Slide of
When Mercedes made one of its occasional withdrawals from motorsport in the mid 1960s, engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher decided to leave the company and set up one of their own.
They called it AMG, using the initial letters of their surnames and that of Aufrecht’s birthplace - the town of Grossaspach in south-west Germany. AMG first set up shopfive miles away in Burgstall An Der Murr.
AMG quickly built up a tremendous reputation for building engines, running race cars and offering performance and cosmetic parts for Mercedes products. The relationship between the two firms was always close, and nowadays they are back together, AMG being the performance division of Mercedes. Here we look at some of the memorable cars they have developed:
- Slide of
The Red Sow
No article about AMG, even one with an emphasis on its road cars, would be complete without a mention of a very special 300 SEL unkindly nicknamed the Red Sow. AMG developed the car for racing, among other things enlarging its V8 engine from an already hefty 6.3 litres to 6.8 and raising its power output from 247bhp to 422bhp; this was very helpful on the long straights of Spa-Francorchamps.
Hans Heyer and Clemens Schickentanz drove it to second in the 1971 24-hour race there, three laps behind the winning Ford Capri RS2600 but 19 ahead of the third-placed Alfa Romeo.
(2006 reconstruction of the original car pictured.)
- Slide of
The Hammer
It wasn’t AMG’s first complete road car, but the Hammer is arguably the one which brought the company to worldwide attention. Based on the Mercedes 300E, it used a V8 engine normally found in the larger S-Class and available in sizes of up to 6.0 litres.
AMG developed its own four-valve cylinder head, increasing the power output to 355bhp and making the Hammer capable of travelling at around 180mph, an astonishing speed for a saloon car of the 1980s.
- Slide of
190E 3.2 AMG
The first AMG car to be sold through Mercedes dealerships was a version of the 190E. AMG was very closely involved with the 2.5-litre 190Es which competed in the German Touring Car Championship (Klaus Ludwig, pictured, using one to win the title in 1992), but its road-going version had a very different engine.
This was a 3.2-litre six-cylinder unit producing 231bhp, enough for the car to be nicknamed Baby Hammer, though it's now regarded as being more of a refined cruiser than the name suggests.
- Slide of
C 36 AMG
AMG and Mercedes signed a co-operation agreement in 1990, and three years later the first car jointly developed by them went on sale.
The C 36 AMG was a C-Class with the six-cylinder M104 engine expanded to 3.6 litres and officially producing a maximum of 276bhp, though it's said that power outputs were sometimes higher than that.
- Slide of
C 43 AMG
The C 36 was replaced by the C 43, the first C-Class to be fitted with a V8 engine. The 4.3-litre unit (a size you could guess from AMG’s naming policy at the time) produced 302bhp, more than the contemporary 3.0-litre BMW M3 could give you but less than the later 3.2-litre version.
BMW offered the M3 with manual transmission, which wasn’t available in the C 43. On the other hand, the C 43 was the only of the two you could buy with an estate body.
- Slide of
CLK-GTR
Bernd Schneider and the AMG-Mercedes team won the Drivers and Teams titles in the 1997 FIA GT Championship, an extraordinary performance since AMG was commissioned to build the CLK-GTR race cars as late as 5 December 1996.
A total of 25 examples of a road-going CLK-GTR, known as the Strassenversion, had to be manufactured to comply with homologation rules. They were slightly less powerful, but since the 6.9-litre M120 V12 engine had a maximum output of 604bhp, nobody could complain about their performance.
- Slide of
SL AMG
The first AMG derivative of the SL roadster was the 6.0-litre 376bhp SL 60 featuring a V8 powertrain. This was discontinued when the SL was facelifted in 1998. The following year, just after DaimlerChrysler took a 51% stake in AMG, the car was replaced by two separate models.
The SL 55 was another V8, this time slightly smaller and less powerful at 349bhp, but the SL 73 (pictured) was a real monster - in European terms at least. Its 7.3-litre M297 V12 produced 518bhp at first (though there was a lot more to come), and would later be used in many versions of the Pagani Zonda.
- Slide of
E 55
AMG developed several derivatives of the E-Class in the 1990s. In October 2002, around the time the company’s facility in Affalterbach (just three miles from its original home in Burgstall) was being expanded, the most powerful yet went on sale.
Its supercharged 5.4-litre V8 produced 469bhp, about the same as the Ferrari F40 produced a decade earlier. The E 55’s replacement was the E 63 of 2006, which was taken down a different route. The supercharger had gone, but capacity increased to 6.2 litres and maximum power was now 507bhp.
- Slide of
The diesel
Announced at the same time as the E 55 but launched slightly later in February 2003, the C 30 was that rarest of things: a diesel-fuelled AMG.
It produced 228bhp, which wasn’t bad for a 3.0-litre diesel of the time and very close to the output of the 190 E 3.2, but it didn’t sell well and was quickly dropped.
- Slide of
C 55
AMG became a wholly-owned subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler on 1 January 2005. At around that time, the C 32 was replaced by the C 55. As with the E-Class, a supercharged engine gave way to a naturally aspirated one, while the capacity of the earlier 349bhp 3.2-litre V6 was dwarfed by that of the new 362bhp 5.4-litre V8.
But there was more to it than that. “The C 55,” we said at the time, “marks a small, but perceptible, shift towards a sharper, more sporting focus that sets it closer to the BMW M3 than any previous AMG hotrod C-Class.”
- Slide of
R 63
This was what we described in 2007 as the “improbable union” of the six-seat Mercedes R-Class MPV and the 503bhp 6.2-litre M156 V8, the first engine designed from scratch by AMG. It would later win the Performance category in the International Engine of the Year awards in both 2009 and 2010.
