原标题：Rags To Riches: How A Dusty Mercedes 190 E Became The Latest NFS Hero Car

原作者：Mark Riccioni

When a video game franchise decides to build its next in-game hero car in the real world, you’d assume this process would take many months, many meetings, and many buzzwords that in no way relate to car culture or gaming.

当一家视频游戏特许经营商决定在现实世界中打造其下一辆游戏中的英雄汽车时，您可能会认为这个过程需要花费数月时间、召开许多会议以及使用许多与汽车文化或游戏毫无关系的流行语。

But this isn’t Need for Speed’s first rodeo. And when you gather a team of die-hard automotive enthusiasts together – including people from EA Games and Speedhunters – the end result isn’t always dictated by brand perception or OEM objectives. No, its main purpose is incredibly simple: to inspire gamers and car fans all around the world.

但这不是极品飞车第一次做这种事。当您将一群顽固的汽车爱好者聚集在一起时——包括来自 EA Games 和 Speedhunters 的人——最终结果往往并不总是由品牌认知或 OEM 目标决定。实际上，它的主要目的非常简单：激励全世界的游戏玩家和车迷。

Throw it all into a melting pot and this is the result – the Need for Speed: Unbound Mercedes-Benz 190 E. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but trust us, it’s absolutely worth it. Lurking under that wild exterior isn’t some clapped-out auto with stratospheric mileage; it’s a genuine 2.3-litre ‘Cosworth’ with a 5-speed manual.

上述竞争中把各方的意见全部扔进一个大熔炉，产物就是 – 极品飞车：不羁的梅赛德斯-奔驰 190 E。这有点令人费解，但请相信我们，这台车绝对对得起这个名号。在那狂野的外表下潜伏着的不是一辆拥有高里程的破旧汽车；而是一款货真价实的 2.3 升“Cosworth”，配备 5 速手动变速箱。

Before the purist rage starts boiling over, this was a car previously destined for a life of gathering dust right up until Speedhunters’ own Ben Chandler set eyes on it back in 2018, long before the latest Need for Speed game was even a concept.

之所以这款车并没有如此声名大振（比起那台M3 GTR而言），是因为某种角度而言，在纯粹主义者的愤怒开始沸腾之前，这辆汽车之前注定要终生尘封，直到 2018 年 Speedhunters 的本·钱德勒 (Ben Chandler) 才再次关注了它，而那时最新的《极品飞车》游戏概念甚至还没有被提出。

Ben, who often has the willpower of a hungry child in the Reese’s factory, struck a deal for the car in his head well before its previous owner had even contemplated selling it.

在 Reese 的工厂里，Ben 被誉为“拥有饥饿的孩子般的意志力”，以至于在前任车主甚至还没有考虑出售这辆车之前，就已经在脑海中达成了一笔交易。

Before we get into the how and why, first we need to give you a rundown on the who and what. This isn’t your bottom-of-the-barrel 190 E after all; it’s legit in every sense of the word.

在我们讨论Ben为什么要造这样一台车，以及他是如何做到的之前，首先我们需要简要介绍一下Ben和这台奔驰。毕竟，这不只是一件夸张的艺术品；它在任何意义上都是合法并且可以上路的。

The aero? That’s inspiration taken straight from the 190 E 2.5-16 Evo II. Those wheels? Three-piece billet Dromo items from Livery Wheels with bespoke Dlng Designs turbofans. The interior hasn’t been spared of modification either, now featuring a pair of Recaro seats, Hedgehog Tuning lightweight door cards and a 6-point roll cage. And yes, Hedgehog Tuning is a real name.

空气动力学？这是直接从 190 E 2.5-16 Evo II 中汲取的灵感。那些轮子？来自 Livery Wheels 的三件式方坯 Dromo 物品，带有定制的 Dlng Designs 涡轮风扇。内饰也不例外：现在配备了一对 Recaro 座椅、Hedgehog Tuning 轻型车门卡和一个 6 点式防滚架。是的，Hedgehog Tuning 是一个真实存在的名字。

Hip hop and car culture have long been intertwined with the style, attitude and wealth of artists elevated by the vehicles they drive. Rocky is no exception to this, and in the world of hip hop there’s one car brand which remains more referenced than any other in history: Mercedes-Benz.

长期以来，嘻哈和汽车文化一直与艺术家的风格、态度和财富交织在一起，这些艺术家因所驾驶的车辆而得到提升。Rocky 也不例外。在嘻哈世界中，恰恰有一个汽车品牌在历史上比任何其他品牌都更受关注——梅赛德斯 - 奔驰。

As the main protagonist in Need for Speed: Unbound, it only seemed right to get Rocky’s input while designing (and building) the 190 E Benz he drives in the game. Especially when you learn that Rocky collaborated with Mercedes on his AWGE capsule collection earlier this year.

