Achingly cool Mercedes 190 E Group A racer returns

Bathurst 1000 class winning Merc is redressed in 1986 livery for Melbourne's Motorclassica show

Sometimes, the only justification you need to celebrate a car is how awesome it was. Take this Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3-16 Group A touring car, for example, which has been restored to look exactly how it did for its first ever go in the Bathurst 1000 33 years ago. Car 41 finished ninth on its debut and won its class four years later in 1990, but even without that crowning result we’d all still be drooling over its inimitable styling. Just look at those achingly cool 190 E lines draped in black, gold and red colours and wearing period sponsors. Better sit down…

The car will make a return to the limelight at Melbourne’s Motorclassica event this weekend, where its replica 1986 livery – commissioned by present owner Andrew Miedecke, who actually drove the car during its first Bathurst race – will be seen for the first time. Miedecke said the car, which prior to its Bathurst debut raced in the German Touring Car Championship, was a “dynamite across the top of [Bathurst’s] mountain and down through The Esses”. He bought it back because of the “fond memories” that experience left behind.

It’s been on quite the journey since Miedecke first drove it. Originally powered by a Cosworth 2.3-litre, the car was later converted to 2.0-litre form so it could race in Australia’s Super Touring Championship, before it was then bought by a Brit and raced in the US. It returned down under in 2012 with its sister car, soon after which work to bring it back to 1986 form began. Miedecke’s very obviously proud of the finished results; indeed, he’s clearly very much still in love with this machine.

“It would eat anything else under brakes into the corners, and it was noticeably more stable,” he said. “It was terrific.”

Find a Mercedes 190 E here