Just how fast was the fastest sedan in the world in 1992? The legendary Porsche-built Mercedes-Benz 500E races the fastest wagons in the world: the E34 BMW M5 Touring and the Audi RS2 Avant, which was also built by Porsche!

Veteran automotive journalist Jason Cammisa and SCCA hall-of-fame race-car driver Randy Pobst line up and race the Mercedes 500E (known later as the E500) against the RS 2 and M5, and the results are surprising. Will the Mercedes’ 4-speed automatic kill its chances against the two other manuals — a five-speed in the M5 and a six-speed in the Audi?

And what’s with the six-cylinder E320 dogleg manual wagon and its DOHC 24V 3.2-liter straight-six?

The 3.8-liter S38 is the biggest straight-six that BMW has ever made, and it produced 340 PS (335 hp) at an insane, independent-throttle-body screaming 6900 rpm. The Audi’s much-smaller 2.2-liter, 20-valve turbo five-cylinder made 315 PS (311 hp), and the 5.0-liter quad-cam, DOHC 32V Mercedes V-8 made 326 PS (322 hp) but had variable valve timing so it creamed the others on torque.

The next question is: can any of these 1990s legends keep up with today’s slowest sports car, the ND2 Mazda MX-5 Miata? You’ll be surprised by the outcome.