14 May 07
What's this sporty, agile, super-quick, super-expensive two-seat coupe? It certainly doesn't sit very comfortably in the box generally labelled AMG, but that's who's made it.
Those letters stand for a lot of different things for a lot of different people, but the one thing AMG means most of all is that moment on a German autobahn when you're bombing along in your BMW M-car or your Audi S-something at what feels like a very fast speed indeed, and you look in your rear-view mirror and there's a Mercedes saloon itching to get past. So you move over and - whoomph - off it goes, with its badge and tailpipes and square rear bodywork leaving you in no doubt that you've yet again been well and truly AMG'd.
Mario Spitzner, who's been with AMG for almost half of its 40 years, says one of the key things about the cars built by Mercedes' tuning division is that, in Germany at least, they're not just squirted up to 120mph now and again on a quiet Sunday morning when no-one's looking: they're driven at close to flat-out for hours on end.
Another key thing about AMG cars is that although they're generally limited to 155mph, they must feel like they're capable of doing comfortably more. Like 200mph.
Oh, and the engines are expected to be as fresh after five years as when they're new.
So AMG goes hand in hand with big, comfortable, solid, slightly menacing, rather macho saloons and, sometimes, coupes. It also, especially in Germany, has a long and triumphant association with DTM racing. Of course it has: that's a series built around big, solid, slightly menacing, rather macho saloons and, sometimes, coupes.
