HWA Evo is a £730k resto-mod Mercedes 190E Evo II tribute
The makers of the Mercedes CLK GTR and the Pagani Huayra R’s screaming V12 have developed their modern take on the iconic Mercedes 190E Evo II
The HWA Evo is the German engineering firm’s 25th birthday present to itself, set to be the ultimate modernised caricature of the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II. It’s a restomod project that’s moving at pace, as the first fruit of HWA’s new Legacy division. With deliveries of the 100-unit limited run set to begin at the end of this year, cars finding a home in the UK will cost their buyers upwards of £730,000.
Though it joins a ballooning roster of retro- and resto-mods, it’s the only of its kind to take inspiration from Mercedes’ iconic homologation special. New entries in the genre aren’t in short supply, including the TWR SuperCat, a similarly balloon-arched Jaguar XJS. It and the HWA follow in the tyre tracks of the sublime Prodrive P25 and Redux BMW M3.
HWA’s the right firm for the job of bringing to life a 190E restomod in the Cosworth’s image, too.The company was formed by AMG co-founder Hans Werner Aufrecht, and is responsible for everything from the CLK GTR to the SLS GT3. It has also played a significant role in the development of modern hypercars such as the Apollo IE and Pagani’s Huayra R. Today, HWA is positioning itself as an independent manufacturer and not just an engineering firm, with its modernised Evo II forging this new path.
Based on the W201-series Mercedes-Benz 190E, the 2.5-16 Evo II is one of the most iconic DTM racers of all time, making its debut at the 1990 Geneva Motor Show before Klaus Ludwig raced it to a DTM title in 1992. Just 502 road-legal examples were built for homologation purposes, featuring the same Cosworth-built 2.5-litre four-cylinder as the racer.
At the HWA's core is the same steel chassis as an ordinary 190, but in order to improve safety and reduce weight, the front and rear are replaced with bespoke aluminium structures. This also allows for completely bespoke suspension kinematics, making it much easier for HWA’s engineers to fine tune the new double wishbone setup.
This front structure also allowed HWA to move its new 3-litre twin-turbocharged V6 (borrowed from the Mercedes-Benz S-class) as far backwards as possible, with a dry sump system allowing for a lower centre of gravity. Performance figures will be confirmed in due course, but with a bespoke engine management system and numerous HWA upgrades, it’s unlikely to be lacking grunt.
Following customer feedback, HWA picked the road-going Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM and more recent AMG GT Black Series as benchmarks for the Evo’s kinematics. Analysing the way in which these cars achieve their handling prowess, HWA has then applied findings to the Evo. While it features strong camber gain for optimum stability and traction in its standard form, buyers will be able to opt for an Affalterbach package for even more track focus.
Speaking to evo at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Chief Technical Officer Gordian von Schöning said: ‘We are not aiming to have a track record breaking car, it won’t go to the Nürburgring and be the quickest car all over or something, that’s not the goal’. Based on simulations, HWA says it competes with the likes of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 in terms of outright performance.
While HWA is perhaps one of the best equipped engineering firms for developing a car from start to finish, there are still elements that have been outsourced. Schöning revealed that development for the ABS/ESP system alone cost the company €4.5m, with the headlights costing another €1.5m due to their complexity – given the short 100-unit run, that’s €60,000 of development cost per car for those two elements alone.
The interior is the latest part of the Evo that HWA has chosen to show off, with the engineering and dynamics of the car taking precedence in terms of its development throughout the majority of last year. Now we can see inside, it’s as much a modernised and honed equivalent of the original, as its exterior. This may not be the finished article, as HWA describes it as an ‘interior testbed’ that’s a ‘design evaluation study, created to establish aesthetic, ergonomic and engineering targets’.
That said, it’s no dog-eared prototype inside. There’s an air of quality and refinement, with most of the cabin being swathed in diamond-quilted leather, including the seats. HWA has for now elected to eschew a fully modern, supportive bucket, in favour of a more retro setup. They do feature four-point harnesses though and, HWA claims, the bolstered rear items feature ISOFIX. Well-integrated is the full roll cage, disguised by Alcantara-clad trim.
The general dashboard topography should be familiar to the 190E-faithful, as should a four-spoke steering wheel, though this is certainly much-revised by comparison to the original’s. While the seats and door handles are similar to the original, modern touches are scattered throughout, including a digital instrument cluster and infotainment screen with smartphone mirroring. The HWA Evo will also feature wireless phone charging and a high-end sound system.
Having partnered with US-based historic performance car specialist Curated for the project, HWA founder Hans Werner Aufrecht said: ‘The Evo II was a design icon of the early 1990s and set benchmarks in terms of style. Our idea was to reinterpret this design. With Curated, we wanted a partner at our side for this project who knows the market for such cars inside out and believes in the HWA Evo. I think we are creating the best conditions for the HWA Evo to be successful.’
If you like the sound of the Evo you’ll be pleased to hear there’s more to come. Recreations of iconic models from other brands are also in the pipeline following the launch of the Evo, with HWA starting to build one-off commissions for private customers.
The Evo will be limited to just 100 units worldwide (all are sold), and is expected to hit the road before the end of 2025. HWA's engineering expertise doesn't come cheap, with the Evo costing about the same as a Ferrari SF90 XX Spider. For reference, Prodrive’s P25 costs from £552,000, while the TWR SuperCat costs from £225k (ex tax). The original 190E 2.5-16 Evo II now fetching in excess of £200,000 at auction.
