The origin of AMG
Let's go back in time, it is June 11 and we are at the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1955, 2 hours and 20 minutes have already passed since the start of the race and Pierre Levegh, an experienced French driver, is driving his Mercedes 300 SLR, when suddenly, he goes off the track at the entrance to the pit straight.
The engine and bridge of the Mercedes 300 SLR are ejected, impacting the public, leaving 83 people dead, including Pierre Levegh, who lies on the floor of the circuit a few meters from his wife, who witnesses everything.
Another 82 people will be injured; We are facing the most serious accident in the history of motorsports.
Time magazine of the time describes the accident of June 11, 1955 in the following way: uA strip of three hundred square meters of spectators cheering the pilots became a mass of hysterical and black horror.
The 24 1955 Hours of Le Mans race would later be known as “The Death Race.”
This tragedy, together with that of Alberto Ascari at the Monza circuit, in which the driver lost his life just 2 days before, It meant the withdrawal of Mercedes from the competition and the temporary ban on racing in France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. He also forced the adoption of a series of security measures that did not exist to date.
The birth of AMG
The change in safety measures was accompanied by a modification in the regulations and in the way of homologating cars, at which time Mercedes-Benz took the opportunity to focus on its street cars and increase sales of its vehicles.
The news affected all members of the Daimler-Benz racing team, especially Hans-Werner Aufrecht, dyno specialist in the racing department, and Erhard Melcher from the testing and development department.
In 1964, Mercedes definitively left the world of racing, but Aufrecht and Melcher continue working on weekends and at the end of their workdays, preparing the Mercedes.
What does AMG mean?
The “A” refers to Aufrecht, the “M” is for Melcher and finally, the “G” refers to Aufrecht's birthplace; Grossaspach.
From the street to the circuit
The first AMG was assembled in a private garage.
The first AMG in history was born in Aufrecht's private garage. It was a Mercedes-Benz 300 SE; a very heavy vehicle, but with a large engine.
Aufrecht and Melcher got to work with what they knew how to do best and between them, they managed to extract about 6 HP more power from that large 50-cylinder engine.
After achieving an increase in power through new camshafts, which allowed it to modify the opening time of the valves, thus increasing the revolutions from 6.200 to 7.200 rpm and with 238 HP; The Mercedes 300 SE by Aufrecht and Melcher was presented in the 1965 German Touring Car Championship as the most powerful car in the championship.
It was a Mercedes that had increased power, but the rest of the components remained standard.
The car would be driven by Manfred Schiek, former Mercedes-Benz official driver, who would win the touring car championship winning all ten races.
As expected, there was a buzz about the victories that Manfred Schiek had won together with his Aufrecht and Melcher Mercedes 300 SE. At that time it did not yet exist AMG as a company and the facilities they had had become too small. Therefore, at the beginning of 1967 Aufrecht and Melcher left their jobs at Daimler-Benz and moved to an old mill in the town of Burgstall where they modified the Mercedes of a privileged few.
Later in 1978, seeing that the old Burgstall mill was becoming too small, Aufrecht and Melcher moved to Affalterbach where AMGs from all over the world are still manufactured today (except G63).
“The Red Pig” fame
AMG had just been born and as expected, Aufrecht and Melcher continued modifying Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The truth is that at first it was not seen very well by Mercedes, until it led to an increase in their sales.
World fame came to them thanks to the well-known car called the “Cerdo Rojo” or “The Red Pig”, nicknamed after its owner, a millionaire who wanted to transform his Mercedes-Benz W109 300 SEL 6.3L. in a racing vehicle.
Back at 24h. on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit
It was 1972. Aufrecht and Melcher had returned to their origins, but this time, on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
They were going to run 24 hours with the nicknamed “Red Pig”, a Mercedes 300 SEL 6.8L AMG, on a private team.
Aufrecht and Melcher had made modifications to the engine to achieve greater performance, going from the original 6.3L engine to the 6.8L, but this time and thanks to a larger budget, they were able to adorn it with aerodynamic design elements, which gave the car a greater grip.
Being a heavy car, what was sought was to lighten it so that it could keep up with its rivals. For this reason, the rear seats were removed and aluminum doors were installed, which considerably reduced the weight of the large luxury saloon.
