50 years of Mercedes-AMG
Performance, exclusivity, driving pleasure.
AMG – these three letters stand worldwide for supreme automotive performance, exclusivity, efficiency and highly dynamic driving pleasure. In 2017, the company founded by Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In the course of this half-century, Mercedes-AMG has recorded numerous successes in motor sport and through the development of unique road-going vehicles, thereby repeatedly underlining its position as a highly successful sports car and performance brand – and today this is truer than ever.
One Man, One Engine.
The company from Affalterbach stands worldwide for outstanding engine expertise, which includes not only development, but also the “one man, one engine” philosophy, which means that each engine is, so to speak, hand-crafted by one engine builder. With almost 100,000 units delivered in 2016, i.e. over 40 percent growth, and the biggest strategic model initiative in the company’s history, AMG heads into this anniversary year with record figures under its belt.
On the road to worldwide success.
“We’re on the road to worldwide success with our strategic portfolio expansion and can look back on a sensational year. The 63 series models still constitute our core product line, and they continue to delight auto enthusiasts around the world. In addition, our AMG GT series, which was developed entirely in-house, is now available as a broad-based family, with which we have impressively demonstrated our expertise as a sports car brand.
At the same time, our broad portfolio puts us in the perfect position for further sustained growth. Our task now is not just to celebrate the AMG success story, but, in one of the most exciting periods of automotive history, to help shape the performance of the future,” says Tobias Moers, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes‑AMG GmbH.
Outstanding customer sports season 2016
With a total of 18 overall victories and 32 additional podium finishes, the international customer and performance teams celebrated a sensational season in 2016 with the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. The GT3 racing car got the season off to the ideal start. Following the victory in the ADAC 24‑hour qualification race, in the 24‑hour race at the Nürburgring in late May the new GT3 racing car posted the greatest victory to date since the inception of the AMG customer sports programme, with overall victory, pole position, fastest lap as well as further finishes in second, third, fourth and sixth place now on record in the annals of motor sport.
Milestones of the performance brand
The company, founded by Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, has been fulfilling the dreams of performance enthusiasts for 50 years. They set up their first workshop in an old mill in 1967 as an “engineering office and design and testing centre for the development of racing engines”. In 1971, the AMG 300 SEL 6.8 of “Aufrecht and Melcher, Großaspach” – in short: AMG – claimed victory completely out of the blue in its class and took second place overall in the 24‑hour race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Collaboration with Mercedes-Benz began in 1990. The C 36 AMG, launched in 1993, was the first vehicle on the market to result from the collaboration agreement with Daimler-Benz. In 2005, Mercedes-AMG became a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG and 2009 saw the introduction of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the first vehicle to be developed entirely by Mercedes-AMG. AMG branched into motor racing with the SLS AMG GT3 in 2011. This was followed by the introduction of the Mercedes-AMG GT in 2014 and the launch of the 43 series models in 2015.
Find your Mercedes-AMG model today and join Mercedes-AMG in celebrating half a century of driving performance.
Further information from Mercedes-Benz is available on the internet at: https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/vehicles/50-years-of-mercedes-amg/
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