Well, after doing some research, I found out that my 86 190 was built in September of 85, sold with Demo miles on 12/5/85. Being my car was made in September, is it not an early 1986 car? And being sold with dealer or demo miles, perhaps the car was involved in some sort of early press/demonstrations? I'm just curious as to what number out of the 1200 or so that were sold in 1986 mine was from the first. Basically, does anyone know the first car's serial number?

I was always led to believe that the factory took a vacation in August. Parts of my car are dated August 1985, and my other car, the 300D was built and stamped in August. Just trying to know some more info... Thanks guys.

The first US 16 Valve is owned by Bill Balmer in Illinois. Here is some info about his car including the VIN number: Click me

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1998 C43 ///AMG
1999 C230 Custom 5-Speed Manual

Well, if numbers dictate when the car was built, mine was built before the first one! My vin ends in a 147855. The first one ends in a 148151. I don't know if these means anything. With these German cars, its so hard to tell...

Randall, when the 16 valve was authorized for production, the first batch were all sold in Europe and production was slow due to delays at Cosworth. In 2.3-16 "history" there were 5 built in 1983 for the company's testing and Nardo record runs. In 1984, full production started with 2,445 cars built, then in 1985 the biggest year for the 2.3-16, 8,656 were built and thereafter, production numbers declined as the other models, particularly the 2.0 and 2.6 were taking up factory time.

I would love to know at what number the 16-Valve production started... Just curious. Too bad these cars are not Corvettes, all those numbers make sense. And everything from the engine code to what the guy putting it together had for breakfast is recorded and documented....