Álvaro Koke

Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.8 AMG: The origin of an acronym of power

The beginning of AMG took place in a small garage with a 'tuned' sedan

Many motorsport fans automatically turn their heads when they hear the burble of a Mercedes that looks more aggressive than normal, often with a ‘crouched stance’ and low-profile wheels, because they know it is an AMG model. The brand’s most performance models today are grouped under these acronyms, although until not long ago, a previous era that many of us still remember, it was more of a trainer that worked more externally. Now, every story has an origin and so does AMG’s…specifically, its origin is the 300 SEL 6.8, also known as the ‘Red Pig’.

After the Le Mans disaster in 1955, Mercedes decided to completely withdraw from racing and dedicate itself exclusively to manufacturing series production cars, having cut its program in Formula 1 where they were the dominant force with the W196 driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. For a few years, the silver arrows brand had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with circuits. However, over time there were those who wanted to do some racing with Mercedes-Benz models. These were the engineers Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, who worked in a workshop in Großaspach. The surname of each one plus the locality gave rise… to AMG, beginning its activity back in 1967.

The first car they worked on as a base was a Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 W109, a generation that in turn was the direct evolution of the W108, with air suspension instead of spring suspension and more high-end elements, in addition to The W109 being the variant with the longest wheelbase. The W109 had several inline six-cylinder engines, but the top-of-the-range versions used 3.5, 4.5 and 6.3 eight-cylinder engines, the latter being the M100 that Aufrecht and Melcher would choose for their AMG project. A full-fledged garage project, that word that a few years later none other than Enzo Ferrari would coin in a derogatory manner.

Obviously, the 300 SEL W109 was not designed to compete – not even remotely, considering that it was a very heavy and not very agile car compared to the sports cars that were usually seen in races at the time. However, the magic that Aufrecht and Melcher achieved would make the car competitive in the early seventies in the appearances it made. And this is where the beginning of what we know today as AMG comes from, already fully integrated into the Stuttgart march. They had completely converted a luxury car into a vehicle capable of competing with the stars of the European Touring Car Championship in a garage located in a small town northeast of Stuttgart.

Mechanics of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.8 AMG

By changing the guts of what would be the Red Pig, the hand-made 6.3 V8 would become a 6.8. To do this, different elements such as pistons, cams, rods and crankshafts were adjusted, so that an engine that originally produced about 250 horsepower and 503 Nm of torque exceeded 420 horsepower and 600 Nm of torque, evolving with the over the years (in addition to this racing car, AMG was already working on Mercedes engine improvements). Now, the whole thing was still heavy, but Aufrecht and Melcher lightened it by removing the rear seats and changing the doors for aluminum ones, saving nearly 200 kilograms. Saving the distances and changes in the automotive world, its current equivalent would be a Mercedes-Benz S-Class W223 being lightened to compete in endurance races.

Originally, the 300 SEL used a four-speed automatic gearbox, but an invention was made to drive it as a sequential gearbox. Later, the gearbox was changed to a ZF five-speed. All of these changes and more made the Red Pig competitive. More than some thought when he signed up for the 1971 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, still in the 14.8 kilometer long version that Formula 1 had used in its early years. Few were betting that this huge red sedan would come second (and first in its category), only surpassed by the Ford Capri RS of Dieter Glemser and Alex Soler-Roig, Spanish Formula 1 driver and uncle of Daniel Juncadella (who would manage to win this same race in 2022).

Top speed was the strong point of this Red Pig, reaching an enormous 265 kilometers per hour by the standards of the time. Now, being such a heavy car with a 6.8 V8 made the car consume much more fuel than its rivals, in addition to the fact that the tires suffered much more when supporting the more than 1,600 kilograms plus the fuel load and the driver. Since the old Spa was very fast, especially in the area of the Masta chicane which has not been used for almost half a century (since the circuit used today was established), the strengths of the original AMG were noticeable.

Unfortunately for AMG, shortly after the FIA changed the regulations of the European Touring Car, limiting the maximum engine displacement to five liters so that the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.8 AMG was unable to participate, having produced between three and five units, two of them test units. The Red Pig would become a test mule for the French company Matra (taking advantage of both its power and the ample space inside) for the development of components for what can be considered the most iconic aircraft of the entire 20th century: the Concorde. . It is believed that the rest of the units were lost over time, leaving only replicas that can be seen in the brand’s museums.

Despite its short life, it marked the beginning of AMG’s career with Mercedes (with a collaboration contract in 1993 and a takeover at the end of the nineties) and, above all, AMG’s affiliation to the world of competition. Mercedes and AMG have been together in all kinds of projects such as Le Mans (which started not entirely well, with the CLR that performed triple somersaults), the DTM and, of course, its successful time in Formula 1 which, so far, has given six world titles to Lewis Hamilton and its title to Nico Rosberg between 2014 and 2020.

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