10 Best Cars to Carry the AMG Badge
1. 1971 6.8 SEL
In 1971, Mercedes looked at Alfa Romeo and BMW and decided to offer up a car to race against in European Racing series. That vehicle was a stripped down and tuned executive car with a 6.8-liter engine that was dubbed "The Red Pig" and competed against smaller, lighter models.
The car debuted and went on to clinch second place at the 24 Hours of Spa and became "the world's fastest sedan." The big body bully had a top speed of 142 mph and a zero-to-63 time of 6.3 seconds.
2. 1974 300SL AMG
The 300SL started life in 1954, but one day, Friedrich Fick went to the engineers at Mercedes who were just starting to create the AMG brand and wanted something fast. How fast? Fast enough to crush a Porsche 930 2.7 RS and rub its face in the dirt. Engineers gave the gullwing a 4.5-liter V8 and tuned it to an output of 280 horsepower. Once all the other mods were done, the car was the fastest car in Germany as well as the most expensive.
3. 1984 190E AMG
This may not look like much to an unsuspecting person, but this little bulldog is the car that pushed BMW to produce the M3 as a response. In the 1980s, there were two flavors of this car that were tearing up the DTM series: the Cosworth turned 2.3-16 and the AMG model. Mercedes had a racing ban in effect at the time, so the car had to be sold to private racing teams in order to be put to use. Since this car rolled out of the pit lane, the German Touring Cup Series was never the same.
4. 1986 E56 AMG
Remember The Red Pig from a few slides ago? Here is another colorful nickname for a feisty Merc: the Hammer. How does a car end up becoming the hammer? What does a hammer do? Exactly. Keep in mind that this sedan was in the second part of the 1980s and still said 'hi' to 60 MPH in five seconds flat with a top speed of 178 mph.
Sure, the Countach was sexy and the Testarossa, along with the Porsche Turbo, had bedroom wall appeal, but this modified sedan with a 5.5-liter tuned V8 put out 355 horsepower and 388 pound-feet of torque. Go ahead and think about the numbers that the aforementioned exotics were putting out at the time, and then look up at the mighty Merc again. The Hammer indeed.
5. 1993 C36 AMG
The C36 AMG was Mercedes' return to the performance market and introduced to the world what AMG had to offer for the start of the 1990s. Mercedes looked at the BMW E36 M3 and put forth this tuned six-cylinder, generating 276 horsepower and riding on a racing-tuned suspension. With an unlimited top speed pf 169 MPH and an electronically governed on of 155 MPH, this sedan blew the doors off of nearly everything in its segment that dared to rev against. Not bad for the first car produced with AMG that was now a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz.
6. 1998 SL73 AMG
This car had an amazing engine that many know of but never knew it contained due to low production numbers. The engine known as the M120 was a bored and stroked 7.3-liter V12 that sat inside this mundane looking SL and pushed it to 525 horsepower. A top speed of 186 mph and a zero-to-60 time of 4.8 seconds for these SLs made them an exciting coupe to own, but, unfortunately, Mercedes only produced 85 between 1999 and 2001 before the R230 engine took over. Now, back to the first part of this where I mentioned that many know of this iconic engine. This is because a certain engineer named Horatio Pagani enjoyed the SL73's engine so much he used it for his first car, the Zonda.
7. 1997 CLK GTR
This crazy CLK on steroids started life as a racecar back in 1998 for the FIA GT 1 racing class, but in 1999, the class got cancelled. Well, Mercedes produced 25 of these for street legal purposes of a right-hand drive and outfitted two small trunks with traction control for the sake of safety. This bat-skat crazy car wasn't a hopped up car masquerading as a pseudo racer, but rather it was a straight up racecar that anyone with the financial means could purchase! How fast was this thing that costs the same as a very nice house in the majority of the country? 720 ponies with a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 200 mph!
8. 2003 G55 AMG
Were you expecting another car? Before it was adopted by celebrities and well-off soccer moms, the G-Series was more than capable off-road vehicles that traversed the whole on all sorts of terrain. AMG turned their attention to it and added suspension, brakes, and a big ol 5.4-liter V-8 that puts out 500 horsepower. This winner was a luxury bruiser that is armed with more power than a Ferrari 360 Stradale and can mount the curb if push came to shove, so you have something befitting the apocalypse.
9. 2011 SLS AMG
This car is the first Mercedes designed and hand-built by AMG in-house, as a limited production super car. The car harkens back to the 300SL with its Gullwing doors but with a modern interpretation with SLS an acronym for Sport Slight Super. The SLS had a 6.2-liter V8 that generated 563 horsepower and according to AMG was the world's most powerful naturally-aspirated engine. It graced Mercedes showrooms for four years before it was taken off the market to make room for the last car in our slideshow.
10. 2017 AMG GT S
This newest AMG creation is a boosted 4.0-liter bi-turbo V8 that puts out 510 horsepower and asks 60, "how fast?" in 3.8 seconds. The car is built with lightweight bits and carbon fiber goodies to help this long bonnet sports car to a 47/53 front-to-rear weight rear distribution in pursuit of chasing the Porsche 911. The exhaust note on this thing is pure muscle car meanness and, at wide open throttle, is the stuff of a snarling pissed off behemoth of a dog that you do not want to tangle with!
For information on maintenance, repairs, and modifications, take a stroll throughout how-to section here in MBWorld.