With a 0-62mph time of 5.0 seconds and a top speed limited to 155mph, the R 63 was extremely quick for its size. We were impressed by it on autobahns, though less happy about its “roll-prone handling and lurid understeer in the wet”.
- Slide of
SLS
A heavily modified derivative of the M156 known as the M159 was fitted to the SLS, the first car completely designed by what was now known as Mercedes-AMG.
For the 2013 Black Series (pictured), the M159 was uprated even further to produce 622bhp with no increase in its 6.2-litre capacity. We reckoned it was hard work to drive, but added that in the right conditions “it offers an experience unlike that of any other car on the road today”.
- Slide of
SLS Electric Drive
The most powerful SLS, and indeed the most powerful AMG road car to date, was the Electric Drive. As its name suggests, it was driven by four electric motors with a total output of 740bhp.
Although it weighed 2110kg, half a tonne more than other any other SLS, it could still accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds. In June 2013 it set what was then the fastest lap time for an electric car – 7 minutes 56.234 seconds - on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
- Slide of
G-Class
Mercedes has been building the boxy G-Class off-roader since 1979, which has given AMG plenty of opportunity to create high-powered versions.
The most extreme was the G 65 AMG Final Edition (pictured), whose 6.0-litre twin turbo V12 engine produced 621bhp. The current G 63 runs it fairly close at 577bhp despite having a much smaller 4.0-litre V8.
- Slide of
M-Class
AMG first produced a derivative of the M-Class SUV in 1999. That year’s ML 55 had a 5.4-litre V8 engine producing 342bhp - very high for the time.
The 2007 ML 63 (pictured), however, was much faster, thanks to its 6.2-litre M156 V8, but even this model was eclipsed by the next-generation ML 63 of 2012, which had the 5.5-litre twin turbo V8. The standard car had 518bhp, but the AMG Performance package raised this to 549bhp and brought the 0-62mph time down to 4.7 seconds.
- Slide of
Early A 45
While it’s easy to think of AMG as specialising in large engines, a little 2.0-litre four-cylinder is one of its most impressive yet.
The award-winning M133, based on the Mercedes M270, appeared in the A 45 and equivalent CLA and GLA models in 2012 with a very impressive 355bhp output which was raised a couple of years later to 375bhp.
- Slide of
Current A 45
The M133’s successor, the M139, is even stronger. It’s available with two outputs, the higher being 416bhp. Along with four-wheel drive and a twin-clutch semi-automatic gearbox, this helps to give the A45 S a 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds.
Among engines of this size and type, only one with more power, fitted to 40 examples of the Mitsubishi Evo X sold in the UK in 2014, has been used in a production car.
- Slide of
AMG GT
After the SLS, the second car developed entirely by Mercedes-AMG is the AMG GT. Mercedes described its 4.0-litre M178 twin turbo V8 engine as all-new, but also noted its close relationship with the four-cylinder M133. Power outputs range from 456bhp to 577bhp in the GT R and GT R Pro (pictured).
GT3 versions, intended for competition use only, are fitted with the 6.2-litre M159 naturally aspirated V8 from the SLS.
- Slide of
A 35
Launched in 2018, the A 35 is effectively a junior version of the A 45. The engine is still a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo, but its power output is 302bhp.
Not many years ago, this would have been a fantastic figure for a hot hatch, but it now seems relatively ordinary. It also contributes to the A 35’s status as the entry-level car among current AMG models.
- Slide of
AMG 43 range
The C 43 saloon, estate, coupé and cabriolet – along with equivalent models in the GLC, GLE and SLC ranges – are all fitted with a 3.0-litre turbo V6 which in nearly every case produces up to 395bhp.
It’s toned down slightly for the GLC (pictured), which has the highest centre of gravity by some margin. Its maximum output is 362bhp.
- Slide of
AMG 53 range
Although the numbering seems to have gone in the wrong direction, the M276 was replaced by the M256, another 3.0-litre turbo but this time with its six cylinders arranged in a straight line.
The E 53, in all four body styles, and the CLS 53 coupé (pictured) share this engine and a four-wheel drive system. The power output from the engine alone is 429bhp, but an extra 21bhp is available from an electric device which also acts as both the starter and the alternator.
- Slide of
AMG 63 range (5.5 litres)
For several years, the standard engine in 63 range cars was a 5.5-litre twin turbo V8, but this has now been replaced entirely by the 4.0-litre.
At the time of writing, there are references online to the 5.5-litre SL 63 roadster still being on sale, but Mercedes has confirmed that it is no longer available to order.
- Slide of
AMG 63 range (4.0 litres)
The 4.0-litre V8 now appears in all other 63 range models.
Power outputs are 503bhp in the C 63 and GLC 63, 577bhp in the G-Class and 604bhp in the E-Class pictured here (which has an official 0-62mph time of just 3.4 seconds) and S-Class. The GLE 63 AMG has been temporarily discontinued during a facelift but will be back on the market with the same engine later in 2020.
- Slide of
AMG 65 range
AMG’s 6.0-litre twin turbo V12 was a remarkable engine producing well over 600bhp and latterly fitted to the S 65 saloon, coupé and cabriolet variants of the S-Class.
As with the SL 63 mentioned previously, there is some confusion about these cars. They are still referred to in some places as being on sale, but this is no longer true.
- Slide of
Mercedes-AMG One
The One is, for the moment, a prototype with a detuned version of the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine used by the Mercedes F1 team.
Revving to 11,000rpm, it produces around 670bhp on its own, but electric motors take the total to over 1000bhp.
Close
