The HWA EVO, a 444 hp reborn 190E Evo II, has reached its first owners
The wildest 1980s Mercedes gets a modern second life
The Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo II is one of the great homologation specials, all boxy aggression and outrageous rear wing. HWA, the engineering firm with deep AMG and DTM roots, has spent two years turning it into a modern car, and the first HWA EVOs have now been handed over.
Chassis 001 went straight to a museum
Fittingly, the very first car is not going to be used as daily transport. HWA EVO 001, finished in 199 Blue-Black Metallic in tribute to the original, has been delivered to the Nationales Automuseum The Loh Collection, a museum holding over 160 historic cars spanning 1885 to the present, where it sits alongside genuine 190E 2.5-16 Evo II examples. Chassis 002, the first true customer car, went to Willibald Dorflinger, principal shareholder of HWA AG, in July 2026.
Old shape, thoroughly modern underneath
Each EVO is built around an original W201 bodyshell, then comprehensively re-engineered and re-clothed in carbon fibre. Power comes from a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 producing 444 hp and 550 Nm, with an upgrade available taking it to 493 hp. Crucially it drives the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, the engine sits behind the front axle for 50/50 weight distribution, and the whole thing weighs around 1,350 kg. Braking is handled by 380 mm front and 360 mm rear discs.
Two years from study to delivery
HWA announced the project in December 2023 and has taken a little over two years to reach customer deliveries, with prototype PT01 completing extensive testing and validation along the way. "Delivering the HWA EVO marks a milestone that the entire team looks back on with great pride. In just over two years, we have turned an initial design study into a fully developed high-performance vehicle," said HWA AG CEO Martin Marx.
There is a racing version too
Alongside the road car, HWA has developed the EVO.R, which competed in the ADAC RAVENOL 24 Hours of the Nurburgring in 2026 and will be offered as a customer race car. Production of the road-going EVO is capped at 100 bespoke chassis worldwide, with prices starting at around 714,000 euro.
AutoNext Take
Everything about this specification reads like a deliberate rebuke to the modern performance car. A 1,350 kg kerb weight, a manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive and 50/50 balance, wrapped in the most gloriously excessive silhouette of the 1980s, is about as far from a two-tonne electric super-SUV as you can get. That HWA has the DTM and AMG pedigree to back it up makes it more credible still.
The price is enormous, and 100 cars means almost nobody will see one. But this is part of a wider movement we keep applauding, from the reborn Jensen Interceptor to Wiesmann's screen-free comeback: small firms building analogue driver's cars for people who miss them. Delivering chassis 001 to a museum is a nice touch, though we would rather see the other 99 used hard.
