Mercedes 190E-2.3-16 Cosworth: the car that made Senna

The four door saloon that gave birth to a motor-sport legend

Richard Bremner Autocar

by Richard Bremner

26 March 2018

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Fancy driving the car that put Ayrton Senna on the map?

Okay, it’s not the actual car, now a hallowed object in a museum, but you can have an identical, slightly worn, example for not (too) much cash.
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Birth of a legend

Ayrton Senna? In May 1984 the Brazilian legend drove in a single-model support race staged to celebrate the opening of the new Nürburgring as a grand prix venue. Mercedes provided 20 identical cars for big-name racers including Stirling Moss, Niki Lauda, Carlos Reutemann, Keke Rosberg, James Hunt, Alain Prost and the then almost unknown Senna.
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Sign of things to come

What happened next is legend, but Senna took on this race with gravity and dedication of a judge passing sentence. Figuring that this was a superb chance to prove himself, he drove his 190E to victory and in a preview of things to come, had Prost off the track on the way.
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People's champion

Senna’s 2.3-16 racer now lives in the Mercedes museum, but the rest of us still have a chance to buy one of these high-performance saloons from the ever-diminishing pool of 19,487 that the company built between 1984 and 1988.
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British Benz?

The 2.3-16 first appeared at the 1983 Frankfurt motor show, but difficulties manufacturing its highly tuned cylinder head delayed production by a year. That head was made by Britain’s Cosworth, and was the key to lifting the output of the standard two-valve 2.3 motor by some 72bhp to 185bhp and its rev limit to 7000rpm, a stratospheric crank speed for any Benz in those days.
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Manual Merc

The only transmission up to the power torrent was Getrag’s five-speeder with dog-leg first gear - selecting ratios with this box was about as easy as wrestling a bone from a dog - while the 190’s sophisticated multi-link rear suspension was kitted with self-levelling and a limited slip diff. And while the body kit looked a little crass, it knocked a point of the 190’s Cd, which fell to 0.32 despite wider tyres, and usefully reduced lift too.
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Interior

Inside were bucket seats trimmed in leather and check seat trim that looked like your granddad’s suit, and there was a trio of extra instruments buried at the foot of the center console, where the stopwatch was virtually unreadable.
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Sweet spot

But never mind that. What made the 2.3-16 was not its engine, which could sound a little rough, so much as its chassis, a mix of sublime balance and supple ride that made long distances a joy, whether you wanted to play drifter or cruiser. Gone are the days where you could pick up a basic car for just £1,500.

The cheapest we could find was £10,500 for an automatic left hand drive model with 161,000 miles. Whereas manual, right hand drive cars start at around £17k and can go up to £35k for a minter.

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