Mercedes-AMG

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AMG logo
AMG logo

Mercedes-AMG is the tuning arm of the Mercedes-Benz car company. Mercedes-Benz acquired AMG in 1999. 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.

"AMG" is an acronym that stands for: Hans Werner Aufrecht (A) and Eberhard Melcher (M) were partners, while Aufrecht’s birthplace of Großaspach (G) supplied the third letter in the company name.

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

Contents

[edit] 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 advantage 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.

[edit] Racing

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

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, AMG entered the big Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 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.

[edit] Relationship with Pagani

AMG also provides engines for the Pagani Zonda supercar. The engines used are variants of the M120 V12 originally used in the SL73 AMG. The M120 is the largest displacement naturally-aspirated engine provided by AMG and is now exclusively used by Pagani.

[edit] Models

Through the early 2000s, AMG focused on supercharged engines (with the exception of the V12 used in the Pagani Zonda), 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.[1]

[edit] Current AMG models

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.

[edit] 55

W211 E55 AMG
W211 E55 AMG
W211 E55 AMG
W211 E55 AMG

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.

  • The first configuration is found in the C55 AMG, CLK55 AMG and SLK55 AMG is a naturally aspirated V8 with 360 PS (355 hp/265 kW).
  • The other configuration is a similar unit but with a highly efficient Lysholm type supercharger manufactured by IHI, found in the rest of the AMG 55 models. The published output according to Mercedes varies from 476 PS (469 hp/350 kW) to 517 PS (509 hp/380 kW) depending on various methods of power measurements and different ECU programming for national legislations.

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)
Mercedes SLK 55 AMG (R171)
A rare 2006 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG
A rare 2006 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG

[edit] 65

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

[edit] DTM

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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
Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG

Other previous AMG models include:

Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG
Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG

[edit] 30

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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