Fancy owning Ayrton Senna’s very lovely and very used Mercedes 190E 2.3-16?

You know the story, but we’ll bore you with it anyway. At the reopening of the Nürburgring back in May 1984 – seven years after Niki Lauda’s near-fatal crash – Mercedes-Benz organised a fun little race using 20 versions of its then-new 190E 2.3-16.

So, it’d be a race that’d promote the new ‘Ring layout, and Merc’s schporty new car. For that, it needed schporty drivers, and the list of names Merc managed to procure would be unbelievable in today’s micro-managed world.

Read ‘em: Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Stirling Moss, James Hunt, John Surtees, Phil Hill, Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Carlos Reutemann, Denny Hulme, Jody Scheckter, and Jack Brabham, to name but 12. Oh, and a young, last-minute entry from one Mr Ayrton Senna.

All 20 professional hotshoes drove identikit 190E 2.3-16s, each one bearing the same modifications: fatter tyres, a roll cage, different final drive, stiffer suspension, a new exhaust and four-pot brakes up front.

It won’t surprise you to learn – given the very nature of this news – that Senna came out on top, crossing the line one second ahead of Niki Lauda and three seconds ahead of Reutemann. Turns out, he liked the 190E so much, he bought one.

And it won’t surprise you to learn – given the very headline of this story – that very Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 bought and driven by Ayrton Senna is now up for grabs. He bought it the year after the race – so 1985 – and ragged it around for two years, clocking up some 24,682 miles in the process.

It was then sold to a UK buyer, before being snapped up in 1996 by the current owner while they were in the UK. It followed said owner to Australia in 2004, has been “carefully maintained”, and right now shows 154,302 miles. That’s right! A classic that’s actually been used!

RM Sotheby’s is offering Senna’s old Benz in its upcoming London sale, and they reckon it could fetch anywhere between £220k-£250k. Worth it for that Senna provenance… and Lauda’s signature on the engine bay, surely.