showdown
THE BABY BENZ OR
BEEMER E30?
Mercedes and BMW go head-to-head in an epic battle of timeless classics. Words by Stephen Mbuthi
Mercedes wanted a compact saloon, codenamed baby Benz as it would be the smallest car they’d ever made and the Mercedes 190 was unveiled in November 1982.
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t is a bit arrogant to claim that you make the best car in the world, but Mercedes does exactly that in the slogan “The Best or Nothing!” Nothing being the collective term for all other car brands. You’d have no reason to not believe them too as they’ve been making cars the longest and the Mercedes S Class is widely regarded to be the pinnacle of what a car could ever be. They also happen to have been dominating the Formula One championship for five years now and they don’t seem to be letting go any time soon. What this means, in simple terms, is if you want to buy a car, presumably the best option should be adorned with the three pointed star. But BMW disagree, as they claim in their mantra, to make the “Ultimate driving machine.” BMW are almost as old as Mercedes and are their only true natural rivals. They compete model for model with the only discrepancy being that Mercedes make commercial vehicles and BMW don’t and while BMW have their two wheeled Motorrad division and Mercedes don’t. As impressive as their contemporary overengineered rolling masterpieces are, the best example of the two auto giants going head to head would take you back to the 80s, the golden era of motoring purity, when the cars were designed with passion so deep you felt it every time you changed gears or turned the steering wheel. Mercedes wanted a compact saloon, codenamed baby Benz as it would be the smallest car they’d ever made and the Mercedes 190 was unveiled in November 1982. Mercedes then decided that they wanted to enter the WRC and proceeded to pour investment into the W201 project to the tune of 4 billion dollars in today’s money. The result was a car powered by a 16v 2.3 litre Cosworth engine which, in August of 1983, tore apart the rulebook. To prove their cars, Mercedes took three slightly modified examples to the Nardo racetrack in Italy on a 50,000km test. Six drivers averaged 240Km/h for eight days with the cars pitting for a refuel and driver change every two and a half hours. In total 243 stops were made. The mechanics changed every 14 hours and had to do a pitstop every 50 minutes. After 201 hours, 39 minutes and 43 seconds, two of the cars had clocked up 50,000 km with an average speed of 247 Km/h and the 190 2.3-16 set three new world records and nine international class records. They were finally ready for the rally stages of the world but that was not to be as Audi’s four wheel drive Quattro rendered everything else obsolete. Instead Mercedes decided to enter the 190 into the DTM, where they were to meet with BMW’s E30. Although the E30 was first shown to the public in 1982, it had been under development since 1976. Its predecessor,
