AMG Accidentally Made The Perfect Car Even though they weren’t even a car maker. The 190e was a failed experiment from Mercedes, But when AMG took a chance
at fixing Mercedes mistakes The two companies stumbled into
creating one of the greatest cars ever: 190e Evolution And with that car, not only won championships, but
also cemented AMG and Mercedes racing legacies. But how did a 2 man operation like
AMG become part of the one car brand on the planet that is completely
synonymous with the word luxury? Mercedes-Benz The S-Class The G-Wagen Maybach But guess what, Well, long before Merc was
making your mom’s GLE, they were racing cars. As you probably know, Karl Benz invented the first
automobile with an internal combustion engine And right after they built the second one, somebody thought, “welches ist schneller?”
(ve-shus ist shnella) (Which is faster?) And thus, the horseless
carriage race became a thing It wasn't your traditional circuit race, but a
sprint from A to B, usually tens of miles long As early as 1894, Karl Benz was racing
from Paris to Rouen in the Benz Velo Fast forward to the mid 1920s and now Karl Benz was merging his company
with another car company - DMG DMG was an engineering company founded
by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach The new company was called Daimler-Benz AG And the joint brand under which their cars would
be produced, would be called Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes was the daughter
of one of the DMG directors It's a lot of names I know, But the point is that mercedes-benz literally raced cars before
mercedes-benz was a damn company. And they weren’t losing In the 20s the dominated
grand prixs all over europe In the 30s, introduced the world to the
dominance of the silver arrows race cars In the 40s… well, you know.* eagle sounds* And then in the 50s, they
joined formula 1 with Juan Manuel Fangio in the driver seat and kicked butt Then there was the beautiful 300
SLR that took the grid at le mans Of course, that all changed in 1955 when that
same SLR was involved in a crash that killed more than EIGHTY people at Le Mans - which we
did a video on that you can check out later. But that crash marked the day
mercedes-benz stepped away from racing, not just for a season, but for decades. And honestly, them leaving motorsports
probably meant that we missed out on some amazing racecars they would
have developed during that time But of course, leaving racing has nothing to do making road cars - and in the
60s and 70s, mercedes was thriving Many diehard Mercedes enthusiast will say
that that era of Merc was where they built their legacy, finding their focus on
comfort and luxury alongside quality The 300SL, the 220 and 300 SE, or the 300 SEL. The 450SEL, the 600 Grosser
and of course the G wagon But this is a story about the 190E And that means we need to talk about another
company, one that is probably the reason all of you even care about Mercedes.
AMG AMG was founded in 1967 as an engine
building company by 2 former engineers at mercedes. Engineers that left
when mercedes left motorsports The acronyms A and M were for their
last names - Aufrecht and Melcher and the G for Großaspac, the city they were from . And AMG only wanted one thing,
and it's disgusting, - race cars. So they took the 300 SEL and
built it better, a proper race car And within 4 years that 300 SEL won
first in class at the 1971 24Hrs of SPA And that win put them on the map - enough
that they got mercedes-benz to pay attention. And everything snowballed from there. By the late 70s, AMG was building
and customizing all sorts of Mercs, Proper old school analog builds, a far cry from the hyper-connected
tech-focused vehicles of today. Vehicles that by the way, are collecting
your personal information and selling it to anybody that will toss
a couple bucks their way. Seriously, nearly every single major car
maker today collects your driving information, your information from connected services, And just because they’re big companies,
it doesn’t mean they’re secure. Like Ticketmaster, who recently
had a data breach that leaked 560 million users personal information. So if you want to protect yourself and
your data, you need our sponsor, Aura. Aura will alert you if your data has been part
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weeks free, or hit the link in the description. Back in Mercedes-land, AMG found
themselves growing to the point that Merc themselves began supplying some
of their workers to work with AMG directly In the late 80s, AMG shook
up the world again when they built a completely new cylinder
