'The Four-Door Porsche'
It's claimed that once a upon time there was era when
German engineers were aloud to build cars as strong as possible they could
without worrying the manufacturing costs. They also say that Mercedes W124 is
one of the purest examples of that time. People talk a lot and someone even
said that another well-known Stuttgart based car manufacturer called Porsche builds
the most quality cars on the planet. Who knows, but it’s evident that something
special there is in Stuttgart. Even Porsches share is more in sports cars they
have designed and build cars also for other brands (e.g. Zafira, RS2). Porsche has
been interested of having four-door car in their feet already in the 80's that
headed to this coincident that delights all cars enthusiastic.
Let's go back to the beginning of the 90's. Porsche
was developing type 989, a stretched chassis from 911 with V8 and 4 doors and at
the same time M-B decided to develop high performance version from their 300E.
Not so pretty 989-concept was buried and M-B's production lines and design
departments were working in full steam, so contract was made with a Porsche AG
to take care the designing and production of the beast called 500E. Bodies were
produced in M-B factory and send across the town for Porsche for assembly and
then back to M-B towers for quality control. It took 18 days to built one car!
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| The pre-facelifted 500E. Source: www.classicandperformancecar.com |
The reason for building this beautiful machine came of
course from the markets. That time people were desiring the Bimmers
"ultimate driving machine", E34 M5 pushing 315hp from it's straight
six through rear wheels and Audi was just entering on the power sedan markets
with its S4 (C4) with charged straight five blasting 230hp through 4WD. The M5
was more like a track capable hooligan and S4 fast every weather car, so M-B
decided to create king of the autobahn. Basic concept of the 500E was smooth
and endless power in a chassis that transports comfortably four people with
their luggage from Germany to South Italy.
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| In my opinion the best colour option. Source: www.e500.org |
Exterior of the 500E was tweaked only little from it's
little sister 300E. Basically just wider wheel arches, wider front skirt and
bigger wheels. But those tiny tweaks with lowered suspension transformed the
grandpa W124 into a bad muthafucka that you want to watch out when appearing on
the rear mirror. Also the interior was almost similar with the 300E
Sportsline with Recaros and factory fitted fire extinguisher at driver’s foot
–how race is that! For some vibe check out chapters from Taxi 1.
It was time for a facelift in 1993 and name was
changed to E500 to suit the fleet. Among facelift hood, trunk and lights was
updated and steering wheel was changed to smaller. Technical specifications
remained exactly the same. Some limited editions were produced in the end of
total production of approx. 10,249 super cars: E500 limited with Evo II -17”
wheels and two-tone interior and E60 AMG.
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| E60 AMG with the facelifted lights and hood. Source: www.e500.org |
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| E60 AMG with facelifted trunk and lights. Source: www.benzworld.org |
E60 AMG was the very limited series of E500's built
between 1994 and 1995 that had an AMG tweaked suspension and engine. It had a 2nd
generation of the M119 engine (originally from SL500) that had a capacity of
5956cc (4793cc in E500) and power increase of 55hp and 100Nm. Base engine was
also used in CLK GTR. Sprint time from 0 to 100km/h was dropped 0,5 seconds and
top speed limited 30km/h higher. Huge numbers if you consider that this was
happening middle of the 90’s! Bodywork and interior remained the same and only
wheels were changed to 3-piece 17” AMG ones. Very little information and
pictures can be found about the E60 AMG, but there’s even some up for sale in
Mobile.de. Check this nice walk around..
In my opinion it’s better that Porsche stops trying to
fit those rear doors into their design language –just doesn’t work! Have a look
of 989-concept, Cayanne and Panamera they all look somewhat strained –like you
try to squeeze more capacity inside the ball, but just extend it into one
direction. Just doesn’t feel right. Guess it’s the strong semiotics of the 911,
but can you point out any saloon that looks cool with the all-spherical lines?
I like it this way that if Porsche wants to build family cars they should put their
effort into cars that are born to saloons. Can wait to get my hands dirty with the RS2
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| M119.974 with AMG stams. Source: www.benzworld.org |
Engine
V8, 5956cc,
32 -valve, Bosch L-Jetronic (M119.974 6.0)
AMG exhaust
(with twin tip outlet)
Numbers
376hp/5500rpm
580Nm/3750rpm
Top speed:
280km/h (delimited approx. 300km/h)
0-100km/h:
5.2s
0-200km/h:
19.8s
0-1km:
24.5s
Transmission
4 -speed
auto, RWD
2.56:1 (German version) or 2.82
(Swiss version) gearing ratio
Chassis
AMG
suspension (9-10" lower than standard W124)
Brakes
front: 320x30mm, 4-pot calibers / rear: 300x34mm, 2-pot calibers
EVO II
17" or AMG (3-piece) 8.5J x 17" ET30 alloys with 245/45ZR17
tyres
Exterior (similar to E500/500E)
Wider front
and rear wheel arches
Wider/deeper
front valance
Facelift
hood, trunk and lights
E60/AMG model
badges
Interior (similar to E500/500E)
Sportsline
leather interior (two-tone and limited are common)
Recaro
-seats
390mm
Sportsline steering wheel
Some with
birds-eye maple dark trim
Rear wood
console between rear seats
Fire
extinguisher in driver’s foot space
Battery
placed in trunk for better weight distribution
Other
AMG have
produced very limited version with 399hp/5750rpm and 615Nm
AMG stamps
in air box
957
"AMG Technology Package" in VIN number
Might be
that there was even T-version (estate) made!
Brabus, Kleeman and RENNtech have tuned some really cool versions, like:
6.5L version, 6-speed manual version and 475hp version.
Alltogether 149 made (including the limited versions)
