The Mercedes That Porsche Built: Matt Farah’s Take on the 500E
This is a “refined cruiser that feels well made” according to Farah.
In the early 1990’s, Mercedes hired Porsche to help them build the muscular 500E sedan, and it was a gem of a car. The particular car featured in the video needed quite a bit of maintenance when it was first purchased. But thankfully the owner was committed to getting all of that work done. TheSmokingTire host Matt Farah definitely seemed to like it in this One Take video. With a bigger set of wheels, larger brakes, an exhaust, and a 1992-style schip, this car didn’t need much deviation from stock to achieve perfection. It’s certainly among the nicest ones we’ve ever seen. Granted, we haven’t seen many of these cars around, as only about ten thousand were made in the first place.
With the V8 from an SL500 shoehorned into the engine compartment, this sedan platform was hit with a big boost of power in this special edition model. The 500E also featured a sportier suspension (though still a reasonably plush ride for a 90’s sport sedan), and wide fender flares to provide a bit of visual removal from its traditional slab-sided cousins with the small motors. These were quite expensive in their day, necessitating a lot of across town shipping from the Mercedes factory to the Porsche factory and back, plus a whole lot of hand assembly.
Sold from 1991 through 1994, the 500E (later models swapped to E500 moniker) sold just about 1500 units here in the US, making this a pretty rare bird. Who knows how many of these cars survive today, but we’re guessing it’s less than half. We tend to be pretty big fans of Mercedes here, but we can also appreciate a good Porsche, so when the two are combined into a single car, we’re bound to love the result.
What do you think about this beast, did Porsche improve or ruin the Mercedes nameplate here?
