AMG: Passcode to Absolute Power in a Mercedes-Benz

MUSCLE cars are inseparable from America and the ’60s, their innocence sweetly harmonized by the Beach Boys, their more sinister side chronicled in films from “Bullitt” to “Grindhouse.”
But while they burned rubber in their time, only a handful of muscle cars, the ultrarare L88 Corvette among them, could actually top 400 horsepower.

Today’s revival of the old horsepower wars still features familiar Motown combatants like Corvette, Mustang and Charger. But it is Mercedes-Benz, once known for conservative sedans and sleepy diesels, that is overwhelming the competition. Forget 400 horses: the AMG division of Mercedes is the new King of Zing, churning out models that top 600 horsepower.
In recent months, I sampled AMG’s four-alarm buffet in every imaginable style and portion, and my taste buds are still on fire. Among them was the E63, at first glance just another E-Class sedan, the Ford Taurus of upscale suburbia. Yet with 507 horsepower under its hood, the E63 is one of several Jekyll and Hyde AMGs. It can give that young hooligan at the stoplight in a Mustang a paddling he won’t forget — and then revert to being an upstanding citizen for a trip to the local boutiques.
Founded in 1967 as an independent racing shop specializing in Mercedes cars, AMG — it took its name from the initials of its founders, Hans-Warner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, and from Mr. Aufrecht’s birthplace of Grossaspach, Germany — the company used racing success as a springboard to develop speedy production Benzes. Its first American model arrived in 1995, the C36 AMG sedan.
And its philosophy of “one man, one engine,” with each power plant hand-assembled by a single technician, continues today.