For Techno Classica, Mercedes-Benz brought out a one-off convertible version of their modern classic 190E. The 2.6-litre car is the only one with factory backing, and it does look quite balanced.
The two-tone blue suits the car exceptionally well, and it was built around the time the 190E had its “MoPf” facelift, meaning it has the wide plastic cladding on the sides.
Inside, there’s acres of blue ruffled leather, and an automatic gearbox suits this tourer car as well as the Becker stereo.
Top down, it does look better than top up, and one must wonder just how much work the custom bodywork took, as there was no coupe version to use. Mercedes ended up building a W124 cabriolet instead, as the upper segment was seen more lucrative and the coupe did offer some synergy benefits.
There was, of course, small-scale cabriolet production by tuner garages for the 190E, but that’s never quite the same level as an official factory product – in good or bad.
Here the Mercedes convertible sits, as it’s today. The cladding looks as wavy as it does on every 500E or W140, so I wouldn’t worry too much of the attention to detail.
Techno Classica Weekend Edition: Mercedes-Benz 190E W201 Cabriolet
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I don’t much like these bulky bodies. But it looks lot better without a roof.
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Wow, the decklid and rear quarter panels are considerably taller than on the sedan.
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Looks like Frankenstein’s Monster’s forehead.
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No shutlines to break up the visual mass, the W124 convertible is the same.
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“The cladding looks as wavy as it does on every 500E or W140″ or any W124 for that matter. But in that last picture you can see very clearly where they extended the cladding to suit the newly lengthened doors.
And the usual lengthening for a car this size is 4” /100mm as seen on the Rover P6 two doors, the factory convertible, the three Graber two doors, (A convertible and two coupes), and ‘Gladys’, the last Alvis.
Rover P6 2000 factory prototype convertible
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7146/6629752273_b718952d87_b.jpg
http://www.myclassicuk.com/wp-content/gallery/rover-p6-series-2000-tc/rover-2000-convertible-conversion-exc-187-c-side.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5010/5312954116_8e36638f4f_b.jpg
Graber Convertible
http://www.rover-freunde.de/magazin/2005_09_austro_bild03.jpg
http://www.rover-freunde.de/roverdrive/rd2005_01/rd2005_01_p6grab_08.jpg
http://aws-cf.caradisiac.com/prod/photos/6/9/8/153698/3554747/big-3554747ff8.jpg?v=6
Graber Coupe remaining based on 2000TC
http://www.roverp6.info/Fotos/Graber_Coupe/GraberCoupe_1.jpg
http://www.roverp6.info/Fotos/Graber_Coupe/GraberCoupe_2.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/fb/38/c8/fb38c80c560b550b6692cb2dccb55502.jpg
Graber V8 P6 Coupe,with flatter roof line, now missing.
http://motorbase.s3.amazonaws.com/pictures/contributions/990529-european/std_74_rover_p6_3500_v8_by_graber.jpg
‘Gladys’ P6V8 based two door hatchback, to have been an Alvis. David Bache’s own personal car.
http://aws-cf.caradisiac.com/prod/photos/1/9/5/1030195/1170716/big-1170716391.jpg?v=6 -
Tuners didn’t get the roof quite right.
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l534/the_road_warrior/fotos%205/image151_zpsd26a5a10.png
http://nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image33209.jpg
http://www.nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image8679.jpg
Some 4-doors, tuning co SKV asked for that roof job 7500 euros (then 15k DEM):
http://i16.servimg.com/u/f16/11/31/99/20/p7070010.jpg
http://www.nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image26176.jpg
http://www.nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image32334.jpg
W201 Compact
http://www.k-t-b.de/bilder/karo/compact.jpg
http://www.k-t-b.de/bilder/karo/innen.jpg
A lot of photos: http://nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/forum_entry.php?id=46879
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