AMG has been around since 1967. But it wasn’t until 1999 that Mercedes took a controlling interest, and 2005 until it acquired the remaining stake to make AMG its own in-house performance division. The time in between saw Mercedes team up with Porsche (if you can believe it) to produce the 500 E.
Arguably the top performance sedan in the early 1990s, the W124-generation 500 E packed a 5.0-liter V8 good for 326 horsepower. This at a time that the BMW M5 was still using an inline-six displacing less than four liters and producing comparable power but significantly less torque.
Production saw the vehicles-in-progress shuttled back and forth between Mercedes and Porsche factories in the Stuttgart region, fitting it with all manner of performance upgrades. It featured a wider track than the standard E-Class, four individual Recaro seats, and brakes (like the engine) borrowed from the SL roadster.
All told, little over 10,000 of these sleepers were made in the first half of the 1990s before it was discontinued. Only 1,596 were built in 1993 – and just 1,528 imported to the United States altogether – and one of them is coming up for grabs in Fort Lauderdale this weekend.
It’s estimated to sell for $50-60k, which would be enough to get you into a base E-Class these days, or an AMG C43, but not the E63 that’s this beast’s true modern successor. Check it out in the images captured by Ryan Merrill for Auctions America.
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