head with 4 valves per cylinder And then immediately after that, they shook thing up again when they stuffed a
V8 into what was originally a modest e-class. Yea, the AMG hammer. Still the
coolest name for a car ever But not the coolest car from
Mercedes, because that was next! Also not the coolest t-shirt either,
because it's a car not a t-shirt Good thing we sell the coolest t-shirt ever! The pluspy and chill tee, hand-drawn design,
100% cotton tee, packed and shipped by us. Grab one at the link in the description,
it is the best way to support Albon! You see, earlier in the 80s,
mercedes had developed the W201, a smaller chassis that would sit
at the bottom of their lineup Their plan from the beginning was
to slowly get back into motorsports, building the W201 to compete in rally, because
in the 80s, rally was the absolute hotness The W201 that chassis became our
protagonist - it was called the 190E And as for its legacy in rally…
well that didn’t really happen. And it wasn't a secret why.. Audi
had just showed the world that AWD platforms like Quattro were
the recipe to dominate the dirt So, when merc showed up with the RWD 190, well let's just say they scrapped the
rally program before it ever started But in 1984, a new racing
series was born in germany -Deutschen Produktionswagen Meisterschaft or DPM It was a circuit racing series
for production car based race cars And you don’t need an AWD dirt monster for the
tarmac, so the 190E was perfect for the job. To set off their new plans, Mercedes
hosted the Nurburgring Race of Champions And it was truly an amazing concept They hosted 20 of the world's best drivers.. And instead of putting them in in F1 cars
or some supercars, they were put in 190E’s Now when I said superstars, I meant it. Aytron Senna, Alain Prost, Stirling Moss, Klaus Ludwig, Jack Hunt, Jack Brabham,
Keke Rosberg, John Surtees Truly a remarkable list of names, and can you guess who won? I wonder
if he was wearing loafers too. Now, by the time that the 190E
was ready for actual competition, the DPM was transitioning into the more widely
known Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft - DTM 1986 would be the first official race
season under the new DTM name and by now, many teams had decided their
best shot at winning was a 190e From factory, the car had a 2.3L 16
valve engine that made 183hp out of a 4 cylinder that was developed by cosworth. Okay well, actually that's a lie it didn't have that at first, there are like
a millions variants throughout 190E history but those don't matter, because the 16 valve
cosworth versions were the ones that kicked ass. And to racing teams all of that
meant one thing - winning potential. In its first year, the 190E took second overall
in the DTM season under Helmut Marko’s team Mercedes was finally looking
promising in motorsports Buuuut just like rally,
their luck didn’t last long Because the very next year, DTM
opened its doors to turbo engines. Seemingly overnight, the grid was filled
with cars like the Ford Sierra making 500hp nearly double the 190’s And if that wasn't enough to lose hope.. BMW decided to flip the touring
car script with the E30 M3 Instead of developing a road car
and supeing it up for the circuit, they had developed a racecar first
and dumbed it down for the road car.. Suddenly Mercedes was back to looking at
the taillights of the rest of the grid So they said F it, this will be a learning year,
a year of researching and preparing for a new car And instead of backing privately owned teams like they had been, they were going to make
their own factory team to enter DTM. But if they wanted to win, they were going
to need more racing expertise than they had. So who better to ask than the team that
had been racing Mercs since day one.. AMG. So now the stage is set. Mercedes was officially a factory race team in DTM and along with AMG they were
going to win it all..right?? WRONG AMG had an issue. the 190E’s 2.3 16v from
cosworth just wasn't enough No matter what teams threw at the car, it just couldn't compete with
the turbo cosworths of the time So Mercedes came up with an answer.. Boring out the 2.3 to 2.5L Yeah, no. adding 200ccs to an already
anemic engine wasn't nearly enough to keep up with the turbo Fords and M3s So in 1989, Mercedes went back
to the drawing board and decided to design this car like it was totally new They called it the 190E 2.5-16v Evolution. And it was to be as much of an
upgrade as they could get away with while still being homologated as a road car. First let's start with the road
going version that they sold This had a whole new engine
