AFFALTERBACH, GERMANY — Anyone with a drop of motor oil in their blood knows AMG is the performance arm of Mercedes-Benz.

A Benz with the AMG badge on the trunk lid is to be respected and revered.

A lot of clever engineering ensures that not only does that particular vehicle have a great deal more power than its ‘ordinary’ counterpart, it has the brakes, suspension and steering upgrades to match.

The three German luxury car makers have been engaged in a decades-long battle for performance supremacy.

Each of the companies has a dedicated subsidiary that develops modifications to everything from the engine to interior trim items — but performance is ALWAYS at the heart of the upgrades.

Audi has a series of RS models developed by its Quattro GmbH subsidiary since the mid ’90s, the first to make it across the Atlantic was the current TT RS.

BMW’s in-house tuning division is M Technik, or just M, as it has appeared on numerous BMWs for four decades.

AMG was the first of the bunch and is currently celebrating its 45th year of engineering mobile masterpieces.

AMG began in 1967 when two Mercedes engineers, Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher quit the company and formed their own race shop.

AMG stood for Aufrecht, Melcher and Grobaspach — Melcher’s birthplace. They began by developing racing engines and were getting into developing upgraded road cars when success struck — literally overnight.

The tiny little company entered a modified 6.3-litre Mercedes 300 SEL in the 24 Hours of Spa race.

Racers and spectators alike laughed at this gigantic block of a sedan — but Hans and Erhard had the last laugh. The Red Pig as it had been nicknamed not only won its class but placed second overall.

The big sedan obviously had prodigious and reliable power, it also shocked the competition with its braking and handling. AMG achieved instant recognition and admiration.

By 1976 the small company had moved most of its operations from Stuttgart to this small community about 30 minutes away.

In 1986 AMG made modifications to an E-Class sedan that allowed ‘the Hammer,’ as it was dubbed by the media, to reach a top speed of 303 km/hr.

By 1990 AMG was offering a range of engine, wheel, and styling packages to Mercedes owners. An agreement was reached between AMG and Daimler-Benz at that time resulting in jointly developed vehicles and access to AMG models throughout the global Mercedes dealer network.

The first fruit of this union was the 1993 C63 AMG. The union was so successful Mercedes acquired majority ownership of AMG in 1999 and by 2005 had acquired 100 per cent of the company.

During the past decade AMG has continued to grow and prosper, not only making a bigger contribution to the Mercedes line but developing an entirely new halo vehicle — the SLS, a gull-winged sports coupe with a unique chassis and engine developed entirely in-house by AMG.

They pulled the wraps off the latest version — the 591-horsepower SLS AMG GT — while we were visiting the company’s sprawling facilities here.

Swedish native Ola Kallenius, chairman of AMG, said that AMG continues to operate as a mid-size southern German company “with full access to the technology shopping mall at Mercedes and inside the safe haven of the bigger group.”

 

Performance is at the core of everything we do — power delivery, handling, sound, feel of the wheel.

— Ola Kallenius, chairman of AMG

AMG now has more than 1,100 employees, two thirds of them engineers. There are currently 22 AMG-badged models in the Mercedes lineup.

The personable and well-spoken chairman said AMG is a technology-driven company. “Performance is at the core of everything we do; power delivery, handling, sound, feel of the wheel.”

AMG operates on a strict philosophy and practice of One Man One Engine. Every single engine found beneath the hood of a vehicle wearing the AMG badge is produced here and shipped to the various vehicle assembly plants around the world.

Each engine is assembled by hand by a single technician and a plate bearing his signature is affixed to it.

While the AMG badge helps identify an AMG vehicle, it is the mellifluous sound that spells AMG to me.

From the moment one is started and settles, snapping and crackling at idle to the vicious bark between shifts and the menacing wail under full throttle, an AMG engine is a site to be heard.

And hear it I did walking among the various buildings as dozens of different current models were being driven around. Later I got to sample a few on my own — past and present on surrounding rural roads. It doesn’t get much better than this!

But the world is changing. Concerns about the environment, shrinking natural resources and words like responsibility have become commonplace.

The world’s oldest car company did not survive and prosper by trailing trends. Mercedes is about to enter a new frontier — compact cars — with a new generation of A-Class vehicles.

One of them will be the A250 Sport, engineered by AMG and the A45 AMG with significant power and other advances.

Kallenius said The A-Class is a crucial project for AMG, the start of a new segment where it has never been before. It will be launched under the banner “driving performance for the new generation.”

He said they will; produce the most powerful four-cylinder engine yet, a turbocharged 2.0-litre unit that sets a new benchmark for power per litre of more than 295 lb. ft. of torque. The A45 will also have an AMG specific version of the seven-speed sport transmission, a fully-AMG-developed chassis and a variable four-wheel-drive high-performance system.

“This car will have at least as much investment in it as any other AMG product,” he said.

The A-Class has been confirmed for Canada. Let’s hope the AMG version will follow, even if it won’t have the same V8 bellow.