A lot of you probably remember the Rote Sau/Red Pig, AMG’s first attempt in long-distance racing with that W108 300 SEL 6.8. If not: that’s for another Teutonic Tuesday. Here we see AMG’s second attempt and they used the totally Teutonic C126 500 SEC for that. Because why wouldn’t you get a comfortable tourer for such intense and weary races?
Chosing that 500 SEC does appear to be weird as AMG already was active with the W201 190E 2.3 16 in the DTM. But actually the large Mercedes coupé with a five-litre eight-cylinder engine was on the shortlist for the DTM (Audi used a V8 in the DTM back then) as well but the 190 E was chosen eventually due to the race regulations. DTM permitted tire sizes that a big torquey 400+hp V8 would shred to pieces in the blink of an eye.
Racing engineer Günther Mangold, who had just started working at AMG did get the honors for getting the 500SEC race car ready for the long distance races, without those tire regulations. The V8 engine had 245 hp in the original trim, after undergoing a thorough overhaul the output was raised to 460 hp in racing trim. All Benzes with a V8 came standard with an automatic transmission but of course that one (a 4-speed) gave way to a five-speed manuèl tranny by Getrag.
This Teutonic beast was made lighter to bring it down from its original 1660 kilograms to 1340 kilograms. However, the standard tuning and weight reduction measures alone were enough to plunge the car below that 1340 kgs minimum weight specified by the FIA. So still enough luxury: if you ever see the 1:1 you’ll notice the wooden trimpieces on the dashboard are still there. As are the power windows!!!
Günther’s team constructed two vehicles and both entered in the 1989 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race. With qualification for a 10th and 11th place in their first race they actually surprised many. Klaus Ludwig (of DTM-fame) driving start number 5 even took the lead for a while. But he was forced to retire with problems regarding the transmission adapter plate a good 12 hours into the race. Number 6, retired with the same issue in that race.
A second outing on the Nürburgring also ended prematurely with a broken drive-shaft, prompting AMG to decide to focus exclusively on its motorsport activities in the DTM with the 190 E. And locking these two Teutonic beasts away in storage for years. Only after 16 years Klaus Ludwig was reunited with his Nadelstreifen Benz on the 2005 Techno Classica.
The Nadelstreifen Benz was AMG’s internal nickname for it, due to it’s pinstripe livery with a huge König Pilsener display. It seems odd AMG didn’t use some of their own body kits or wheels: the body is of a “plain” 500SEC and the wheels are from BBS. A “normal” C126 AMG 500SEC would have looked like this:
I’m sure homologation rules had something to do with this and the BBS wheels are way superior but still: mildly ironic. It’s a race car though and it’s been a while so here I go again: Some panning shots!
The model is a 1/43 from AutoArt. It’s been “on sale” for quite a while now at one of my suppliers and I finally decided to pull the trigger. And I’m glad I did as it is great. Teutonic and yet obscure. Great history to it. The C126 always was an old man’s sports coupe over here (all those automatics!!!) but AMG proved how great it could have been if only they had invested a little more to get it reliable.
So das war es wieder. I definitely need more Teutonic racers, I always loved the DTM and the 24-Stunden-Rennen auf dem Nürburgring that’s still taking place on the Nordschleife instead of the GP-track. Tschüss!!!
