This is a rather special reinterpretation of the Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo II.

Built by HWA – who are Mercedes AMG’s behind-the-scenes secret weapon in the world of motorsport – it’s not a lightly tickled-over plaything. Instead, it’s a proper ground-up restoration that even involves HWA building new front and rear subframes for it. Out too, goes the original four-cylinder engine, replaced by a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 putting out somewhere between 450 and 500bhp. So twice as much as the original then! The bodywork is wilder too, the chassis is completely upgraded, and if you’ve got a spare £700k you might just be able to get one of the 100 being built.

Meantime, if you’re lucky to be young enough not to remember the original ‘Evo II’ in its prime, it first appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1990, as a homologation model for Merc’s DTM (aka German Touring Car Championship) efforts. Just 502 road cars were built, while the race car of the same name won the DTM drivers’ and teams’ titles in 1992. Motorsport pedigree? Tick!

Over to Top Gear’s Head of Car Testing, Ollie Marriage, for the full story…
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