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Since their launch, the R129 Mercedes-Benz SLs have held my attention. Perhaps it’s because I was heading towards driving age when I first got to sit in a then-new 500SL, but regardless of the motivation I really wanted one. My father used to take me to the local Mercedes-Benz dealership in his W113, so even though I was a child who grew up in the 1980s I was never particularly partial to the R107 – and I’m still not. Early Euro-spec cars look nice to me, but for the most part they look a bit too soft and large. So the R129 was a revelation – it looked substantially more sporty and was thanks to a new 5.0 V8 good for 320 horsepower mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission. But for some well-heeled enthusiasts, the $100,000 price tag (in 1993!) wasn’t enough. AMG was in a state of flux in the early 1990s, but there was a new kid in town that was grabbing some serious headlines – RENNtech:
A few weeks ago, I popped this 190E 2.6 up on our Facebook Fanpage; while it looked quite nice at the time, there weren’t many photos and the pricing seemed a bit high. But the big question was “Why?”; why would someone choose to convert the less desirable 2.6 inline-6 automatic model into a fast Benz when you already have a solid starting point in the 2.3 and 2.5 16V models? In part, the seller answers that in their description below; but to me, it doesn’t necessarily matter what the base model is – after all, there are plenty of people modifying Porsche 912s and 944s, there are countless E30, E36s and E46s that aren’t M3s that people choose, and even plenty of Audi A4s that get turned up in favor of the S4. Why not the 190E 2.6, then?
While I’ve always found the McLaren SLR an intriguing car, it’s never been a car that I fully understood. Following in the footsteps of the…
Back in the ’80s the 190E was Mercedes’ answer to BMW’s E30 M3. While it wasn’t as successful and, despite James May’s insistence, the chassis…
Today’s CL65 doesn’t require quite as large a bank account as the Black Series featured earlier this week, but it’s an even larger 2-door coupe…
