The Cosworth name appended to a series of Fords has granted them almost legendary status, not least among aficionados of Fast Fords. A series that started in 1986 with the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, Cosworth powered Fords have in recent years risen rapidly in value – Historics, the sellers of this week’s Prime Find – have a Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth on offer estimated at £28,000 to £34,000 and RS500’s are now in the £70k-plus bracket.
Cosworth Engineering has its roots in motor sport and is particularly renowned for powering 176 Formula 1 winners – third only to Ferrari and Mercedes – World Champion cars such as the Lotus 49 Cosworth and the legendary Lotus 72. The name comes from a portmanteau of the surnames of two founders of the company, Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, former employees of Lotus, who founded the company in 1958. For the first few years, much of their work was for Lotus, but in 1966 the company began collaborating with Ford, the result of which was the F1-conquering Cosworth DFV engine. Since then the business has had several owners, including Vickers and Audi, and since 2005 has been controlled by the Mahle Group.
Although best known for their work with Ford, Cosworth has also collaborated with Audi (their fearsome RS models) and Mercedes-Benz, and it’s in this direction we are looking with regard to our Prime Find this week.
While the Cosworth-powered Fords have been rising inexorably in value, the Mercedes 190 – a very ordinary compact saloon in standard guise but transformed into an altogether different beast by Cosworth power – has not followed suit, as our Prime Find demonstrates.
When the Stuttgart company introduced the 190 – internal designation W201 – back in 1982, it caused something of a stir as it brought the three-pointed star into an entirely new market sector for the marque, one that contained the BMW E30 3-series, Audi 80 and other compact saloons. It was – and is – a fairly plain-looking car, deceptively aerodynamic, and was rumoured to be heavily over-engineered in what was at the time typical Mercedes fashion, with a strong emphasis on build quality.
Over the next eleven years Mercedes sold 1,879,629 before the end of production in 1993, so the 190 was undoubtedly a success. It was initially made available as a basic 190 and the fuel injected 190E, and although both models had the same 1997cc engine, the difference injection made was considerable, with power output in the 190E reaching 118bhp compared to the standard carburettor car’s 89bhp. US-market cars had lower outputs thanks to American emissions regulations. Diesel versions were also available, and in typically Mercedes fashion, mostly served as taxis, but we won’t concern ourselves with those this time.
1984 saw the first performance version of the 190, the 190E 2.3-16V “Cosworth”, but unlike with the Fast Fords, the Cosworth name didn’t appear on either the body or the engine, as Mercedes seemed not to want to broadcast their reliance on the Brits for these performance variants – this was of course in the days before AMG became the company’s performance brand.
The co-operation was originally born out of the German company’s desire to go rallying, for which Cosworth developed an engine pushing out 320bhp, but the emergence of the dominant Audi Quattro caused Mercedes to look in the direction of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), for which they needed a racer based on a road car, utilising a slightly detuned version of the rally engine. Power output was now 183bhp, endowing the car with sparkling performance, if still a little short of the BMW M3. Nevertheless, 0-100kmh in under eight seconds and a 200kmh/ 143mph top speed were pretty impressive figures.
Power was further increased with the introduction of the 2.5-16V engine in 1988 – horsepower was now up to 201bhp, with top speed rising to 235kmh/146mph, and an optional AMG Power Pack took things further still. The 190 was now a serious sports saloon.
It wasn’t just performance that set these versions of the 190 apart – they looked different externally and internally. Driver and passengers sat on sports seats, and there were extra dials in the dash. Externally, besides being initially available in only either Blue-Black Metallic or Smoke Silver (with Almandine Red and Astral Silver added with the introduction of the 2.5), these variants of the 190 grew a body kit that included rear and chin spoilers and sat on special alloys. These cars sat lower and rode more stiffly and were equipped with limited slip differentials plus hydraulic self-levelling suspension at the rear, as standard and the 5-speed dog-leg Getrag transmission is exclusive to the 16V.
The ultimate versions of the 190 were the Evolution I and Evolution II models, with bigger spoilers, more power, more everything except subtlety.
For our Prime Find, we come down a notch from these ultimate 190’s back to the 190E 2.5-16V. Our car is a 1990 example of the 2.5-16V, finished in Smoke Silver with a black leather interior and with 90,500 miles under it’s spoilers. It comes up for sale with Historics as part of their September 24th auction at Bicester Heritage. Only 4784 of these cars were built, representing just 0.25% of all 190 output, making them very exclusive among the range.
This 190E has just come out of a decade in storage, and has had over £6,000 spent on recommissioning work, details of which can be found in the lot listing here. Also with the car is the original tool kit and spare wheel, owner’s manual, service booklet and MOT certificates from 1999-2011 as part of a large history file which validates the odometer reading. It also has an MOT certificate valid until 09 March 2023.
As always, it’s difficult to judge from photographs, but based on those we have borrowed from Historics’ website, the paintwork looks to be pretty decent; though a closer examination may well find some flaws, nothing major shows up in the photos. I really like the colour and the interior seems to be in fine condition; the car looks to be in overall good shape, and certainly very useable as is – I’ll get a chance to check it out for myself on the 24th.
The body-kit is subtle – especially compared to the later, more extreme Evolution versions – yet is enough to let onlookers know that this is no cooking 190 without shouting about it.
The lack of Cosworth branding on these cars hasn’t stopped them being referred to as such, and the name certainly adds to their reputation, though prices are still some way short of the BMW M3 or Escort and Sierra Cosworth. Indeed, this example carries an estimate range of just £15,000 to £22,000, which seems like a lot of go for the cash. There is one other currently for sale in the UK, with almost twice the mileage, for £23,995, so our Prime Find would appear to be fairly priced.
If I were looking for a modern classic sports saloon that didn’t break the bank, this Mercedes would be very tempting indeed, and should you be tempted to dip into your bank account, dear Reader, we advise – as usual – that you arrange prior inspection before making your bid on the 24th.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk