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**The Story of AMG: From Underdogs to Dominance**

In the shadow of Mercedes comes the craziest band of Germans ever. Sorry Rammstein. They're the originators of the bad-ass luxury car and the benchmark to which all sport sedans are measured.

The AMG story begins in the mid 60's when Mercedes engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher started working on a race engine with the development department at Daimler Benz. This race motor would be used in the Mercedes 300 SE sedan, which at the time was the fastest production car in Germany.

But at the track, it was a different story. The stock power of 170 horses was crummy. Oh, James, don't you think you're being a little harsh? No. It was downright crummy. So Melcher fitted the fuel injection system from a 300 SL Gullwing onto the SE's engine, which boosted output to 238 horsepower.

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(tires burning)- Created in a guy's garagein the shadow of Mercedescomes the craziest band of Germans ever.Sorry Rammstein.They're the originatorsof the bad-ass luxury carand the benchmark to whichall sport sedans are measured.They started as underdogswho would later go onto dominate the road and the track.This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on AMG.(fast-paced synth music)The AMG story begins in the mid 60'swhen Mercedes engineersHans Werner Aufrechtand Erhard Melcher startedworking on a race enginewith the developmentdepartment at Daimler Benz.This race motor would be usedin the Mercedes 300 SE sedanwhich at the time was the fastestproduction car in Germany.But at the track, itwas a different story.The stock power of 170 horses was crummy.Oh, James, don't you thinkyou're being a little harsh?No.It was downright crummy.So Melcher fitted thefuel injection systemfrom a 300 SL Gullwingonto the SE's enginewhich boosted output to 238 horsepower.♪ More, more more, more, more("Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol) ♪- Before Aufrecht and MelcherHow many times did you puttheir names in there? (laughs)But before they had a chanceto show off the new engine,Daimler Benz shut down the race team.Scheisse, what to do now?I have a plan.Put the engine under yourshirt and meet me at my house.Under my shirt?Yeah.Okay.I'm not positive that'sexactly how it happenedbut they did work on theengine in their spare time.Back to the story.They put the motor in a 300 SE sedanand entered it in the GermanTouring Car Championship.They didn't have any supportfrom Mercedes, in fact,they weren't even supposedto be working on the car.But the risk payed offbecause their secret race carwent on to win ten races.The next year, Werner left Mercedes.What good was working for a companythat wouldn't let himexpress himself with his art?He asked Erhard to go withhim and Erhard was like,Ja wohl, dude.Ja wohl, a million times, ja wohl.Their names were Aufrecht and Melcher.And they were working atAufrecht's house in Grossaspach.AMG.Their goal was to use what they learnedat the track to make road cars faster.And they weren't saltyabout leaving Mercedes.As far as they were concerned,Mercedes were still the best.AMG's first big project was to turnanother 300 SE sedan into a race car.But this one was different,this one was big.The 300 SEL was Merc'sflagship luxury modelpowered by an enormous6.3 liter V8 engine.Powerful enough to make the 300 SEL thefasted sedan in the world.But the SEL was over 16 feetlong and weighed 3,800 pounds.That's like the same size as my dad.AMG tore the SEL's engine apartand replaced everything inside.Pistons, rockers, a new cam shaft.The new motor now had adisplacement of 6.8 litersand it made 428 horsepower.But the motor wasn't theonly thing they changed.They replaced the doorswith ones made fromaluminum to increase grip.They widened the wheel trackto keep the giant tires from poking out.They gave it fender flares.The 300 SEL orRed Pigmade its debut at the 197124 hours of spa in Belgium.And it blew people's minds,people couldn't believe it.This was a car yourdivorced uncle would driveand it's destroying the real sports cars.It won its class andfinished second overall.AMG had proven they could winwithout the support from Mercedes.After the victory, AMGhad some serious cred.So everyone wanted themto modify their Mercedes.So they did.Through the 70's, AMGbecame the go-to guysif you wanted a bad-ass Merc.And by the 80's, nobody in the worldhad a better reputation than AMG.But in 1986, AMG would drop abomb on the automotive scenein the form of the mostbrutal sedan ever devised.Like the Red Pig before it,AMG took a 300 SE sedan,pulled out that puny six-cylinder engine,and installed a heavily-modified V8.They also tweaked the bodyto be more aerodynamicand aggressive, theyinstalled bigger brakes,and gave it some supercool looking five-spokes.The result was a sedan so menacing,so evil that Darth Vaderhimself would insistthat someone else take the wheel.One auto journalist called AMG's new carabout as subtle as a hammer.It turns out the Germanword for hammer, is hammer.And AMG thought, huh, Ilike the sound of that.Hammer Time.And the rest is history.The AMG Hammer did zeroto sixty in five secondsand it had a top speedof 178 miles an hour.The interior was super nice, it was quiet.And when driving over decent roads,the ride was as smooth as I am.To this day, the Hammer is one of AMG'scrowning achievements.After the Hammer's huge success,Mercedes was like, alright,we should do somethingbefore AMG makes us alllook really, really foolish.So they worked out a contractwith the former employeesso Mercedes could sell AMG carsat their dealerships around the world.