Latest / The Car Nerd with Jason Hassett
Mercedes 500E: How Porsche Built the Last Great Mercedes
THE MERCEDES THAT PORSCHE SECRETLY BUILT: THE 500E STORYWhen BMW dropped the E34 M5, it rewrote the rules for performance sedans, leaving Mercedes-Benz with nothing to answer it with. While Mercedes knew their W124 chassis could handle serious power, their engineering bandwidth was entirely consumed by the over-budget and behind-schedule W140 S-Class. They needed a weapon to fight back, but they simply didn't have the people, the space, or the time to build one.By the late 1980s, just ten miles down the road, Porsche was staring into the financial abyss. Crippled by a weak US dollar and…
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