Mercedes-AMG history in 11 minutes

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Donut Media has made a very comprehensive movie about the history of Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes sports car division. You can see here the full movie.

AMG was founded as a racing engine forge in 1967 under the name AMG Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft GmbH by former Mercedes-Benz engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Mechler in Burgstall an der Murr, near Stuttgart.

The letters “AMG” stand for Aufrecht, Melcher and Grossaspach (Aufrecht’s birth town). In 1976 most of AMG moved to Affalterbach, with the racing-engine development remaining at the old location in Burgstall. At this time Erhard Melcher ceased to be a partner, but continued to be an employee at the Burgstall location.

In 1993, Daimler-Benz AG and AMG signed a contract of cooperation, allowing AMG to leverage Daimler-Benz’s extensive dealer network and leading to commonly developed vehicles.

On 1 January 1999 DaimlerChrysler, as it was called between 1998 and 2007, acquired 51 percent of AMG shares, and AMG was renamed to Mercedes-AMG GmbH.

Aufrecht set up a new company for the development of the racing engines.  It was named HWA after Aufrecht initials and is located in older location from Burgstall.

On 1 January 2005 Aufrecht sold his remaining shares to DaimlerChrysler, and since then Mercedes-AMG GmbH has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG.

In 2003, Mercedes-AMG started to build its own models. The first one was the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren developed by Mercedes-Benz and McLaren Automotive  built by McLaren in Woking, Surrey and sold from 2003 to 2010. When it was developed, German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz owned 40 percent of the McLaren Group. It was available as a coupe and roadster.
In 2009, AMG has launched the second own model – Mercedes SLS AMG – the successor of the SLR. On September 4,2015, AMG present the AMG GT, the successor of the SLS AMG, while at Geneva Motor Show in March 2018, AMG unveiled the rival for the Porsche Panamera. It is named Mercedes-AMG GT 4 door coupe.

Supplier for others small series luxury carmakers

Mercedes-AMG also provides engines for Pagani Zonda and Huayra. The engines used are variants of the M120 7,291 cc displacement V12 engine originally used in the 1995 SL 73 AMG.  The M120 is the largest displacement naturally aspirated engine provided by AMG and is now exclusively used by Pagani.

On July 25, 2013, Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd and Daimler AG signed a technical partnership which allows Aston Martin to use the Mercedes-AMG 4.0 liter V8 bi-turbo engine and the electronic architecture for the new generation of Aston models, DB11 and Vantage.