("Around the World" by Daft Punk)- The relationship wasn't salty obviously,but Mercedes figured ifsomeone was going to sellbad-ass Benz's, it might as well be Benz.But Mercedes wasn't the onlypartnership that AMG would makeThe Mitzubishi Galant wasa four-door sedan with afour-cylinder and was evenoffered in all-wheel drive.It was basically the Evo before the Evo.(car revving)Mitsubishi hit up AMG tohave them do some workon the Galant and AMG was like, alright,well we usually do V8 stuffbut this could be fun.The Galant AMG was front-wheel driveand, unlike the Evo, naturally aspirated.But it had the same motor, the 4G63.And AMG tuned it toredline at eight grand.They also gave the Galantthe standard AMG treatmentwith body tweaks and new wheels.Only 500 were ever made andall of them were sold in Japan,so (beep) us. (laughs)Back in Germany, the firstcar developed in the newMercedes AMG contractpartnership was the C36 AMG.This new sedan was aimedsquarely at the BMW M3.And even used the straight-six enginelike its Bavarian counterpart.In 1998, the C36 got an upgrade in the C43which returned to AMG's V8 roots.For their entire history, every single oneof AMG's V8 engines has been hand-built.Each of the 250 people currentlyworking at the AMG engineplant has their own set oftools and each craftsmenbuilds one engine at atime from start to finish .They're so good at it thatit only takes them aboutthree hours to complete an engine.- My fingers hurt.- After each engine is built,the final step is placingand individualized placard on the intakewith the engine builder's signature.They sign their (bleed) workbecause they're proud of it.In 1999, Mercedes boughta majority interest in AMGwhich means they were stillfree to do whatever they wantedas long as it was onlyon Mercedes Benz models.One of the first official carsAMG would build for Mercedeswas another racecar forthe road, the CLK GTR.(engine accelerating)The race version was developed in 1997for the FIA GT Championship.And the rules requiredthat 25 road legal carshad to be built.But after two years,the series was canceledand AMG decided to build the cars anyway.The CLK GTR was not powered bya V8 like AMG's previous carsbut a 6.9 liter, (chuckles)69, V12 capable of604 horsepower and a topspeed of 214 miles per hour.After the car endedproduction, Mercedes wouldkeep building the V12 for Paganiwho used it in their Zondaand Huayra supercars.Only one man at AMG iscertified to build it.His workspace is sectionedoff from everybody else.They make him work in alittle room by himself.This is real.He must be going insane.(horn beeping)With the CLK GTR, Hammer,and Red Pig under their belt,AMG had a reputation for building carsthat had a knack for standing out.But what if you wantedsomething to blend in?The 2005 E55 AMG Wagonwas the car for you.It was the ultimate sleeperfrom the outside it looked likeyour typical suburban kid-hauler.The only clues being theAMG and Kompressor badges.But if you looked under the hood,you'd find a hand-built5.4 liter supercharged V8.(tires screeching)Through all of AMG'slife, they stayed trueto their philosophy ofbuilding performance modelsof any Mercedes.Unline BMW's M-divisionwho only focus on cars withlateral agility, like me.What this means is that thereare a ton of AMG versionsof cars you wouldn't expect.Like the R63, a V8 poweredminivan with over 500 horsepower.And the G65,a G-Wagon with a Biturbo V12.There's even an A45 AMG, ahatch-back with 355 horsepowerand all-wheel drive.But the craziest AMG of them all, by far,("Run" by AWOLNATION)The G63 AMG six-by-six.This six-wheeled Behemothweighs in at over 9,000 poundsand rides on 37-inch off-road tires.It was originally developedfor the Australian militarybut some Mercedes VIP'ssaw it in action and saidhey, give that thing a niceinterior and we'll buy some.The six-by-six can go prettymuch anywhere and over anythingIt of course has six-wheel driveand can inflate and deflateits tires depending on conditions.I want one.So what's next for AMG?In the spirit of theRed Pig and the CLK GTR,AMG is once again puttingeverything they've learnedat the track into one car.The Mercedes AMG Project 1.Mercedes has won a FormulaChampionship four times in a rowand to celebrate, their buildingan F1 car for the street.Mercedes says the Project 1will use a drive train andhybrid system whichMercedes claims will make1,000 horsepower.And the steering wheel isn'teven a wheel, it's a rectangle.Because it's a racecar.From modest beginnings buildingengines out of a garagein Germany, to designing themost incredible hyper-car ever.The AMG story is one ofprecision, perserverance,and building absolute sledgehammersout of sophisticated sedans.(bleep) sick.That's everything you need toknow to get up to speed on AMGGo like our page, themore page likes we get,the more cool stuff we get to do.If you wanna buy some merchgo to shop.donut.mediaFollow me on instagram at JamesPumphrey.Follow Donut on instagram at DonutMedia.I love you.(hiccups) Jesus. (laughing)