Why the BMW E30 M3 and Mercedes 190E Cosworth Exist

Neither of these cars was built because anyone wanted to sell it. Group A racing demanded 5,000 road cars in twelve months, and that rule is the only reason you could ever buy either one.

BMW did not believe it could move 5,000 E30 M3s. It built roughly 18,000 across the run. The race version went on to become the most successful touring car ever built, taking the World, European, German, Italian, Australian and Japanese championships in its first full season in 1987, along with the Spa and Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Mercedes got there first. It hired Cosworth to build a 16 valve head for a Group B rally 190E, then watched Audi's four wheel drive Quattro make the rear drive car obsolete before it ever competed. Mercedes had a world class engine and nowhere to put it, so it went touring car racing instead. In August 1983, before the road car had even launched, three near stock 190E 2.3-16s ran 50,000 kilometres at Nardo averaging 247 km/h for over two hundred hours and set three outright world records.

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