1990 was over 30 years ago, believe it or not. That not only makes you feel old, but also means your racing heroes are now priceless collectibles. The E30 M3 has been getting most of that attention, and it’s time to give the 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E EVO II the attention it deserves.
The famous rendering artist Khyzyl Saleem was sponsored by Hagerty to do just that. The only problem is that several themes had already been covered, including widebody, IMSA racing and JDM. But what came out of Kyza’s creative mind is even better: a restomod with a futuristic theme. It’s basically Cyberpunk 2077, but without the association with a gaming flop.
As you probably know by now, the 190E Evolution II is a homologation special. Mercedes made nearly two million 190 compact sedans and they were pretty great, spacious and practical. The way these things were built, I feel like they were way more worthy of the “baby Benz” name than the CLA and A-Class.
The EVO II version was put together because Mercedes wanted to take down BMW (and Audi) in the 1991 and 1992 seasons of the DTM, which they successfully did. But even without a racing pedigree, it’s one hell of a cool car. Two things stand out: the 2.5-16 engine that’s Cosworth-AMG-developed, and the aero kit that’s developed in a wind tunnel.
Kyza took the 190E’s widebody goodness and made it better. The inspiration, he says, is the Lancia Delta Futurista, an epic restomod of the rally legend by Automobili Amos. It’s worth more than $500,000, by the way. So you’d need a pretty large sponsor for a build like this.
Mercedes might not like the EVO III… but we do
The widebody transformation is pretty straightforward for the master of 3D cars himself. New bumpers are fenders are created, with more vents to make the EVO III concept look expensive. Of course, nothing says “aero” like disc wheels.
But after that Kyza‘s restomod goes all futuristic. Gone are the 190’s large, blocky headlights. They’re replaced by narrow LED openings. This sci-fi race car also gets converted to a short 3-door with a central-exit exhaust system and virtually no mesh in its grilles. To tie everything together, silver and Petronas green give it the right racing look.
For the longest time, the big European automakers have been staying away from the radical restomods of their iconic cars. But that seems to be changing, with Audi making the Hoonitron and all sorts of crazy quattro stuff for Gymkhana and Ken Block.
But Mercedes is still the biggest player in German performance, so millions of people will love this. There’s never been a modern redesign of the EVO II. Heck, they didn’t even develop any tribute concepts, unlike Audi, which inundated us with quattro throwbacks. And based on what we’ve seen with 300SL projects, Mercedes might give you a slap on the wrist for making this rendering into a real car… or worse.