作为《极品飞车：无界》的主角，在设计（和建造）他在游戏中驾驶的 190 E Benz 时听取 Rocky 的意见似乎是正确的。尤其是当你了解到 Rocky 今年早些时候与 Mercedes 合作推出了他的 AWGE 胶囊系列时。

So while the physical building and parts selection would be taken care of by Speedhunters’ technical editor Ryan Stewart, it was Rocky – along with EA and Criterion Games Vehicle Art Director (and the car’s designer) Bryn Alban – who created the outrageous style you see here. All from a car originally found tucked away in a Chicago garage…

因此，虽然实体建筑和零部件的选择将由Speedshunters的技术编辑Ryan Stewart负责，但Rocky与EA和Criteria Games车辆艺术总监（以及汽车设计师）Bryn Alban一起创造了你在这里看到的“令人愤怒的风格”。而所有这些都来自一辆最初藏在芝加哥车库里的汽车…

THE CHICAGO TOYBOX COLLECTION

Richard ‘Fish’ Fisher is a brilliant human being. He has one of the greatest and most obscure car collections of anyone we know and – being a car dealer by trade – when he says everything is for sale, he genuinely means it.

Richard 'Fish' Fisher 是一个才华横溢的人。在我们所知道的任何人中，他拥有最伟大而又最鲜为人知的汽车收藏，而且作为一名汽车经销商，当他说一切这些藏品都在出售时，他是认真的。

You don’t visit Chicago without popping in to see Uncle Fish, and during a visit for Speedhunters back in 2018, Ben clocked the 190 E tucked right at the back of Fish’s ‘Toybox’ – an apt name for his incredible car collection. At that time it was wearing the factory 16V bodykit, larger OEM wheels and had a load of track goodies fitted.

如果您到访芝加哥，一定要顺道拜访一下 Fish 叔。在 2018 年访问 Speedhunters 期间，Ben 偶然找到了藏在Fish叔的“玩具箱”——这是他令人难以置信的汽车收藏的恰当名称——的190E。当时它配备了原厂 16V 车身套件、更大的 OEM 车轮，并安装了大量的赛道配件。

The problem was, Fish didn’t fit too comfortably in it. Ben, on the other hand, did. And in the moments that immediately followed – namely Ben sitting in it, wrestling the wheel and shouting “how sick is this” – the car was bought before Fish had even been asked.

问题是，Fish的体格使他在190E里坐着并不舒服。然而，Ben做到了。很快——也就是本坐在车里，紧紧握住方向盘并大喊“这有多迷人”——这辆车甚至在Ben向Fish问价前就被买下了。

There was now just 3256-miles of Atlantic Ocean between the US and UK to contend with.

现在，需要克服的只有美国和英国之间 3256 英里的大西洋。

That process is a story in itself, and one Ben has already shared on Speedhunters. But for anyone not up to speed, this simple car purchase escalated to an all-night dash across multiple states to get it loaded into a container before the ship set sail. We’ve been reassured many trees were planted to offset this particular car-buyng experience.

这个过程本身就是一个故事。Ben 已经在 Speedhunters 上分享过了这段旅程。在返回英国之前，单单为汽车购买升级套件就成了跨越多个州的通宵冲刺，以便在船启航之前将车装入集装箱。我们甚至已经种植了许多树木来抵消这种特殊的购车体验带来的污染。

A Welshman In Berkshire With A Keen Eye For Design

That chapter title is not the start to a very obscure joke, but before we delve into Bryn’s brain it’s worth noting that, upon its arrival in the UK, the 190 E had no aspirations of being an in-game hero car. In fact, it quickly underwent a whole load of work with Ben’s aim to track it at the Nürburgring.

该章节的标题并不是一个非常晦涩的笑话，但在我们深入研究 这位名叫Bryn 的设计师的大脑之前，值得一提的是，190 E 在到达英国后并没有成为游戏中的英雄汽车的愿望。事实上，Ben 的目标是在 Nürburgring 用它刷圈，因此很快就完成了所有的改装工作。

The 190 E had already been chosen as a car in Need for Speed: Unbound by this point, but the introduction of a global pandemic had delayed various aspects of the game’s development. So, to help claw back some time, Ben’s Mercedes was used for both the visual and audio capture, which involved taking thousands of images in the studio and plastering it with microphones.

