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Mercedes-AMG

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Mercedes-AMG is the tuning arm of the Mercedes-Benz car company. Mercedes-Benz acquired AMG in 1999 as a wholly owned subsidary. Production climbed from 500 cars a year to 20,000 AMG vehicles in 2005 (half of which were delivered to the United States).

AMG or Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach was founded in 1967 as AMG Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (AMG Engine Production and Development, Ltd.) by former Mercedes engineers Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher in a town near Stuttgart called Großaspach.

An early version of the AMG Emblem
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An early version of the AMG Emblem

Contents

Overview

AMG started off by designing and testing racing engines. They expanded their business into building bespoke road cars, based upon standard Mercedes cars.

By the early 1980s, AMG had moved to nearby located in Affalterbach under the sole ownership of Aufrecht. Erhard Melcher stayed at the second location, a former mill in Burgstall, to deliver engine parts.

Mainly for the modern Mercedes-Benz W126 and Mercedes-Benz W201 models, AMG was producing a range of unofficial upgrade and accessories packages, although there were no official tie-ups until the mid '80s, when AMG started to supply the company with aftermarket alloy wheels and styling products.

To take advance of the DTM race successes, official AMG-Mercedes models were developed in the 1990s. Since the Mercedes-Benz takeover, AMG sales have risen over 500%.

AMG also provides safety cars for the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Racing

Mercedes AMG DTM car (2003)
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Mercedes AMG DTM car (2003)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, AMG entered the big Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 V8 sedan in the Spa 24 Hours and the European Touring Car Championship.

AMG and Mercedes worked together on Mercedes-Benz W201 cars for the 1988 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM, German Touring Car Championship). AMG was made the official partner.

In order to retain a small dedicated racing team, H.W.A GmbH was founded by H.-W. Aufrecht in 1999. Their first car was the ill-fated Mercedes-Benz CLR. Since 2000, HWA builds and runs the cars for Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM).

Six successive lightly modified Mercedes-Benz AMG models (including, most recently, an SLK 55) have acted as the official Safety Cars of the F1 racing series.

Models

Through the early 2000s, AMG focused on supercharged engines, but the company officially abandoned this technology in 2006 with the introduction of the M156 V8. On January 16, 2006, Mercedes-AMG Chairman Volker Mornhinweg told AutoWeek that the company would use turbocharging for higher output rather than supercharging.[link]

Current AMG models

A rare 2006 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG
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A rare 2006 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG

All AMG engines are hand built using a "one man, one engine" philosophy at the current AMG plant in Affalterbach, Germany. To signify this, each AMG engine builder stamps the engines they produce with an engraved plaque depicting their signature.

As part of the official Mercedes product line, the AMG models are sold side-by-side with regular production models, unlike those offered by other Mercedes tuning firms such as Brabus.

55

The main engine is a 5.4 L V8 unit, designated the M113, that carries the "55" designation. However, this engine comes in two configurations. AMG will phase out both the naturally aspirated and supercharged 5.4 L engines in favor of the new M156 V8 beginning in 2006.

Mercedes SLK 55 AMG (R171)
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Mercedes SLK 55 AMG (R171)

65

AMG also produces a 612hp, 6.0 L V12 engine with twin turbochargers - designated with the "65" badge.

DTM

63

AMG developed its own V8 engine (dubbed M156 in development) for the DTM series. This naturally aspirated V8 will also be used to replace most of the "55" models. The published output according to Mercedes varies from 481 PS (474 hp/354 kW) to 514 PS (506 hp/378 kW)

Previous AMG models

In addition to the models listed below, there were also predecessors to the current AMG models. All utilized either the current M113 5.5 L normally aspirated Single Overhead-Cam V8, or a previous version of it. These models included:

Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG
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Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG

Other previous AMG models include:

30

See also

External Links


Automobile Engineering (Tuning) companies
Australian companies: FPV | HSV | Tickford
Belgian companies: Gillet
British companies: Prodrive
Danish companies: Kleemann
French companies: Renault Sport
German companies: Abt Sportsline | AC Schnitzer | Alpina | AMG | BMW M | BRABUS | Carlsson | Gemballa | Hartge | Irmscher | PPI Automotive Design | Reiger | RUF | Steinmetz
Italian companies: Racing Dynamics
Japanese companies: Autech | HKS | Mazdaspeed | MINE'S | Mugen | Nismo | Ralliart | Spoon | STI | TRD | Veilside
Swiss companies: Rinspeed
US companies: GM Cadillac V-Series | GMPD | RDSport | lingenfelter | RENNtech | Saleen | SRT | SVT
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