1989 Mercedes Benz 190e 2.5-16 'Cosworth'

Welcome to my epic (So far 6 year) journey from turning a fully functioning car in to an engineless garage queen... Full of distractions, distractions and distractions.

I originally bought this car in 2014 as a parts car for my other 2.5-16 190e which I had at the time. I bought it completely unseen and had it brought up to me from London to sunny Scarborough. Excited with my purchase I quickly jumped in to it and took it for a blast around the local B roads, I very quickly realised that this was miles better than the one I already owned and more solid too! But at 190k on the clock, it prefered to use more oil than petrol...

This is how it was on the day of delivery:






Didn't take long to start trying on wheels   Really not keen on the alloys that the car came with.






Sadly the Borbet B wheels wouldnt fit over the front calipers without 25mm spacers, so the poke was utterly ridiculous! Still unsure on what brakes they are, I think they are off a big Mercedes ML.



Gave the car a good clean and she came up beatifully!












I then proceeded to buy some Compomotive alloys ready for my first ever Retro Rides Gathering in 2014.



I decided to wait a little bit before I fitted them and my god was I happy that I did that! Because I decided to do a sick 180 degree spin in wet weather and planted it directly in to a lamp post and a curb literally 1 week until RRG14  



I was extremely lucky as I didnt damage anything really other than the wing and a control arm on the rear. This should be straight...



In a frantic rush for RRG14, I stole the control arm and wing from my other cossie, I got some paint 'matched' to the rest of the car and painted. It didnt match at all, no where near in fact! But hey, I ran with it. I also got my new comps wrapped in rubber and slapped them on ready for the show.







RRG14 was finally here so me and a bunch of my friends made the 160 mile trip to Shelsley Walsh. I only took pics of the good side...











So after dailying the car for roughly 6 months, I decided it was time to pull the oil drinking engine out and get it rebuilt after a compression test I did was horrific.







I took it to a local well known rebuilders who started their work and I received word that the bore and the pistons were shot. So I upgraded and got some oversized high compression forged pistons and rods... And this is where things started to spiral out of control a bit and got expensive.



The block was bored out.



I may as well stick some decent cams in too right?





I also bought a lightened flywheel and an uprated clutch and had them balanced on the entire crank assembly.

And then everything went wrong. I got made redundant. I couldnt pay for jack #### and was out of solid work for 9 months, this really screwed me over big time! By time I got back in to work, life had moved on slightly and I found myself very distracted with other things and projects.
I bought a Vauxhall Nova with a 1.7 isuzu lump in it, had it for 10 days and swapped it for a Nova saloon





I then got rid of that and bought a Ford P100 and notched chassis and slammed it as low as I dared and took it to RRG15...





I then sold this and bought a Mitsubishi Legnum VR4 and ran it to the south of france for a holiday (ended up being around 3000 miles)



Sold that and bought a little 106 GTI which I adored!



Then thought that I needed another and bought a 106 XSI too.





The XSI ended up going to RRG16 and RRG17 and then it was sold.

And there have been more cars in between... And then these two which have taken all focus and efforts away from the 190e.

I bought a big ass truck and rebuilt the full chassis with fresh steel, custom made 4 link suspension and genuinely tons more.




I then sold this (Bet you didnt see that one coming...)

Roughly the same time as buying the truck I purchased a 1981 Mercedes Benz 500SEL W126, which I lowered, refurbed some OZ Racing MAE 17 wheels and took to a bunch of shows including Retrorides weekender 2019 and had it on the bagged benz's stand.

















I then bought a Mazda RX7 FD... 



So back on topic...

Last year I decided that I need to pull my finger out and crack on with the cossie, things had got out of hand, it had been 4 nearly 5 years since I had even seen my engine! A lot has happened and changed since then, I moved house 3 times, bought and sold more cars than I can count, gained a steady job and had 3 promotions and my partner gave birth to my beautiful son.

I went and paid for my engine! I was surprised that they even still had it! Thankfully, they hadn't done much with it so they still had to assemble it! But nevertheless, my engine was back!





I have since bought a set of ITBS with drive by wire unit from Rennsport factory courtesy of AT Power.









So skip to this year.

I decided to fully commit to the 190e, I sold the 500sel roughly a month a go and have put all funding towards the 190e.

Look, I even bought my ECU!



So as it stands, thats all folks.

I will try and keep posting as soon as I can, as long as it is a relevant update. I also hereby promise not to buy another car...

Ross.