My car was originally built to run in SCCA pro world challenge "T2" back in the mid 90s,,,,,,,,but I quickly learned that those three letters "P-R-O" means you need very deep pockets to be competitive,,,,,,,so I went club racing instead.
Of course, back then, I had to urge the SCCA to allow/classify the 190 mercedes into club racing, because they had no club race casssification for it.
Anyways, they finally put the 190 2.3 8 valve and 2.6 cars into ITS,,,,,but my 16v car was not eligible so I had to run ITE.
Recently, the SCCA did classify the 16v 190 into ITS (about two years ago I think),,,but my car is now "overprepped" for that class.
If I wanted to put it into ITS legally, I would have to gain about 350 pounds of weight, and change my brake system back to stock 190e parts.
The 190 is not the "fastet" car out there,,,,but I can tell you it is the most dependable / bulletproof car I've ever driven on a racetrack.
I went 12 weekends, two schools, and a handful of Porsche club track days, on the stock clutch.
I have over 40 races on the logbook without a single mechanical DNF!
I've skidded down the front straight at Hallett, (on the car's pass side!) for a few hundred feet, and buried it so deep into the tire wall it took 45 minutes to get me out during a qulifying session,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,towed the car back to the paddock and cut off the squished muffler with a hack saw,,,,,,,, opened the pass side doors and beat the dents back out, got the "OK" from the cheif steward & tech to start the race that afternnon dead last in a 30 car field.
Came out of the last turn "racin" on the pace lap, and ended up in the front of the entire pack by the end of lap 3! People in the MidDiv are still talking about that race.
When it comes to durability you can not beat a German car,,,,,and rule number one in racing is:
To finish first,,,,,you must first finish.
I know most of the other guys (about ten of us) who race 190s, and we all love the fact that we spend our weekends DRIVING our cars and not fixing them.
It's also cool that 16v 190s can be bought in the 5k range(or less) in this area.
Hopefully,(once things settle down at the new biz) I will have time to get mine going again for this season, so my soon to be 16 year old daughter can use it for her schools.
Eventually, I want to be able to run whole 12 weekend race seasons again,,,as I miss it.
I miss it like a fish out of water!
