Rare Rides: A 1994 E500 - the Porsche Sedan by Mercedes-Benz

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

What do you get when you combine the sporty personality of Porsche with all the comfort and luxury of a Mercedes-Benz sedan?

The answer is this E500.

In the late 1980s Mercedes found itself riding a wave of popularity. Building quality automobiles of restrained and tasteful luxury had served the company well for quite some time, but competition for the luxury car customer was heating up. Japan had ideas, and BMW was throwing its performance in Mercedes’ face. Competition emerged across the continents as the promising Nineties drew near.

However, designers and engineers at Mercedes were preoccupied with development of the new W140 S-Class sedan. There wasn’t bandwidth for other big projects, and something had to be done. Enter Porsche.

Mercedes contracted with Porsche in 1989 to develop a new performance-oriented sedan. Its task? To take the rather staid W124 E-Class and turn up the volume.

The existing small engine bay was crammed full with the 5.0-liter V8 from the R129 500SL. The front end had to be widened in order for the engine to fit at all, which is why the 500 E wears flared front fenders. The extra heft from the large engine meant a suspension rework. All that was left was to fit the four-speed automatic from the SL. It shifted 322 horsepower through the rear wheels, for a 0 to 60 time of 6.1 seconds. Top speed was 161 miles per hour.

All was well, and the car was ready for production — apart from one small issue. The new, beefy shape of the 500 E meant it did not fit on the assembly line with the regular E-Class cars. Time for another telephone call to Porsche.

Deepening their ties, Mercedes hired Porsche to build the 500 E at its factory in Stuttgart. Porsche had extra capacity at the time, since the company was going through a bit of a rough patch. Stuttgart was happy to oblige. Though production started in 1991, the process of getting these cars to buyers was complex.

Mercedes manufactured the parts and shipped them to Porsche, who then hand-assembled the 500 E’s chassis and body. The cars were then shipped back to the Mercedes plant and painted. Painted bodies traveled once more, to a different Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen, which installed the V8 and completed the car. When each 500 E’s grand tour was complete, 18 full days had elapsed.

The 500 E continued unchanged through 1993, and had one final model year in ’94. At that point its name was changed to E500. This coincided with a facelift of every E-Class model. A limited, special run of 120 cars emerged in 1995 to meet continued consumer demand, making for a total production figure of 10,479. Mercedes was ready for future performance models after the end of the E500, calling upon its in-house tuner AMG for such development.

Today’s Rare Ride is for sale in Germany by superb dealer and restorer Mechatronic. It’s a late-run model with a special edition interior of purple, blue, green, and black kaleidoscope-effect leather. Fantastic. It can be yours for about $73,000, and is importable into the US next year.

H/t to Adam Tonge for pointing out this awesome E.

[Images: seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • SPPPP SPPPP on Nov 28, 2018

    Great looking car. Definitely beastly. However, I am not sure that the "soul" is Porsche overall. I don't think these cars were great handlers, from what I have read. But I welcome the chance to change my mind, if anyone is offering free test drives.

  • Cimarron typeR Cimarron typeR on Nov 29, 2018

    I;ve only seen one of these in real life, it was rough around the edges, some scuffed paint and bubbling around the a pillar.This was 10 yrs ago. I bet Mechatronic could shoehorn a modern 7spd trans for only 30 grand or so, to make it perfect.

  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
  • CoastieLenn No idea why, but nothing about a 4Runner excites me post-2004. To me, they're peak "try-hard", even above the Wrangler and Gladiator.
  • AZFelix A well earned anniversary.Can they also attend to the Mach-E?
  • Jalop1991 The intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged due to suspected improper assembly by the supplier. Over time, partial engagement can cause damage to the intermediate shaft splines. Damaged shaft splines may result in unintended vehicle movement while in Park if the parking brake is not engagedGee, my Chrysler van automatically engages the parking brake when we put it in Park. Do you mean to tell me that the idjits at Kia, and the idjit buyers, couldn't figure out wanting this in THEIR MOST EXPENSIVE VEHICLE????
  • Dukeisduke I've been waiting to see if they were going to do something special for the 60th Anniversary. I was four years old when the Mustang was introduced. I can remember that one of our neighbors bought a '65 coupe (they were all titled as '65 models, even the '64-1/2 cars), and it's the first one I can remember seeing. In the '90s I knew an older gentleman that owned a '64-1/2 model coupe with the 260 V8.
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