Marvelous pieces of machinery those Mercedes Benz 2.5-16 Evolution II. I’m pretty sure their production numbers where 502 and none where from 2017. So what’s up with this car?
Mercedes needed a promo car that could actually race. Rather than cannibalizing a super rare original they went to their classic department and told them to build them a new one. Not just a street version but a genuine group A race car. The DTM group A models from the 90’s produced 373HP (274KW) at 9.500 rpm and we can only imagine that this car will produce a similar output since AMG is now an in-house tuner.
The body style of both evolution models where and still are very unique for mercedes but this was all done for aerodynamic purposes. Some people doubt if the wing on the Evolution II actually works or if it’s just their for attention grabbing purposes. Wolfgang Rietzle, the research and development chief from BMW at the time had this to say about it; “the laws of aerodynamics must differ between Munich and Stuttgart. If that rear wing works we have to rebuild the BMW windtunnel”. Shortly after, remodeling started on the windtunnel of BMW in Munich.
The DTM version of the evolution II was a very successful car on the track. Mercedes entered the Deutche Tourwagen Masters in 1988 and the evolution II had it’s debut on the North Loop of the famous Nürburgring on June 16th 1990. In that same year on August 5th, Kurt Thiim won the Diepholz Airfield Race, while Roland Asch won the race in Kyalami, South Africa on the 27th of November. in 1991, Klaus Ludwig won the DTM Championship and in 1992 became DTM Champion with his team mates Kurt Thiim and Bernd Schneider finishing as the runner-ups. In 1993, Roland Asch became runner-up ahead of Bernd Schneider piloting the Evolution II.
