Mercedes AMG in Miami, Florida
The high performance division of Mercedes-Benz, AMG was started back in 1967 by Hans-Werner Aufrecht and his partner Erhard Melcher. The name "AMG" came about by taking the first letter of each man's last name and the first letter of Aufrecht's hometown, Grossaspach. Originally based in an old mill in Burgstall, AMG was exclusively meant to be a Mercedes-Benz independent racing and tuning firm, using the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE sedan as the framework for building racing cars and pitting them in European touring car races, but eventually grew to be much more.
In 1971, their first real success came in the 24-hour race at Spa in Belgium when they finished first in their class and second place overall, thanks to a customized Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 with an AMG 6.9-liter engine. But this success was only the beginning. AMG won dozens of races from 1980 to 2005, easily cementing itself a track record that is the envy of other car developers. In the wake of the 1971 win, AMG began offering the European market, among others, high-performance tuning and individualization available in production motorcars, not just in motorsports vehicles. They quickly earned a reputation as the foremost Mercedes-Benz "tuner" worldwide. The 1970s and 80s saw AMG put out a collection of special high-performance models featuring fully developed packages that included AMG light-alloy wheels, chassis and brakes adjustment, powerful altered Mercedes engines, wide tires, and more. Eventually, AMG came to America in 1995 with the release of the C36 AMG. Of course, it and following AMG models were a huge hit in the United States, which is why, with an over 40 percent share, the U.S. is now AMG's largest market worldwide.
Today, AMG has become its own self-contained entity, one that employs around 600 employees at its 426,000 square-foot facility and supplies its worldwide customer base with a wide range of elite, factory-developed, high-performance motorcars. AMG controls all facets in regards to its vehicles: development, testing, marketing, and everything in between, though Mercedes-Benz facilities do share some parts of vehicle manufacture with AMG. One-hundred legendary engines a day are produced in the AMG engine factory, all which power the entire series of Mercedes-AMG vehicles and continue to power the success of AMG, now and into the future.
|
