Take a lap through the complete illustrated history of the powerful Mercedes-AMG, from the Red Pig racer to today’s 1063-plus horsepower Mercedes-AMG ONE.For decades Mercedes-Benz was known primarily as a builder of luxury sedans, grand touring coupes, and handsome roadsters. But racers like its 1950s Silver Arrows and the stunning 300SL were reminders that performance lurked in its DNA, never far below the surface. Wanting to set that performance free, two former Mercedes-Benz engineers, Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, teamed up in 1967 to focus on building M-B-based racing machines.
Mercedes-AMG recounts the unlikely, amazing story of how they remade a stodgy Benz sedan into the all-conquering Red Pig racer and thus launched one of Germany’s greatest high-performance car companies: AMG.
Considerable success in endurance and touring-class competition led AMG to a second business modifying production Mercedes-Benzes for enthusiast customers. By the 1980s, AMG was designing and building high-performance engine assemblies allowing them to modify M-B engines to previously unknown levels of performance. Thus were born legendary cars like the AMG Hammer.
Mercedes was well aware of AMG’s success, and in 1990 a formal arrangement was made between the two companies leading to jointly developed performance cars sold and serviced through M-B dealerships. In 2005, M-B purchased AMG outright, leading to the creation of Mercedes-AMG, the high-performance arm of the company.
Mercedes-AMG covers the full history of these German powerhouse cars, including:
- Early racing exploits in the 1960s
- The iconic Hammer and Black Series cars
- Today’s exclusive, high-performance Mercedes-AMG models ranging from the 420hp A45 hatchback to the 680hp C63 station wagon to the outrageous 1063hp Mercedes-AMG ONE
- Prototypes, racing, and special models
This beautifully illustrated volume belongs on every Mercedes enthusiast’s shelf.
The Mercedes-Benz W201 was a compact saloon designed to address both concerns about fuel economy generated by the first oil crisis in the 1970s and competition for sales from the BMW 3 Series.
Many doubted that Mercedes could deliver a compact car whilst retaining their traditional qualities. But the W201 soon won them over, for here was a car that was a real Mercedes in the tradition of the time - it was just smaller. With around 200 photographs, this book features the reasons behind the need to build a new compact saloon in the 1980s and the styling, engineering and specification changes introduced over the lifetime of the model. Full technical specifications, including paint and interior trim choices are given. A chapter on the special US variants along with production tables and vehicle number sequences and, finally a chapter on buying an owning a 201-series Mercedes.
