McLaren, Affalterbach, and Stuttgart — the Rebranding of Mercedes and AMG
Nearly every car nut grew up with a poster of their dream car hanging on their wall or a scale model sitting on their shelf. Not surprisingly, it usually takes the form of some curvaceous Bertone or Pininfarina inspired supercar. I was no different — though it wasn’t an Italian, it was a 1/18 sized SLR McLaren model that my dad and I built around 4th grade. We spent hours meticulously painting the interior bits and different parts of the drivetrain. It had wire-based door fasteners that allowed the gullwings to function, and front-mounted hood hinges that completed the look. As the SLR went out of production in 2009 — eventually to be replaced by the SLS AMG in 2010 — I forgot about my precious SLR McLaren, the car that made me fall in love with the Mercedes brand.
Personal anecdotes aside, the progress that Mercedes made with AMG in the last decade has resulted in a rebranding of the company, significantly increased output numbers from its beloved tuning division, and a continuous pursuit of perfection in its halo cars.
As most know, the SLR McLaren was produced as a homage to the 300SLR — a version of Mercedes’s most iconic gullwing (the 300SL) initially released for racing in 1952, and later for commercial sale in 1954. The SLR — first unveiled in 1999 as a concept — was released to the public in 2003 at a blistering $468,050.
Mercedes teamed up with McLaren — with whom they were partnered for Formula 1 — to bring the car to life. Despite being a Mercedes, the SLR kept it’s weight down with a plethora of CFRP, likely aided by McLaren’s experience with Carbon Fiber following the F1.
In good Mercedes tradition, the SLR had a 90-degree, 5.4L Supercharged V8 capable of 617bhp and 580 lb-ft of torque. If you think these sound like ridiculous numbers for a car released in 2003, watch Top Gear’s test of the car (Series 6, Episode 6) to hear Jeremy Clarkson inform you about just how powerful 617 horses are.
Tragically, in 2009, the SLR production run came to an end (nothing tragic actually happened I just wish they had never stopped making the damn thing). The following year brought the SLS AMG — a transition that epitomizes the major changes in Mercedes’s design language over the ten year period between 2003 and 2013. With far fewer smooth, sweeping lines than the SLR, the SLS — along with the rest of Mercedes’s lineup at the time — was a fierce looking, perfectly proportioned supercar designed with a straight edge. At first I was horrified — it seemed that the SLS had done away with so much of Mercedes’s obsessive attention to detail that had been incorporated into the SLR (have you ever seen the tail lights on an SLR?)
Once I got over the death of the SLR and considered the SLS independently, however, I came to realize how fantastic a car it really was. Cosmetically, the SLS’s gullwing doors were a much more accurate representation of those on the original 300 SL. Proportionally, the SLS is perfectly measured out relative to its predecessor and successor (SLR & AMG GT respectively). Most of all, though, Mercedes nailed a perfect balance between liveable and ferocious, creating a more-than-capable track car for the road. Never having driven one, I can’t exactly speak to that claim — Others can though.
I realize now how much I love the SLS for being an extreme extension of the Mercedes brand rather than a co-produced homage to a great race car. Don’t get me wrong, the latter is great too, but I cherish the use of Mercedes’s naturally aspirated 6.2 L V8 — an engine similar to that which we’ve seen in so many of their high performance road cars — and the way that they reflected the direction of their entire company’s design through their halo car. Not to mention the GT and Black Series editions — released in 2012 and 2013 respectively — which turned the cruise missile into even more of a track monster.
Come 2014 — after I had already gone and fallen in love with the SLS — Mercedes finished production of the SLS with a final limited production edition, insisting that they would soon release an even more capable successor (Mercedes will tell you the new AMG GT wasn’t supposed to be a replacement for the SLS, but they’re just wrong). This time I was prepared though. I already had my heart broken once, so I readied myself for yet another disappointing cancellation, and prepared for the possibility of another car that would sweep me off my feet.
I wasn’t disappointed. The AMG GT, officially released to the public in 2016, marks the second AMG sports car to be fully designed and produced in house by AMG. Though I’m still not entirely convinced on its styling relative to the SLS, the AMG GT brought with it some impressive bits of tech that make it a very real competitor to Porsche’s impossibly perfect 911.
I was at first wary upon hearing that the monstrous N/A 6.2 Liter V8 from the SLS would be scrapped in favor of a downsized, twin-turbocharged 4.0 L V8. But per usual, I was wrong. With a lightweight Aluminum spaceframe and complex twin turbo setup aimed at significantly reducing boost lag, the AMG GT-S purportedly hits 60 in just 3.0 seconds. This is no land yacht, it’s an all-purpose track car for the street — much like the SLS Black Series was. Again, I’ve never had the pleasure of driving one myself, but others have and can certainly attest to its excellence.
Taken together, the SLS and AMG GT mark two important strides in the growth of the AMG brand. Independently manufactured at the Affalterbach assembly plant in Germany, the AMG performance lineup has gradually increased in capacity over the past decade. Similar to the Abarth’s of yesteryear, the AMG badge has traditionally been reserved for Mercedes’s most extreme applications of power and torque — often resulting in hilariously overpowered german cruisers. The SLS, however, was the first car to be fully designed and produced by AMG at Affalterbach. It not only set a precedent for design across the Mercedes lineup, but also marked a new stage in the development and use of the AMG badge. Following the SLS, Mercedes began to option its cars with AMG packages, making the once unobtainable AMG lineup more accessible to the public with their surprisingly throaty 2.0 I4 turbo engine (M133). Whether you like it or not, the SLS spurred on a new age of AMG, incorporating raw, unadulterated performance in a car all too many assumed to be just another cruiser. Well done, Daimler, well done indeed.