- the M102-991 4 cylinder. The cylinder bores were bigger, yet the
stroke was shortened and as a result, the displacement was actually a
bit less than the base model 2.5L But thanks to the new engine it could
rev higher and made 201hp vs the old 183. It had stiffer springs and shocks,
electronically adjustable ride height Bigger brakes from the 500SL wider wheels and tires. Then to top it off, it was mated
to a 5 speed getrag dogleg gearbox And if for some reason, none of that was cool
enough to convince you of how sick this car was, Then maybe the exterior will. The aero kit from the front spoiler to the rear adjustable wing gave this car a
timeless German super sedan design And you could get it any color - as
long as it was Blue Black metallic But hypothetically, lets say
none of that tickles your fancy Well then maybe the optional AMG power pack will. This was an optional package that
bumped output to up to 225bhp, thanks to more aggressive camshafts,
larger throttle body, and an AMG exhaust And since this was a homologation
car, just about 500 were made with less than 100 of the
Evo 1s having the power pack But that was just the road car
- what about the race version? Well, in race trim, everything
was turned up to 11. They made nearly 340hp in race trim and they were the best chance that Mercedes had ever
had to beat those pesky Bimmer boys. And their best finish the entire season? *ahem* 4th place… Can you guess who was in first? Yeah, BMW wasn't exactly sitting back after
dominating with their first iteration of the M3, They built the M3 Evo and, well, that won
the 1989 season prettttty convincingly The 190E Evo just wasn't enough.. But this isn't a story about failure,
this is a story about Mercedes’ Golden Era And so, let’s talk about their next project… Immediately after BMW clowned them on the circuit,
Mercedes began production on the 190E Evolution 2! No longer was the body just a
puny bumper and spoiler combo, Now, there was a completely new fiberglass
body kit with wider hips and huge wings; A body that was now 113mm longer than the Evo 1’s There were now aero covers to
redirect wind to the massive wing, and aluminum panels underneath
the car to stabilize airflow Suspension was largely unchanged, but the engine
is where things really changed once again. That AMG power pack from the 1st
evo was now standard on all Evo 2s But now compression went from 9.7 to 10.5:1,
and redline was an even higher 7700rpm But this time, you could really
get any color car you wanted… just kidding still just blue black metallic But that didn't matter much
because with only 502 made, chances were you couldn't
get your hands on one anyways But mercedes’ goal wasn’t to put
these cars in your hands anyways. It was to meet the homologation
requirements so that they can send the 190 back to the grid to redeem itself And the version that hit
the grid? It was a monster. It made upwards of 360hp revving out to 10000rpm! But building this monster,
took a bit of time… as in, by the time the car was actually ready to
race, it was already week 7 of the calendar! But hey, that’s plenty of time to win races! Except, they only won 1 And to make matters worse, turbo
cars weren't even allowed this season..so it's not like they were
going after 500hp behemoths anymore First place was Audi in a V8
Quattro…yea talk about recurring trauma BUT Mercedes as a brand did win
the manufacturers championship, thanks to there being so many 190s on the grid So hey that's something But that year, 1990, was a turning point
for AMG, not in racing, but off the circuit. You see, AMG’s contract with
Mercedes Benz had just ended. But the two companies were on the
brink of greatness with the 190e EVO II And Merc couldn't just let AMG walk away! So they doubled down on the contract, and
mercedes offered AMG a full partnership, meaning from now on, AMG products and cars could be sold at Mercedes-benz dealerships
and any partners of Mercedes-benz This was huge for AMG, they were no longer just
some rogue engineers working out of a garage. But a partnership of this magnitude also meant,
that now it was time to put up or shut up. They had to win DTM. They didn’t win DTM. In 1991 at least, because an
Audi took first place again.. And with record breaking viewership of DTM,
this would have been hugely embarrassing, if team Mercedes wasn’t right behind in 2nd. For the first time ever, they
could finally taste victory
But now it was time to give the DTM program
the final push they knew they had in them. So in 1992, they had 3 official
