“51 to 51” — that’s how the record of the duel between BMW M3 and Mercedes 190E stands in several overviews. A round number, a nice tie, and nobody provides a breakdown by season.
We recounted, race by race, across all 133 scored DTM rounds from 1986 to 1992. The result is closer, less round, and more interesting: 41 wins for the M3, 43 for the 190E.
Two paths to the same goal
Both cars emerged from the same rule: Group A required production vehicles as a base. The path there was fundamentally different.
BMW built the M3 from the start as a race car with road registration. Widened fenders, a flatter rear window angle, a raised boot lid — components needed on track and therefore had to go through series production. There was never an M3 with an automatic transmission.
Mercedes started from the production car and worked its way up in stages. The 1984 190E 2.3-16 retained the production bodyshell. Only the Evolution I got widened wheel arches, only the Evolution II got new bumpers and 113 millimetres more length. Top Gear aptly calls the Mercedes “homologation lite” — and the BMW a car that was “always designed for one purpose.” The 190E was also available with an automatic transmission.
The same difference applies to the engines. Both fitted a four-valve head onto an existing production block. BMW took the M10 block and a shortened head based on the M88/3 racing six-cylinder — an in-house development with individual throttle bodies. Mercedes took the M102 cast-iron block and bought the head from Cosworth from the “WAA” project, which was originally intended for a Group B rally and was redirected to touring cars after the Audi quattro’s dominance.
The final development stages compared
| M3 Sport Evolution | 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II | |
|---|---|---|
| Displacement | 2,467 cm³ | 2,463 cm³ |
| Power | 238 PS | 235 PS at 7,200 rpm |
| Weight | 1,200 kg | 1,340 kg |
| Units built | 600 | 502 |
| Production period | Dec 1989 – Mar 1990 | May – Jul 1990 |
| Price when new | around DM 85,000 | DM 115,259.70 |
Displacement and power are practically identical — a difference of four cubic centimetres and three PS. The BMW is 140 kilograms lighter and was around 30,000 marks cheaper.
A detail that is almost always told incorrectly: The Mercedes evolution engine became smaller, not larger. The production 2.5-16 had 2,498 cm³. For the Evo I, Mercedes redesigned it with a shorter stroke — 97.3 × 82.8 millimetres yields 2,463 cm³. The goal was not displacement, but revs.
And the famous rear wing of the Evo II was not a styling element. Two-tiered, with an adjustable Gurney flap, developed by Professor Richard Eppler at the University of Stuttgart. Measured values: 57.1 kilograms of downforce at the rear, 21.2 at the front — and the drag coefficient dropped from 0.33 to 0.29 in the process. More downforce and less drag; that’s why the thing looks the way it looks.
Why exactly 502 units, when the regulations required 500? No source explains this. We leave it as an open question.
The record, season by season
| Season | Rounds | BMW M3 | Mercedes 190E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 9 | 0 — not yet homologated | 2 |
| 1987 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| 1988 | 22 | 5 | 6 |
| 1989 | 22 | 7 | 8 |
| 1990 | 22 | 9 | 5 |
| 1991 | 24 | 8 | 6 |
| 1992 | 24 | 7 | 16 |
| Total | 133 | 41 | 43 |
When it comes to titles, the picture reverses. Drivers’ titles: M3 two (Eric van de Poele 1987, Roberto Ravaglia 1989) against 190E one (Klaus Ludwig 1992). In the manufacturers’ championship, BMW won five times in a row from 1986 to 1990, Mercedes took 1991 and 1992.
The 1992 season explains both: 16 of 24 wins for the Evo II, the drivers’ title for Ludwig — and yet the overall record ends only two wins apart, because BMW had dominated the years before.
A caution regarding other figures: The circulating “51 to 51” and the figure of “42 wins” for the M3 come from sources that provide no breakdown. We mention them but do not adopt them — anyone with a solid counter-calculation is welcome to send it to us.
The race cars
The 190E started in 1986 with 240 PS, stood at 300 PS at 8,500 rpm in 1988, and reached, as the Evo II in 1992, 373 PS at 9,500 rpm — competing sources also cite 370 PS. The M3 reached 375 to 380 PS at over 10,000 rpm in 1992. Within the uncertainty of the sources, that’s level.
One figure that makes clear what we’re talking about here: the Mercedes race engine was overhauled roughly every 600 kilometres. In 1992, a sequential six-speed gearbox, power steering and brake booster were added.
There was a time lag in deployment that is often overlooked: Mercedes competed purely as a private effort until 1987 — including Helmut Marko and Dany Snobeck. The factory entry with AMG did not come until 1988, a year after BMW’s first DTM title. Anyone who tells the early years as a factory duel is telling it wrong.
Nardò — and a mix-up that persists
From 11 to 21 August 1983, three near-standard 190E 2.3-16 cars set a long-distance record in Nardò: 50,000 kilometres in 201 hours, 39 minutes and 43 seconds — average 247.9 km/h. Eighteen drivers took turns at the wheel, six per car, all of them employees of the Mercedes test department.
Niki Lauda was not involved. The mix-up arises with a different event: the Race of Champions on 12 May 1984 at the new Nürburgring, where Formula 1 greats competed against each other in identical 190E cars. Ayrton Senna won ahead of Lauda by 1.38 seconds.
Nardò is the strongest proof of durability that either side can present — there is no comparable counterpart for the M3.
Which costs more today
| 190E 2.5-16 Evo II | M3 Sport Evolution | |
|---|---|---|
| Market reference value | $284,069 | $256,687 |
| Average realised | $280,241 | $200,499 |
| Reference auction | €308,750 · RM Sotheby’s Monaco 2026 | €325,625 gross · RM Sotheby’s Munich, 10/2025 |
The Mercedes has thus not only maintained its price advantage from 1990, but extended it. It was 30,000 marks more expensive — and on average, still is today.
Among race chassis, Stuttgart also leads: Bernd Schneider’s 1992 AMG Evo II achieved, in 2023 at RM Sotheby’s at Villa Erba, €455,000.
What remains of the duel
Two wins’ difference across 133 races and seven years. This is not a result that one side wins — it is the proof of why this era is still told today.
The only driver with a view from both sides was Johnny Cecotto, in 1988 in the AMG Mercedes, from 1989 in the BMW. About his Mercedes year, he said:
“It was a fantastic weekend … It was the first year for Mercedes-AMG in the DTM.”
Johnny Cecotto, Speedweek
And Roland Asch describes how far removed this sport was from today:
“1988, that was my finest year in motorsport. That season I still brought my 190 to the races myself on my own trailer.”
Roland Asch
The complete Group A history of the M3, with homologation data and title record, is in our article Group A: How the M3 E30 shaped the touring car era. The model line itself can be found in the E30 archive.
Sources
- BMW Group PressClub — BMW in the DTM
- mercedes-fans.de — World records at Nardò 1983
- Speedweek — 30 years of Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo II
- Supercar Nostalgia — 190E 2.5-16
- classic.com — 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II and M3 Sport Evolution, accessed 08 Aug 2026
- Wikipedia — Race of Champions, Nürburgring 1984
The win record is based on our own count and differs from circulating figures. Anyone with a solid counter-calculation with a breakdown by season: Write to us — we will make a visible correction.
Bildnachweise
- Lizenziert · Clemens Vasters · CC BY 2.0