Mercedes 500E; the 5.0 V8 hotrod engineered & built by Porsche that's quicker than a BMW M5

Well, welcome to a new Harry's Garage video, and today's car is the legendary Mercedes 500E, and you'll probably say, hey, what's one of those? This car first appeared in 1990, and this car was Porsche-developed and also Porsche-built, not on the Mercedes regular production line, and it has a V8 five-litre engine in it, and it's only available in left-hand drive, and they're uber-rare in the UK. According to Wikipedia, I see that they sold, in total production, there was 10 and a half thousand of these cars produced, and in the UK they sold 29, so not the best seller for Mercedes, but there's very good reason for that, which I'll go into. And this car appeared at a time before AMG were fully part of Mercedes, and that is why Porsche were developed, but it's a wonderful backstory. So let's go and have a closer look, and I'll go into the detail. Now, this particular example of 500E is one of the very first, so 91 registered. I actually have two here. Over there is the E500, because the production went on to 1995, they did a little update on it, so I'll go in a little bit of detail, a quick look at that, and I'm very grateful to the Hairpin Company, who have both of these cars in, which as soon as I saw, I said, I have to do something on those. So let's concentrate on the early car here. Now, the story behind this car, it's obviously based on the W124 Mercedes, and that was absolutely terrific, super successful, mid-range Mercedes, and Bruno Sacco did the design of it, infamous Italian designer at Mercedes, he also did the R129 SL 190E, so that period of Mercedes was really important. Back then, the big thing, there was a fuel crisis, and they wanted to make their cars modernised Mercedes, and also make them super efficient, so it was all done for aero, and this was an extremely efficient car, the W124, going through the air. You can see how smoothed off, one particular detail I love on it, if you look at the side mirrors, this one is smaller than the driver's side, and that was just to sort of reduce drag, and it had an extraordinary CD factor for its period, 0.26, fantastic result, and I had an estate version of one of these, we had it in Italy, we used to use it on Evo, and that had sort of flush wheel coverings, no spoiler, tapered, these cars are wider at the front than the rear, to give them a teardrop design, going through the air, they still kept this, this must have wrangled the engineers, because there was obviously a lot of drag from having the shooting star there, but they kept it there, flush headlights, you can see here as well, all to keep drag down, and it was designed to take six cylinder, four cylinder engine, I think also a five cylinder engine, but then along came the BMW E28 M5, and Mercedes had a sort of habit of dropping V8s into their big saloons, obviously they had the V8s for the S class, and they did the infamous 6.3 litre, and then the 6.9 litre, 450 SEL, so they had dropped V8s into their cars before, but this car, from the outset, was designed never to have a V8 installed in it, a bit like my Jaguar Project 8, that was never meant to have a V8, so they've been talking to Porsche, you've got to remember, both Mercedes and Porsche, based in Stuttgart, and engineers just meet regularly, and Porsche had been, done a deal with Mercedes, because they wanted an automatic gearbox in their Porsche 928, but they didn't, you know, how can you have those of high revving, high horsepower V8, who would have one of those, well Mercedes had, because they'd just developed a gearbox for their new R129 V8 SEL, and so they did a deal, so a Porsche 928 actually has an SEL gearbox, automatic gearbox in it, so they were super busy, this car was commissioned in 1989, Mercedes, behind the scenes, were super busy with their next generation S class, and just said to Porsche, oh would you mind seeing if your engineering department could work out how we can fit our five litre V8, which we've developed for the, it's the M119 engine, for the SEL 500, would it fit in here, and Porsche went off and did that work. They then came up with a solution, that it would fit, but there was fairly major changes, they had to change the chassis so it's wider, and if you look at this car, the big difference between a regular 124 saloon and this, is it's wider track, and this has dramatically flared front wheel arches, this car is 56mm wider than a regular 124, say a 300e or something, and that goes all the way through, we'll have a look at the interior and make some changes there, Mercedes said thank you very much Porsche, that's great, and then they were going to then build this car