Mercedes 190e Manual
I cannot adequately stress just how stupid this idea turned out to be. I spent about $14,000, and another friend of mine put in something like 200 hours of labor turning a basket-case Benz into a safe-and-sound racetrack proposition. That same amount of money and effort would have gotten us a Mustang capable of running in the top fifth of the field, but applied to a four-cylinder Mercedes in which we never finished better than 55th of 97 at any of the tracks. At the end of the event, the car was a difficult sale that went for less than half of what we put into it. You get the idea, right? It was an expensive and painful lesson. Which is not to say that the bespoilered black rennwagen didn't have its charms.
It swallowed 3200 miles in seven days without a single hiccup. It was supremely stable and comfortable for high-speed, sleep-deprived transit drives across the blasted featureless moonscape of late-night Middle America. Despite its size, age, and long service history, it was a proper Mercedes-Benz in the way that some of the company's products in the years after 1986 weren't. I will go to my grave a believer in the miniaturized excellence of the W201 series in general and the 16-valve in particular.
A more specific virtue of my little 190E came as a complete surprise the first time I drove it. The transmission was a so-called 'dogleg shift.' Which is to say, first gear is down and to the left, with second and third in the center, and fourth and fifth to the right.
Mercedes 190e Manual Gearbox Oil
BMW used the dogleg shift pattern on its competitor for the 190E 2.3-16, the famed E30 M3, but only in European markets. Americans got a standard pattern with first and second in a line. At the time, this was generally considered to be a positive thing because in stoplight drags and U.S.-legal-speed hooning around that first-second shift is critical. With a conventional shift pattern, you just slam the lever backward and pop the clutch like Paul Walker in any one of the Fast & Furious films. Easy and quick. The dogleg, on the other hand, requires a careful up-and-over.
Mercedes 190e Manual
It takes time, particularly in cars that have reverse above first gear. Wouldn't want to slam the car into 'R' and let the clutch out. No, not at all.
Once you get on a racetrack, however, the brilliance of the dogleg pattern is made plain. First gear doesn't enter into the equation on a road course. Instead, it's the rapid shift to second that proves useful, particularly if you have a high-winding engine that needs the revs to exit tight corners. On the negative side, the fourth-to-third downshift is a little trickier, but that's across the middle of the pattern. Second-gear corners tend to be tight and crowded, so having the easiest shift possible for the entry (and exit) is appreciated. It only took a few laps for me to be completely convinced of the superiority of the 2.3-16's shift layout, and although one lap has far more street-driving than track time, I was willing to sacrifice a bit of convenience in the street one-two for security in the on-track three-two. I also just appreciated having first gear well out of the mix when driving unfamiliar courses.
It's one less thing to worry about.