Saturday 13th August 1983

(13th-21st ): To demonstrate the reliability of its car’s, Mercedes-Benz set a number of world records with the Mercedes 190E. From this day to August 21st at the circular high-speed track in Nardò, Italy, three sports vehicles covered a distance of 50,000 kilometers (31,068 miles) over the course of just 201 hours, 39 minutes and 43 seconds. The cars also set two world records over a distance of 25,000 km (15,534 mi), one world record for 25,000 miles (40,233 km) and nine other records in their class. The cars ran full-throttle in fifth gear at 6,000 rpm, averaging 247.94 km/h (154.06 mph) and little over 22 liters/100 km (c. 11 mpg). The record cars were largely identical to the series production version, which debuted a month later at the 1983 Frankfurt Motor Show