The car went from 1.700 kg in weight to 1.500 kg, with that weight, the “Red Pig” could already face its rivals, although most of them were between 800 and 1.200 kg in weight. Its best asset was the engine to which new pistons, camshafts, rocker arms were installed and the automatic transmission was changed to a 5-speed manual. All this meant that the Mercedes-Benz engine delivered a total power of 427 HP and 600 Nm of torque. Figures that even today are difficult to achieve with street vehicles.
As a curious fact, the interior elements of the vehicle such as the wood and moldings were maintained, including the power steering and the comfortable suspension of the sedan.
Its interior was only distinguished from the rest of the street vehicles due to the buckets and the roll cage that had been installed to comply with the regulations.
The track width was also increased and covered with much wider wheel arches that allowed larger wheels to be accommodated, providing the Mercedes Red Pig AMG greater grip in corners.
The strategy of Aufrecht and Melcher
On the other hand, the brakes Red Pig AMG They were still the standard ones, which did not help maintain the pace of the race. Even so, Aufrecht and Melcher knew that the Spa-Francorchamps circuit had very long straights, which allowed them to cool the brakes before reaching the curve, while its large, boosted engine was responsible for producing the delights that every driver wants in his racing car.
The qualifying days arrived and, after a major blow the previous day of training in which a large part of the Mercedes AMG, the pilots in charge of taking “The Red Pig” to the finish line achieved a well-deserved 5th position in the qualifying round.
AMG's race to success
Clemens Schikentanz and Hans Heyer were in charge of piloting the Mercedes “Cerdo Rojo” or Rote Sau, as he was known to the spectators of the circuit due to his lanky appearance. They started from 5th position but immediately began to set the pace of the race, finishing in second position behind the Ford Capri RS 2600 driven by Dieter Glemser and Alex Soler-Roig.
All the media echoed the news; The huge red Mercedes sedan that everyone was talking about, and not exactly well, had achieved second position in the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Never before has a second position so overshadowed the 24-hour champion. Even today, it is believed that the Mercedes AMG Rote Sau He could have finished in first position if it had not been for the exaggerated consumption of his 6.8-liter engine and the constant stops he had to make in the pits to refuel and change tires.
What happened to the Mercedes Rote Sau?
Sadly, after his sporting career, Mercedes AMG Red Pig It was sold to an aircraft company.
Being one of the fastest cars in the world, the aviation company used it to test its landing gears at high speed, dropping them through holes in the ground. Logically, in a short time, The Mercedes AMG Rote Sau was unusable.
Mercedes-AMG today
AMG was absorbed in 2005 by Mercedes and since then it has not stopped presenting and evolving its new vehicles, aimed at an exclusive audience willing to have the sensations of a racing car without sacrificing luxury and comfort.
The Mercedes-AMG They continue to be assembled in the Affalterbach factory, which today has some of the best facilities in the automotive world and under the motto of “One Man One Engine”; one man one engine. That is, each engine has been assembled from start to finish by the same operator.
Mercedes-AMG Gt-R c190 Rote Sau
The legend continues at AMG when in 2019 it was decided to make the updated version of the Red sow commemorating what Aufrecht and Melcher developed as a result of their passion towards Mercedes-Benz.
The latest member of the Mercedes-AMG family
The new Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, The saga continues after the last Black Series was created in 2011; the Mercedes-Benz SLS Black Series.
The Black Series are AMG's most radical vehicles, vehicles that are manufactured in limited units, very exclusive and that have a single purpose; be the fastest on the circuit.
It's been almost 10 years and Mercedes-AMG has once again delighted us with this Mercedes-AMG Gt Black Series, a vehicle loaded with active aerodynamics, which draws directly from the GT3 competition cars.
With its 730CV engine we are facing the fastest AMG in history.
How the future looks at AMG
For the automobile industry, it is evident that vehicles are moving towards low-consumption engines due to legislation and for high-performance brands like AMG it is no exception.
For this reason, Mercedes-AMG has installed 4 electric motors in its new Project One that meet the power needs of the 1,6-liter combustion engine. Reaching around 1000 HP of combined power.
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