in their Mercedes plant along the line, and then they realised it doesn't actually fit, it wouldn't fit down the production line because it was too wide, so they said, oh Porsche, have you got capacity to build this car, and at the time Porsche had just finished production of the 959, they had not great sales at all at the time, and they said yeah we can build this car, so this car, this 500e was built by Porsche in their specialist department, and that's why this car is so significant, that not only was the engineering done by Porsche, it was built by Porsche as well. So that's how it came into being, but it also was complicated to build because Porsche didn't do the whole of the operation, they did the initial part because they had to change the body to allow the engine to actually, the V8 engine to go into the chassis, and then went off to Mercedes to be painted, and then came back to Porsche for the assembly and putting the V8 and doing this trick suspension on it, it also has bigger brakes from the 500SL on this one, and then once it was built, it then went back to Porsche's final finishing inspection, and for sending around all their dealers. That made it a very expensive car to make, I think it took 18 days to make one, and if you look at 91, I looked at one of my magazines, car magazines, November 91, the price of this car new was £57,220. If you wanted to buy the BMW M5, well that was £45,750, so nearly £12,000 more, or 25% more than an M5. It had to be good to justify that price. The other thing, only available in left-hand drive, and that didn't help obviously UK sales, but I've got this lovely brochure, original brochure, huge brochure, which I suppose is huge because of the price was also huge, and it goes into lovely detail on this car, and the original spec and colours, lever was optional, believe it or not, cloth lever came as standard, but yeah, really nice brochure. What I can never get over is how do you recognise a 500E from the front, it's pretty hard apart from the wide track, but it has a slightly deeper air dam here, and those signature sort of spotlights there. If I look at the facelifted one over there from 95, that actually has body colour, that's one of the changes they did on it. Come round, 16-inch wheels on this car, and they use the brakes off the SL500 on this as well, so it's got much bigger braking capacity than say a 300E or something like that. If I just open the door, you start to see inside, so automatic only, that's typical Mercedes, you see, and so, we'll look at the interior when we take it outside, but such a classic, this was engineering at its best this period of Mercedes. The rear, it's actually a four-seater car, they normally have a bench seat with five seats, but because there's a great big different diff and engineering underneath that fit the exhaust in, it was only a four-seater, this version. Around at the back, all you've got, yeah, 500E, that's the giveaway, this is the period, obviously, when that really meant it was a five-litre engine. The rib lights that we saw with Brunessaca design, and just a regular boot, this is a big boot, nothing, no ski hatch, no nothing, just a great big boot and a spare wheel underneath. But obviously, the star of this car is the engine, let's go and have a look at that. Now, one detail I love on this car in this period of Mercedes, most times you're sort of fiddling around for that safety catch, not on Mercedes, who just have this thing that pings out when you open the door, how nice is that? Why can't that come back? That's proper engineering. Another lovely feature of this bonnet I adore, is if I have these little catches there, there's one there, and then there's one this side, and then the bonnet will go into a sort of mechanic position, right up in the air like that. So, you can see the engine, you can work on it, again, wonderful engineering. And wow, what an engine this was, this five-litre engine, it's got variable valve timing, it's got four valves per cylinder, it's obviously injection, it's not that highly stressed, 326 horsepower, about 346 torque, it's actually an over square engine, so it likes to be revved, it's not a super torquey unit, long stroke, short stroke engine. And it's got motorsport history, this engine, because Mercedes used it, well, Sauber used it in their C9 Le Mans racer in 1989, this engine, with a couple of turbos bolted on either side, and it won Le Mans in 1989, came first, second and fifth, this five-litre engine. I am told Mercedes then stripped the engines just to check them, and were amazed that the engines were producing more power at the end of the race than they were at the beginning, and there was nowhere, I actually had a 500 