后来，190 E 已被选为《极品飞车：不羁》的封面车，但全球疫情的引到来从各个方面推迟了游戏的开发。因此，为了帮助挽回一些时间，Ben 的梅赛德斯被用于视觉和音频捕捉，这涉及在工作室拍摄数千张图像并用麦克风武装整台车。

That process understandably takes time, but it’s one that’s required for every single car that appears in a Need for Speed title. There’s no quick or easy solution around it.

可以理解，这个过程需要时间，但这是出现在极品飞车中的每辆汽车都需要响应的步骤，对此没有快速或简单的解决方案

Need for Speed: Unbound has a varied car list, but in terms of Speedhunters classics think BMW M1, Buick GNX, C10 Skyline and even a Volvo 242. Sounds cool, right? Although selling a new game with a Volvo 242 on the cover might be tricky, even for Need for Speed.

我们谈谈游戏本身吧。极品飞车：不羁 有各种各一张完整而全面的汽车清单，其中包括了不少 Speedhunters 报道过的经典车型，比如 BMW M1、别克 GNX、C10 Skyline， 甚至沃尔沃 242。听起来很酷，对吧？然而一款以沃尔沃 242为封面 的新游戏销售起来可能会很棘手，即使是《极品飞车》也是如此。

Thankfully, EA’s Bryn Alban is a proper car guy. As one of Need for Speed’s art directors, he’s also integral to the overall feel and direction of the car choice too. If something can be made more interesting – or it doesn’t feel right – Bryn’s not about to waste hundreds of hours modelling it without double checking first.

值得庆幸的是，EA 的 Bryn Alban 是一个合格的汽车专家。作为《极品飞车》的艺术总监之一，他也是游戏对于汽车选择的整体感觉和方向不可或缺的一部分。如果某些东西可以变得更有趣——或者它让人看着不爽——Bryn 不会在没有先仔细检查的情况下浪费数百小时为它建模。

With the car selection phase having so many hurdles, you’d assume it’d be even more taxing while trying to decide on a lead hero car. Do you go for the latest, most expensive supercar available? Or do you go for a ‘traditional’ tuner car like the Skyline or NSX? The reality turned out to be far less work.

鉴于汽车选择阶段就有如此多的障碍，在尝试决定封面车型会更加费力。您会选择最新、最昂贵的超级跑车吗？或者您会选择像 Skyline 或 NSX 这样的“传统”改装车吗？事实证明，工作要少得多。

“The 190 E choice was surprisingly simple,” Bryn explains. “By this point of development we had Rocky on board as the main character, so we wanted a car that reflected his style and personality above all else. He’s got a good taste for some of the older German machines, so that helped weed out a lot of the other choices.”

“190 E 其实是个非常简单的选择，”Bryn 解释道。“在这个开发阶段，我们让洛基成为主角，所以我们想要一辆能反映他的风格和个性的汽车。他对一些较旧的德国机器很有品味，所以这有助于淘汰很多其他选择。”

“I know what you’re thinking – E30 M3. That was also a strong option, but we all felt this was a little bit obvious. The 190 E on the other hand? Well, that complements the E30 anyway when you look at its motorsport past. It’s a very cool car right now, and knowing Rocky’s past projects with Mercedes it quickly turned into a no-brainer.”

“我知道你在想什么——E30 M3。这也是一个很好的选择，但我们都觉得这有点明显。另一方面，190 E？好吧，当您回顾 E30 的赛车运动历史时，它无论如何都是对 E30 的补充。它现在是一辆非常酷的车，而且知道洛基过去与梅赛德斯的项目后，它很快就变成了最合适的选择。”

Transforming the stock car into a rendered masterpiece sounds like another long, drawn-out process, but you can thank Bryn for the bulk of what you see here. The design went through numerous iterations before arriving at the final look, one that we agree is best of the bunch.

将库存一台实体车改造成渲染杰作听起来又是一个无比漫长的过程，但您可以感谢 Bryn ——他提供了大多数点子。在达到最终外观之前，该设计经历了多次迭代，我们认为这是最好的。

“We wanted to delete parts off the car in-game for a raw, street-fighter look similar to some of those Pandem/Rocket Bunny cars of the past. The problem is, a 190 E chassis looks really bland without a rear bumper!” Bryn adds.

