW has ever made, and it produced 340 PS (335 hp) at an insane, independent-throttle-body screaming 6900 rpm. The Audi's much-smaller 2.2-liter, 20-valve turbo five-cylinder made 315 PS (311 hp), and the 5.0-liter quad-cam, DOHC 32V Mercedes V-8 made 326 PS (322 hp) but had variable valve timing so it creamed the others on torque.
The next question is: can any of these 1990s legends keep up with today's slowest sports car, the ND2 Mazda MX-5 Miata? You'll be surprised by the outcome.
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Chapters:
0:00 Purple Manual Wagons — and a 500E
0:50 Hagerty Driver's Club Offer
1:11 E34 M5 Touring Specs and Info
2:06 Audi RS2 Avant Specs and Info
2:41 Mercedes-Benz S124 E320T 5-speed Dogleg Specs and Info
3:11 Mercedes-Benz W124 500E/E500 Specs and Info
4:15 1/4-mile: 500E vs RS2 vs M5
5:28 Walkback: How is the 500E so fast?
6:40 Launching and racing the E34 M5
7:40 AWD launch in the RS2 — plus turbo lag in the 1/4-mile
9:06 Jason and Randy kiss their own Valentine 1 radar detectors
9:56 ND2 Miata vs Mercedes 500E 1/4-mile drag race
11:16 Drag Race Results Leaderboard
11:25 Conclusion: power-to-weight is wrong!