£750,000 Mercedes 190E Evo II Recreation Will Get A Carbon Body And Twin-Turbo V6

Reviving the icons of the ‘90s is the trend of the moment for restomodding firms. Notably, the recent Maturo Stradale is a Lancia Delta remastered for those looking for road-going Group A rally nostalgia, and it hasn’t been all that long since the Prodrive P25 arrived as arguably the ultimate GC8 Impreza. This time, it’s the turn of the Mercedes 190E Evo II.

HWA, the firm responsible for this ‘EVO’, has released new renders of the project having teased us with sketches at the back end of 2023. It keeps the spirit of the original 190E Evo II, albeit with even wilder blistered wheel arches, snazzy head- and taillight updates plus a fresh set of six-spoke alloy wheels. Those original drawings hinted at a set of turbofans though, so we’ll forgive you for being a tad disappointed on that front.

Technical details are a little vague for now, though HWA has confirmed the EVO will get a full carbon body and a twin-turbo V6. The latter is a departure from the original Evo II, which used a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder with 232bhp on tap.

It’s said the car is based on the W201 series, suggesting more sedate versions of the saloon will be sacrificed rather than carving up any of the original 500 Evo IIs for the project, and the finished cars will feature “DTM suspension”.
 

HWA has confirmed that prices will start at €714,000 (approx. £625,000) before taxes. All in, that’ll be at least £750,000 in the UK, then. It’ll be 5x as rare as the original car, with only 100 units set for production. 

You could argue there’s nobody better positioned for this project. As a race team, it was responsible for Mercedes’ DTM efforts throughout the ‘00s and even handled the production of the road-going CLK GTR homologation special. More recently, it had a hand in developing the Pagani Huayra R (powered by an AMG engine, remember) and the Apollo IE. There's good reason to get excited.