“我们曾经想过拆除游戏中汽车的某些零件，甚至让它的内部结构完全裸露，以获得与过去的某些 Pandem/Rocket Bunny 汽车相似的原始街头霸王外观。问题是，没有后保险杠的 190 E 底盘看起来真的很平淡！” Bryn补充道。

“I’m not entirely sure what triggered it, but I decided to replace the rear with a custom chassis as this not only looked neater, but it showcased both exhaust silencers without looking too busy. We did play around with custom LED headlights – and even WRC-style light pods – but they just overcomplicated the car with the Evo II kit fitted.”

“我不完全确定是什么触发了它，但我决定用定制底盘更换后部，因为这不仅看起来更整洁，而且它展示了两个排气消音器，而且看起来不太忙。我们确实尝试过定制 LED 大灯——甚至是 WRC 风格的灯箱——但它们只是让装有 Evo II 套件的汽车过于复杂。”

“The detail on the paint and the turbofans took a little longer, as Rocky’s involvement here led to specific tweaks and changes in order to make it feel like his car. After a bit of deliberating, we quickly reached a point where everyone was happy, and the car looked outrageous. But that was only on our screens. How do we go about making it real?”

“油漆和涡轮风扇的细节花费了更长的时间，因为洛基在这里的参与导致了特定的调整和变化，以使其感觉像他的车。经过一番深思熟虑，我们很快达到了一个大家都很高兴的地步，这辆车看起来离谱。但这只是在我们的屏幕上。我们如何让它成为现实？”

Layin’ Paint, Not Vinyl

What you wouldn’t do is try and paint it, especially considering the 30-plus-year-old car in question didn’t have the greatest paintwork to begin with. It’s not like you could save time by painting only one side of the car white.

而你绝对不会做的就是尝试给它上漆，尤其是考虑到这辆已有 30 多年车龄的车一开始就存在喷漆缺陷——只将汽车的一侧涂成白色并不能节省时间

Clearly, that’s exactly what happened otherwise this chapter would be redundant. But as we’ve laid out several times in this feature already, this isn’t a quick build to be used in some marketing. It’s the hero car; and the only one being built. If that car doesn’t stand up to scrutiny – regardless of what it physically looks like – what does it say about the rest of the product?

显然，这正是发生的事情，否则本章将是多余的。虽然乙烯基不失为便捷的操作，但是正如我们已经在上文中的那样，这并不适用于这个项目：这是一辆封面车，是一辆宣传车；并且是唯一正在建造的。如果那辆车经不起审查——不管它的外观如何——别人会怎么看这整个产品？

Spike’s Vintage Restorations have seen it all over the years; they’ve rectified countless others’ work and their attention to detail goes far beyond what you’d typically expect from a bodyshop. You won’t get a car back with an interior covered in filler dust; every detail matters.Andy, Jay and Chris at Spike’s lived and breathed this car (quite literally) during the transformation. Custom metalwork, fibreglass moulding and paintwork all had to be carried out in-house under complete secrecy to avoid any pre-game leaks of the visuals.

Spike负责喷漆工作。多年来，Spike 的 Vintage Restorations 见证了这一点；他们纠正了无数其他人的工作，他们对细节的关注远远超出了您通常对车身修理厂的期望。您不会得到一辆内部布满填料灰尘的汽车；每一个细节都很重要。在改造过程中，Spike的安迪、杰伊和克里斯对这辆车的生活和呼吸（毫不夸张地说）。定制的金属制品、玻璃纤维成型和油漆工作都必须在完全保密的情况下在内部进行，以避免任何视觉效果提前泄露。

“Black and white might seem like simple colours, but I can’t think of two colours more prone to showing up any overspray, leaks or defects than these two together. I dread to think how much time we spent on the masking alone.”

“黑色和白色似乎是简单的颜色，但我想不出比这两种颜色更容易出现任何过喷、泄漏或缺陷的颜色搭配。我不敢想我们光是在掩蔽上就花了多少时间。”

“Achieving a flawless finish on any paint is tough, so when you then have two opposing colours on the same panel it’s far from straightforward,” Andy explains.

“在任何油漆上实现完美的饰面都很难，尤其当您在同一面板上使用两种相反的颜色时，这远非简单，”安迪解释道。

“The black is always going to have more depth and punch to it, but one of the most obvious challenges is ensuring both colours get an even application between masking. It’s not just the bonnet either; this split goes through the bumper, roof, boot and spoiler, all without any pinstripe or graphics being used to hide the split.”