SL in 1997, when I'd ended up with a Mercedes SLK 230k, and I hated it, I thought it was absolutely awful, couldn't wait to get rid of it, and they were very sought after in 97, just popped out, left-hand drive, and a dealer offered me a straight strop with a 500 SL at the time, I think they valued both at £40,000, and that really got me into Mercedes, it was just wonderful, we took it to Tuscany, we went all over in it, and then I had to 600 replace it. So, that's what makes this engine so special, but as you see, it's quite a wide unit, and there was a lot of work that Porsche had to do, engineering-wise, to get that to fit. So, now we're seeing the engine, and you've seen around the car, let's take it outside and see how it drives. Yeah, entering a different era in here, no screens in here, all logical, all done by engineers to make it easy to understand the whole sort of layout in here. It's strange, even in higher, you know, 600 SL no less, it's still a sort of plastic desktop, but it's the clarity, and the switch gear, and the sort of gaps in this switch gear on the dash to make you feel, well, why didn't I have that option to fill in that space? And down here, yeah, auto, the traditional auto gearbox we saw, Mercedes, a lovely armrest actually, padded armrest, weirdly, even a locky little centre console here. Also, seat controls in the door, that was novel back in the day, just clarity, easy. Key start, obviously, I'm looking at a rev counter, 6,000 red-fly, and it all settles in, and just like every Mercedes I've ever been in, the oil pressure's straight up the top at three, fuel slightly below half the fuel level, and temperature never really moves, always just under the 80 degrees. So, yeah, this example, 60,000 kilometres from new, it's only about 30, what is it, 35, 36,000 miles from new, and it's a 91 car. There's a handbrake pedal as well, this strange pedal right to the left, I press on that, and I've got full handbrake, and I can release it on there should I want to, but I don't need that, I'm going to disappear off. Funny, the gearbox, I've got sport option or I've got economy, because you've got to remember, this era of Mercedes, they were very keen on economy, that's why they developed this super slippery body. I'm going to put it in S for sport, and I often just leave it in three, auto only at 500 E, so you can't sort of choose a sort of manual option, not in 91. Actually, before I go any further, I'm also going to demonstrate another thing I love about this period of Mercedes. I'm going to put it into drive, and then back into reverse, because reverse is about half the speed of first gear, so you go back really slowly when you're in reverse. Very clever, very engineered, because that's the more sensible option, and it makes reversing that much easier, because it's not the same speed as first. Who wants to go as fast backwards as you want forwards when you're parking or something, manoeuvring, you want a half speed, and that's precisely what the engineers of Mercedes gave you in 1991. Anyway, enough waffling, let's head out, see how this thing drives. Now, the initial impressions as you get going in this car, one, it's very comfortable. The sort of additional springing in the seats, as well as suspension, and the tall tyres, and the hushness of it. Yeah, there is a very easy motion, and you just wander down the road with a few revs on board. Yeah, second impression is this gearbox just loves to be in fourth gear. It's a four-speed auto, and it just, all it wants to do is get to fourth, and really doesn't like setting off in first gear. So, it's very relaxed at this, even though I've got it in S, it's quiet as well. I've measured it 70, 71 decibels at 60 miles an hour, but I'm actually going to, yeah, I'll go into, I'm in third, so I'll come into my D limit and accelerate up the hill. Here we go. Oh, I have to squeeze it to get the kick down, and now it starts to rev, and I think, hang on a minute, I'm going quite quick. Went to the red line there, and off you go up the hill. And I was looking at the performance figures of this thing back in the day, and it came as a big surprise that it's actually quicker accelerating on actual tests, performance tests by magazines, than the BMW M5, the E28, the legendary first M5. That was figured at around 6.4 seconds to 60. This was 5.5 seconds to 60. When you come to 0-100 miles an hour, this is about 13.5 seconds, and the M5, E28 M5, is 14.1. So, on both those counts, this is quicker, and it does that because the M5's got a three and a half litre engine, it might be all racy and, you know, 4,000, et cetera, but this has got that as well, but it's five litres. So, this also weighs more, just over 