Mercedes AMG History – Video
AMG started off by designing and testing racing engines. It expanded its business into building custom road cars based upon standard Mercedes cars. The AMG initially produced a range of unofficial upgrade and accessories packages mainly for the Mercedes-Benz R107 and C107, Mercedes-Benz W116, Mercedes-Benz W123, Mercedes-Benz W124, Mercedes-Benz W126 Mercedes-Benz R129 and Mercedes-Benz W201 models.
During the early 1980s and up until 1990, AMG offered a variety of engine performance packages, alloy wheels and styling products as an entirely independent company from Daimler-Benz. In 1990, AMG signed a co-operation agreement with Daimler-Benz, and AMG options and cars were then offered in Mercedes-Benz showrooms; in 1999 Daimler AG, then known as DaimlerChrysler AG, bought the controlling share of AMG and made them part of the official Mercedes-Benz line-up.
Typical AMG performance enhancements, which could all be custom ordered by the buyer, included increased engine displacements (5.2 litre, 5.4 litre), performance top ends which included port and polished heads/intake, lightened valvetrain and more aggressive cams. The DOHC 32V engine had also just been developed and was the pinnacle of AMG performance. A Getrag five-speed manual transmission could be ordered from AMG, and Mercedes had not offered a manual transmission V8 since the early 1970s.
The performance wheels offered during the same period were 15-inch or 16-inch ATS AMG Five Spoke Road Wheels, commonly referred to as Pentas. Penta was actually a UK-based company that supplemented the high demand for the AMG wheel at the time with a replica and only a very slight styling difference, but they were not made or endorsed by AMG. The genuine AMG wheels were often coupled with an AMG performance suspension package which included uprated/lowered springs and revalved shock absorbers.
Another popular cosmetic upgrade were the AMG body kits. These ranged from subtle front spoilers, to an aggressive Wide Body kits for the W126 coupes. Other options included Recaro seats, smaller diameter steering wheels, instrument clusters, chrome delete option (all brightworks colour-coded or painted satin black), refrigerators, shift knobs, hi-fi stereo systems, custom upholstery and enhanced interior wood packages.
The release of the AMG Hammer sedan in 1986, based on the W124 E-Class, took AMG’s performance modifications for a fast midsized sedan to a new level. AMG made the world’s fastest passenger sedan at the time, nicknamed the Hammer, by squeezing Mercedes 5.6-litre V8 tuned by AMG to 360 hp into a midsized sedan. It was very aggressive for the era, with 32-valve cylinder heads and twin camshafts, and said to be faster than the Lamborghini Countach from 60 to 120 mph. Later models were even more powerful and introduced the 17-inch AMG Aero 1 Hammer wheels. 1986 was also the year Mercedes introduced the 560 M117 engine. This provided yet another opportunity for customers to order the largest AMG displacement available at the time, the 6L 100 mm bore SOHC or DOHC engines available for both the W126 coupe and sedans.
Through the early 2000s, AMG focused principally on supercharged V8 and V6 engines, but the company officially abandoned this technology in 2006 with the introduction of the naturally aspirated 6.2 L M156 V8. On 16 January 2006, Mercedes-AMG Chairman Volker Mornhinweg told AutoWeek that the company would use turbocharging for higher output rather than supercharging. For 2011, AMG released the M157 5.5L biturbo V8 which has supplanted the M156 in its full-sized cars such as the S-Class and CL-Class (and is trickling down to the CLS, E-Class and ML-class). In 2012, Mercedes-AMG Chairman Olla Kallenius said that Mercedes-AMG will not produce diesel engines to compete with BMW’s tri-turbo diesels (BMW M Performance range).