Mercedes 190E Cosworth (1984 - 1993)

The Mercedes-Benz 190E Cosworth was created as a sporting version of the compact W201 sedan and became closely tied to touring-car racing. Its Cosworth-developed cylinder head, dog-leg manual gearbox and aerodynamic body kit gave conservative Mercedes engineering a much sharper edge.

The car is important because it helped change perceptions of Mercedes performance before AMG became fully integrated into the company. In Evolution form, it became a DTM icon, but even the earlier 2.3-16 and 2.5-16 models carried a serious motorsport flavour.