500E Mercedes Retrospective

by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via eBay Motors ::: 500E Mercedes For Sale

EIGHTEEN days. That’s the amount of time it took to  tune and turn one stock, buttoned-down W124 generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class, into the monstrous Bahn-stormer known as the 500E .

The 500E (“500E” in ’94-’95) was a prelude of sorts.

Sold in the pre-AMG/Mercedes-Benz partnership era – 1990-1995 – there were few factory options to radicalizing your Benz’s performance. It was by what some might say divine intervention that Stuttgart commissioned rival sports car maker Porsche to construct a special, limited edition series of the popular Eintspritzung sedans.

Zuffenhausen obliged. The result was epic.

Mercedes shoe-horned the same M119, 5.0 Liter V8 motor as found in the R129 SL-Class (500SL) and the W140 S-Class (420 & 500SEL) under the bonnet; an engineering feat so tight that it forced Mercedes to relocate the battery to the trunk.

Handing the kit over to Porsche, Porsche’s engineers in turn tuned the 500E to produce 326 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque.

Performance dropped 0-60 numbers to the low sixes high fives and the quarter mile could be reached at 101 mph after 14 seconds. Electronically limited to 155 mph, untied, the Benz could reach 170 mph.

Visually, the 500E brauny but composed exterior exudes a special kind of menace.

Quite distinct from a stock W124 E, the 500′s body was lowered, fenders flared and track widened, while Mercedes fitted the SL roadster’s brakes and the S-Class’ hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension. Porsche tossed the standard recirculating ball steering for a far more assembly that registered  among the most tactile handling systems Mercedes produced.

The car sold for North of $80K, featured one of the first drive-by-wire throttle systems ($1,200 to replace today, FYI) , and was stuffed with every amenity Mercedes could offer – including 2+2 coupe style Recaro bucket seating and non-defeatable ASR traction control.

In the exclusive tradition of the 450SEL 6.9, the 5ooE was built in limited numbers – 10,359 units in total. Good news for would-be buyers. Sad for the rest of us.