Mercedes-Benz celebrates 50 years of exhilarating driving performance

AMG – these three letters stand worldwide for supreme automotive performance, exclusivity, efficiency and high driving dynamics. The company founded by Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher in 1967 is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017. In the course of this half century, Mercedes-AMG has further consolidated its position as an extremely successful sports car and performance brand with numerous successes in motorsport and the development of unique road-going vehicles. Today, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, the Affalterbach-based company represents the sporting spearhead of the Group.

Mercedes-AMG is the sports car and performance brand within Mercedes Benz. Mercedes-AMG addresses all performance enthusiasts with this clear brand positioning. The brand pledge of Driving Performance illustrates the passion and the inner drive of all the employees to keep on questioning the status quo, to push the boundaries of what is possible and to facilitate intensive driving experiences for the customer with dynamic performance cars. 

Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG complement one another perfectly: AMG benefits from the classic Mercedes values such as safety and comfort, and Mercedes gains more sportiness from AMG. With the widely extended product portfolio, Mercedes-AMG is happy to face the competition from the performance brands of major automotive manufacturers and from the classic sports car brands alike. 

The brand pledge of Driving Performance embodies much more than the pure power of the vehicles. It also describes the inner drive always to strive for peak performances, which makes the employees in Affalterbach inextricably linked with the customers all over the world. The will to go the extra mile and explore the limits at any cost exemplifies this.

For each of the now around 1,600 employees, the focus will be on the brand promise of ‘Driving Performance’, which unites the core strengths of AMG: cutting-edge technology and a passion for dynamic, emotionally appealing products. AMG started into the anniversary year with record figures under its belt, delivering almost 100,000 vehicles in 2016 and thus growing by more than 40% while being in the middle of the biggest strategic model initiative in the company’s history.

Today, sports car enthusiasts can choose from a large selection of the AMG GT family. Another factor is the worldwide success of the popular eight-cylinder models in the 63 series, and the 45 series models in the compact segment; the biggest sales markets being USA, Germany and China.

As part of the strategic broadening of the portfolio to over 50 models, the number of AMG Performance Centres has also undergone huge expansion. At over 400 Performance Centres in 40 countries, customers and fans can immerse themselves in the brand world of Mercedes-AMG. These are places where the history of the brand and its DNA can be experienced first-hand. As appropriate for the wide product range, trained and qualified AMG sales and service experts provide knowledgeable advice and support to customers worldwide.

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. Another milestone was the all-new cylinder head with cutting-edge valve technology, developed by Melcher. 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, introducing a broader target group to the brand.

As part of its 50th anniversary Mercedes-AMG is this year celebrating not only the successful past and present; above all it is looking forward. With the show car Mercedes-AMG GT Concept the sports car and performance brand is giving an indication of the alternative drive configurations AMG is designing. 

The only authorised distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Sri Lanka – Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC (DIMO) is excited with the growing demand for AMG vehicles in the country. One of the first AMG imports to Sri Lanka was the ML55 AMG almost 15 years ago. From then onwards the enthusiasm towards high performance AMG vehicles have been growing steadily in Sri Lanka. DIMO has delivered some astonishing AMG models in Sri Lanka which includes the A45 AMG, GLA45 AMG, CLA45 AMG, C63 AMG, GLE43 AMG, SLS AMG, SL55 AMG, SLC 43 AMG and the monstrous AMG GTS.