“黑色总是会给人更强烈的深度感和冲击力，但最明显的挑战之一是确保两种颜色在遮蔽之间得到均匀的应用。这不只是引擎盖；这种分裂贯穿了保险杠、车顶、后备箱和扰流板，所有这些都没有使用任何细条纹或图形来隐藏。”

Speaking of pinstriping, see that text plastered either side of the car? That’s no decal; it was all hand-applied after paint to make the entire process that bit more terrifying. The team enlisted the expert help and steady hand of Simon Clark to turn the Mercedes’ panels into art.

说到细条纹，看到贴在汽车两侧的文字了吗？那不是贴花；而是上漆后全部手工涂抹，使整个过程更加“恐怖”。团队获得了西蒙·克拉克 (Simon Clark)专业而谨慎的帮助，将梅赛德斯的面板变成了艺术品。

Its main existence may be in the virtual world, but this is a real car designed and built by real people.

或许这台车以后大多会在虚拟世界中出现，但我们应当知道：这是一台由真人手工打造的，真实存在的车。

The Grand Reveal With A$AP Rocky

Two months, hundreds of hours and minimal sleep later, Ryan and the team had the 190 E complete and looking damn near identical to the original render. But looking right wasn’t enough; the Merc still had to drive properly. Because its end goal wasn’t to go and sit in a museum for the rest of its life; it was being handed to Rocky. Test driving a car in complete secrecy comes with its own complications, so the cover of darkness was used to keep the build from being seen.

两个月后，经过数百个小时和两个月后，经过数百小时和每天极少的睡眠，Ryan 和团队完成了 190 E，看起来与原始渲染几乎一模一样。但是光看是不够的；190E 必须还能正常驾驶。因为它的最终目标不是去博物馆度过余生；它被交给洛基。在完全保密的情况下试驾汽车本身就有其自身的复杂性，因此团队使用黑暗作为掩护以防止车辆被发现。

With the car driving under its own power and looking the part, the final touches were applied. To put the effort into context, there was two days work in getting the exhaust system and diffuser mounted and aligned correct to the render. Measurements were taken and scaled up to ensure the accuracy.

随着汽车靠自己的动力行驶，带给团队动态的感受，随后接受了最后的润色。为了将努力付诸实践，我们花了两天的时间来安装排气系统和扩散器并使其与渲染图对标，并依此进行了测量，按比例放大。就这样，Ryan 和团队完成了 190 E，看起来与原始渲染几乎一模一样。

Last time we checked, Rocky’s residence isn’t in the Southeast of England. So just a few days after the 190 E’s completion, it was boxed up and loaded on a cargo plane, before being shipped back across the Atlantic to New York. There’s a level of irony here considering Ben did this journey two years earlier, but we promise you he planted even more trees this time.

洛基的住所位于英格兰南部，因此在几天前E190完工后，它很快就被运回大西洋彼岸的纽约。考虑到 Ben 在两年前进行了这次旅行，这里有一定程度的讽刺意味，但我们向你保证他这次种了更多的树。上次我们检查时，Rocky 的住所不在英格兰东南部。因此，就在 190 E 完工几天后，它就被装箱并装上货机，然后被运回大西洋彼岸的纽约。考虑到 Ben 两年前就开始了这次旅行，这里有一定程度的讽刺意味，但我们向你保证，他这次种了更多的树。

The goal? To unveil the car in front of Rocky, whose last visual on the 190 E was the original render created with Bryn all that time ago. No pressure, then.

目标？团队最终在 Rocky 面前揭开这辆车的面纱。要知道，Rocky 在对190 E 上的最终印象还是很久以前与 Bryn 一起创建的原始渲染图。当然，那时，大家都没想到最终产品效果会这么好。

To  say the 190 E went down well is a hell of an understatement, and as  luck would have it, there just so happened to be a video team (and  photographer) on standby to capture Rocky’s reaction. Check it out  below.

这时候，再说 190 E 的效果很好就有些言不达意了。幸运的是，恰好有一个视频团队（和摄影师）待命以捕捉洛基的反应。

Cars are at their best when they have a good story behind them. This could’ve easily been a new car supplied by a manufacturer and built solely as a showpiece, but that simply doesn’t fit with the Need for Speed: Unbound ethos.

当汽车背后有一个好故事时，它们才会处于最佳状态（就像那台M3 GTR）。这本可以很容易地成为制造商提供的新车，并仅作为展示品制造，但这根本不符合《极品飞车：不羁》的精神。

This 190 E lived a hell of a life before its journey into a Need for Speed hero car, and with the keys now belonging to Rocky you can guarantee its journey is far from over.

这辆 190 E 在成为极品飞车封面车之前过着地狱般的生活，现在钥匙属于 Rocky，因此，您可以保证：它的旅程远未结束。