1,700 kilos against 1,450, 1,460 kilos for an M5, but there's enough grunt there to overcome the power, and also the slightly lazy gearbox. So amazing that, yeah, in period, this was really quite quick. Top speed is really quite fun. It's 250 kilometres an hour, 155 miles an hour, not because it's electronically limited, it is geared to do that at 6,000 rpm in fourth gear. That's proper, that is. Now, I'm going to whip it up here, just, yeah, change down again, and turning it now, that came as a big surprise when I first drove this car. Really turns in, doesn't particularly rock, there is a bit of roll there, but it's super keen to turn in there and hit that corner. Does not feel wallowy at all, and I did not expect that from when I saw the weight and how comfortable it was as it went down the road, and this is my bumpy bit of road, smooth as you like, absolutely smooth, but it's that initial turning really took me by surprise. It's not on sporty rubber or anything, it's just, I suppose, the wider track and a little bit of Porsche magic. Begin to hold it in third, cutting out, I've got detent on the speeder telling me, third takes me to 180 kilometres an hour, plenty, I think, for the UK. Over the bump, yeah, just absorbs it around here. Yeah, it's just reluctant, there we are, got it to kick down, you've got to absolutely pummel the accelerator into the bulkhead to make it kick down, and around there, yeah, very nice, dismisses it. I mean, I can't, it won't have amazing road holding at the outer edges, this car, but on initially, you think, well, that's a surprise. So, yeah, probably time for some likes and dislikes. Well, yeah, one is just the clean design, it's W124, I just love that design, this period of Mercedes when everything was absolutely done by engineers and, yeah, they were always slightly more expensive because the accountants weren't in control, the engineers were. Two, the laid-back character, the mile munching, the ease of just forward motion, just, yeah, I'm afraid you have to put quite a lot of fuel in it because it's not the most economical car going, but just that ease of motion that it delivers and how comfortable it is, how practical it is, that sort of thing. And also, the interior design, can't beat it for clarity, anyone can get in here and know precisely what does what. And, of course, the other big like is the surprising handling, that it doesn't go all at sea, it's using hits and corners. Dislikes, I suppose, with such a fiery engine, trying to access it is a bit tricky because of this gearbox. Why is it so keen to set off in second? Why does it go off the line? Oh, do I have to? And then it's okay. Hold it, I can do now, I can hold, put it into second. Suddenly, I've got a completely different car because I'm at the utter end of the rev limit. Sounds quite good as well, but you have to sort of get into it. The Sporting S is a nonsense on the gearbox selector, doesn't seem to do a thing. And then there's no escape in its weight as well, when you rock around here, you are feeling its weight, even though it's got the firepower to sort of disguise it. Right, let's try it around these bends. Yeah, it's not the best steering in the world because it's roller, they didn't use a rack and pinion back in the day. Oh, and I've got the traction light lit up. Yeah, it's quite busy, the traction light. Yeah, I don't know, fighting gearbox, fighting the ever-present ASR, the traction control that you cannot turn off on this car as well. So, in conclusion, this car, well, it's a bit soft, I suppose, and today it doesn't feel uber quick. Unfortunately, 300 and something horsepower power in 1700 and some kilos, doesn't cut the mustard in 2024 with the amazing cars we have today. But it's just its history, the story behind it, the fact Porsche built this car and designed it, it's almost folklore that this car even exists. And I sort of love there's only 29 were sold in the UK, the people who bought them were proper car guys, obviously Rowan Axson had one, he used to write about it in a car magazine, Lord Bamford had one. And that was the era, this is what I love about this car, this sleeper beyond belief. And normal looking Mercedes, stonking great engine, beautifully built, beautifully engineered. That's what is the magic of the 500e today. And it's been fantastic to experience two perfect examples of the car from Hairpin Company. The cars are just coming up for sale, don't you know they're on the website yet, they've only just arrived. They're today's value about £80,000 for these sort of cars. But yeah, hugely enjoyable. I hope you enjoyed this video as well. If you did, well, keep watching, keep subscribing. More videos coming along very soon.