teams to represent them - AMG, Mass-Schons and Zakspeed, 8 cars in total In the first race of the season,
Zakspeed took first and AMG took second. This years 190e was fast as all hell, and they
were finally seeing the fruits of all that focus the next few races would see similar results, with zakspeed and AMG trending
towards the front of the pact while BMW and Audi were struggling
to get the occasional podium It was going so well for Merc
that halfway through the season, Audi found themselves slipping
too far behind Mercedes and BMW So they backed out, ending their
season early to save a couple bucks Just like that, one half of Mercedes
nightmare over the past few years was gone But like I said, that was only half BMW still had an M3 EVO to torment them The entire season was a nail biter, with every race being an absolute
battle between the two German marques. The final standings for the season: Klaus Ludwig’s AMG Evo 2 came in first. Kurt Thiim’s AMG EVO 2 came in second. Bernd Schneider’s AMG Evo 2 came in third. And 4th place was Johnny Cecotto
driving a BMW M3 Sport Evo Mercedes had finally become DTM champions. and they did it by winning the entire podium. The Evo II’s success was a proper testament; not just to AMG and Mercedes engineering,
but to their dedication to motorsports Plus, The following year would be
the first time an AMG car would be sold to the masses under the
Mercedes-benz brand - the C36 AMG But, just as AMG was getting the
worldwide recognition they deserved, german motorsports was going
in the opposite direction DTM had just announced they would be
changing up their regulations entirely. Out went the Group C class that the world
loved and in was Group 1 Touring cars BMW announced their displeasure
with the new rules and left DTM. Audi and Opel followed suit. And in the blink of an eye, DTM was no longer
the proving grounds for German engineering.. The only factory teams left were
Mercedes Benz and Alfa Romeo And Mercedes didn't even win.. The sport continued to decline from there It got to a point where only Mercedes had
committed to show up on race day and well…. You can't have a race if there's only one car. By 1996, DTM would be dead entirely… And even though it did return in 2000, to be
honest, it was never really the same again. Along with DTM, it seemed Mercedes
motorsports aspirations faded away as well. They were focused on business now. In 1998, the merger of equals took place, where Chrysler and Mercedes merged
to become DaimlerChrysler AG The cars became much more…boring Quality was sacrificed for half baked luxury,
and sportiness was a bit of a mixed bag. And then DaimlerChrsyler joined
an alliance with Mitsubishi Then Daimler sold Chrysler cause they sucked their identity became fuzzier and
fuzzier with every passing year. add that to the fact that sports cars in general were dying off everywhere in the
mid 2000s due to the economy.. And It truly seemed like Mercedes’
motorsports heritage was a thing of the past Now, there were exceptions of course. AMG produced a few notable certified hood
classics with the C55 and E55, The CLK Black Series The SLS and SLR And of course, the C63. And of course, while DTM isn’t
quite what it used to be, there is one motorsports team that
Mercedes is very proud of now… In 2010 Daimler bought a stake in Brawn GP, and
created the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One team. A few years later they became the team
that you know now, Mercedes AMG Petronas. And well, I’m don’t have to tell you about Mercedes’ and Lewis Hamilton’s 7–
sorry, I meant 6 – championships And today, mercedes and AMG still makes some
decently cool cars depending on what youre into, Although I would prefer if there were
less AMG badges on mom crossovers… But even with there now being
more super-Mercedes’ than ever, if you ask me about Mercedes’ racing,
there’s only one car that comes to mind, And it's a ridiculous widebody
sedan with a giant wing.
The 190e may not have been the
best car that Merc ever made, but it the distilled representation
of Mercedes heritage on the circuit A brand that always pushed boundaries, that raced cars before people
even knew what motor racing was, A brand that kept building after every loss,
making sure the people shared in that growth And when they won it all, let us have a taste of
what it was like to hold the trophy on that podium Unless you live in America of course,
because we never got any of the 190 Evos THANKS FOR WATCHING Go buy a shirt to support the channel, Subscribe on YouTube and join us on discord to
hear me rant about why I don’t like Nissans. See you in the next one.
