Twenty years ago, the first Porsche limousine rolled off the assembly line at Stuttgart; four doors, 8 cylinders, wide fenders, big brakes and a period correct Alpine stereo system. It was built in small quantities, by hand. To those who knew, it was distinguishable at a distance, but to the man on the street, it was invisible. Truly a car for the one percent – in terms of both means and taste.
You won’t find it in any of the Porsche catalogs of the era. It was called the Mercedes-Benz 500E. And it wasn’t an AMG anything. Back then, AMG was an independently-owned speed shop, a Roush Performance with a stern accent.









Recent Comments
CJinSD - I’ve driven 2002s and 320i’s in the snow too. They weren’t anywhere near as capable as FWDs with similar...
Onus - But now we have its ancestor as rwd. The lx. the sucessor i hear will go back to rwd or fwd in longitudinal layout.
Scoutdude - It should be called “Not Quite in Time 4wd”.
Scoutdude - There is the big difference the FWDs you are talking about barely had enough torque to open a beer bottle so they...
Prado - I bought a 99 CR-V new with the Realtime 4WD. It should have been called RealBad 4wd. A total crap ‘reactive’ and...
Kyree S. Williams - Gee…you’re right. There are hardly any midsized body-on-frame SUVs. The only ones left (that I can...
Chuck Goolsbee - The changes from S1 to S2 were to meet US Federal safety & emissions mandates, not because what buyers wanted....
Scoutdude - The original “Real Time” system was a big joke. It used a center clutch that was powered by a pair of...
NMGOM - Alex, Great article on a complex topic. Thanks. You obviously put a lot of work into it. To show you what a mess of misleading...
Scoutdude - Maybe from the big 3 but International Harvester offered factory installed 4wd starting in the 1955 on their 3/4 ton S-120...