HWA’s Mercedes 190E Restomod Is Doing What Singer Never Would

What’s the point of building a recreation of a racing homologation special for the road if you aren’t also going to race it? That’s exactly the question that German car builders HWA asked, and then immediately answered.

HWA is getting ready to start selling the HWA Evo, a reimagining of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II powered by a modified version of the V6 from the previous-generation AMG C43. The 190E 2.3-16 and subsequent evolutions were built for homologation purposes, meaning Mercedes had to build and sell road cars in order to race a car in that specification. But in the world of restomods, no such rules apply. HWA didn’t get the memo.

While it will only build 100 copies of the car for the road, it will send at least two to the racetrack, diving into the car’s original mission and running in the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours. The cars will run in SP-X, a category specifically for cars that are race-ready but don’t quite fit anywhere else.

HWA Evo Nearly Ready For Endurance Racing From The Factory

The German race team hasn’t said what changes it plans to make to transform the Evo into a racecar for the 24-hour event. It says that the road car already has its motorsports expertise “within every element,” and calls the jump from road to track “much shorter than usual” for this car.

“Appropriate modifications in performance, weight, and safety systems” is how HWA describes the changes. So a bit more power, a bit less weight by clearing out the road car parts, and, of course, a roll cage and other elements to keep the driver safe if the worst happens.

A team of HWA mechanics with experience in DTM and other race series will take care of the cars on track. Touring car legends Roland Asch and Klaus Ludwig are helping develop the car, but as both are in their 70s, they probably won’t be the pilots in the endurance race.

For those who know their HWA history, the company is not short on motorsport expertise. HWA was founded by Hans-Werner Aufrecht in 1999. He’s the A in AMG, and his HWA team is one of the most successful race car builders anywhere. The company builds Mercedes’ factory racers and has completed more than 700 customer race cars so far. They also build bespoke race engines, like the V12 at the heart of the Pagani Huayra R Evo.

190E Evolution Was A Response To BMW’s Racing Efforts

Mercedes-Benz’s 190E Evolution models were developed by AMG as a direct response to the evolution of BMW’s M3. Benz needed more power to keep up on track, and it did that first with the Evolution and a few years later with the Evolution II. Both were designed for DTM, German Touring Car homologation racing rules.

Not only did they have more power, the cars had more extreme body kits; wider fenders to cover more tire, and a wing that would make a fourth-gen Supra jealous.

HWA has taken that body and built a run of new cars, or rather, taken a run of standard 190Es and modified them with inspiration from the homologated racers. The HWA Evo has an AMG V6 tuned to make 444 horsepower or 493 hp with the Affalterbach Package. The engine is behind the front axle for balance and dry-sumped to lower it in the chassis. The Evo’s suspension comes from KW, with a touring car-derived setup. All of this will be assembled by hand, and each will cost in the ballpark of $780,000.

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Someone Might Have Made A Better Mercedes 190E Evo II, Thanks To Ford

There are only 502 examples of the 190E Evo Ii out there, so why not build one yourself?

It might be able to keep up with modern racing machinery, and it might not. But that’s not what matters. What matters is that HWA has brought back the legendary Benz for the road but is backing that up with the racing effort, showing that the restomod Evos are as capable as or even more so than the cars they’re inspired by.