It’s been a while since Mercedes-Benz built the sort of cars that it built its reputation on. It hasn’t been for the lack of trying, or at least for the lack of brightly shining stars everywhere on the vehicle. The interiors consist of swoopy shapes and screens, where there used to be real wood and an air of impenetrable solidity. It’s no wonder HWA, the modern-day equivalent of the original AMG outfit, went back to the 190E to find inspiration.
Mercedes-Benz released the hot, sporting version of its new small W201 sedan, the 190E 2.3-16, in 1983. The 2.3-16, complete with a Cosworth-engineered 16-valve head, was displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show to widespread approval.
We’re talking about an ‘80s sports sedan classic, one that was soon challenged by the BMW E30 M3, which also had a hot four-cylinder, 16-valve engine. Competition versions of these cars soon went head to head in German touring car racing, in the DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) championship.
The footage from the era is fantastic, with wide-bodied, luridly liveried Mercs and Bimmers fighting it out on tracks such as the vaunted Nürburgring, among other racing sedans such as Alfa Romeos and Ford Sierras. Nearly everybody had a moustache and a mullet. Nearly everyone smoked. In the background, this was one of the ways for Mercedes-Benz to return to circuit racing after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, with teams such as AMG running 190Es.
By the end of the ‘80s, these two cars had taken development steps to something wider, something more aggressive, something with bigger spoilers and wings. The BMW M3 had spawned Evolution models (isn’t that one of the greatest model specifications of the era? Think Lancia, think Mitsubishi), and Daimler-Benz answered with the 190E 2.5-16 Evolution.
In 1990, the Evolution II arrived, resembling something of a Mercedes-Benz 190E Batmobile. The even more aggressive body kit was something to behold, with immense wheelarch extensions and a rear wing that was as tall as a bookshelf.
Just 502 units of both Evolution versions, the I and II, were made, and all but a handful were metallic black. Both were available with an AMG-engineered PowerPack specification that raised maximum horsepower to 225 and 235 horsepower, respectively, utilizing tuning such as hot cams and improved intake and exhaust systems.
The W201 had traveled far from its innocuous guise in 1982, even compared to the relatively stealth 190E 2.3-16 of 1983.
We can now fast forward to present day. HWA Team, a racing development outfit in Affalterbach, Germany, builds re-interpretations of Mercedes-Benz 2.3-16 and 2.5-16 cars, designed to resemble but also outperform the Evolution versions. The name of the company comes from the founder’s initials – Hans-Werner Aufrecht, the original founder of the famous AMG company that helped make the Evolution cars as hot as they were, as well as racing them in the first place.
HWA was born in 1999 as a result of AMG being taken over by DaimlerChrysler: the motor racing and customizing parts of AMG were reborn as HWA. It’s the winningest team in DTM. It also built road-going versions of the Mercedes CLK-GTR supercar, the best and strangest looking CLK there ever was. These are some pretty strong credentials for reworking the 190E.
HWA takes well-used, but not completely ruined W201 models – even base model cars are fine for the purpose – and strips them out to a chemically treated bare shell, effectively creating a blank, 190E-shaped canvas for the HWA EVO to be built on.
To be precise, HWA has developed a new chassis platform for the EVO, only using W201 bodies. But floors, subframes, and everything beyond the body is custom and engineered for the purpose. These aren’t mere synthwave restomods of the 2.3-16, but effectively new cars with a front-mid-engine layout and HWA VINs. And since they’re new cars, they’ve also been crash tested. 100 customer cars will be built, with prices of complete vehicles exceeding $800,000.
The engine isn’t the Cosworth 16-valve anymore, but a twin-turbo M276 V6 good for 500 horsepower. Rebuilding the already potent engines, the company utilizes just the block and the heads, with the pistons, connecting rods, and turbos all custom. The gearbox is the same six-speed manual as in the Audi R8. The new headlights look mean.
All this time, all through this development, the HWA EVO has been all about slouching to the Nürburgring to be born. Since this isn’t just bolting carbon stuff, numbered plaques and digital gauges to an ‘80s car, but completely re-engineering it in a racing-inspired context, using the best know-how in the business of making fast Mercedes-Benzes, these cars have to race at the Green Hell.
One of them was already demonstrated at the Nürburgring 24 Hours last year, but this time they’re going all in, in the “SP-X” class for special vehicles.
Initially, there were supposed to be two HWA EVO.Rs (R for Racing) at the 2026 event, but the total tally is now three. And if the car is effectively the son of those DTM racing versions of the 1980s, so will its drivers. Sebastian Asch and Luca Ludwig will take the wheel among others; their fathers, Roland Asch and Klaus Ludwig, are well known for racing the classic 190E Evolutions in the touring car championship.
Another driver is Markus Winkelhock, son of Manfred Winkelhock, the late Formula One driver from the ‘80s. Markus Winkelhock is a three-time winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The endurance race takes place in mid-May, from the 14th to the 17th.
Is this the best Mercedes-Benz 190E there is? It is certainly one of the most powerful, the Evolution look taken to the ultimate. Compare it to other re-interpretations that might only make it to the show circuit, from one display to another, and it’s absolutely, completely justified that these go as hard as they do.
These things pay homage to some of the most iconic 1980s cars there ever were, and alongside them, the original ones look perfect. There are few sports sedans of the era that could be imagined to receive this sort of treatment, and make use of it.
Photos: HWA AG unless otherwise credited
Why the umlaut ä? Bahn doesn’t use one.
As that price, 100 Saudi royal family members will be very happy to add these to their warehouses
This is probably the only car I would spend $800k I don’t have on. Perfect interior, 500 HP, manual sedan.
I understand the appeal of the Singer and the like, but this is sooo much cooler.
That interior in nigh on perfect! Clean, simple, attractive, and not distracting.