It was the car made to take on the best Munich had to offer, the BMW E30 M3. Back then, Mercedes-Benz didn’t have AMG’s exclusive attention as yet, but this Stuttgart-based manufacturer still managed a pretty fine job.
The 190E kicked off a string of sport models from Mercedes-Benz. The company later produced a more powerful 2,5-16, followed by the radical Evolution models. Today the latter model have become keen collector items.
Back in 1986 the retail price of the 2,3-16 was only available on request. During our test period, we managed a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 7,9 seconds followed by a terminal speed at the 1 km mark of 182,2 km/h. The 2,3-litre engine developed 136 kW at 6 200 r/min and 235 N.m at 4 500 r/min. For interest sake, the warranty back then was for one year and unlimited mileage.
Click on the link below to download the full road test as published in the January 1986 issue of CAR magazine.