(gong)
(karate sound)
- Think we could get some comfortable chairs.
There's a time in every man's, or woman's life
where they look at their V8 cylinder options
in the good ol' United States of America and say,
"you know, (eagle cries)
I feel like there's more."
Sometimes it happens to be when you're young.
Sometimes, when you're old as (beep), son.
Sometimes, people don't want to pick up
the New Balances and tucked in t-shirt for a corvette.
Sometimes, they still want a nice interior
that doesn't rattle plastic bits apart
and question why you spent $45 thousand dollars.
Sometimes, they want a car that will depreciate harder
than a five-day old pack of glaziers.
If you've never had glaziers, I feel terrible for you.
I'll send one your way, if you can send me coffee.
That's where we're at.
Either way, when that little notion comes across your noggin
that you want some sort of high horsepower V8
counterpart to the domestic options,
you usually end up searching up
that ol' three-letter acronym that has spawned
some of the craziest road cars in existence.
I'm Alex, @alex.fi on Instagram, and on today's episode
of So You Want, we're talking about the diabolical,
downright ludicrous, the how in the (beep)
are those only $12 thousand dollars,
the Mercedes-Benz AMG platform.
(upbeat techno music)
It's an amazing car.
(car engine revs)
(upbeat techno music continues)
Don't forget to subscribe, and of course,
if you're looking for wheels, tires, bing-bang-boom,
or suspension, be sure to hit up www.fitmentindustries.com.
We've got it all, okay, and if you just want a t-shirt,
we have a BBS wheel giveaway right now.
Pick up a t-shirt, it's awesome.
Front, boush. Back, zoush.
What more do you want?
AMG goes back to the '60s, where racing engineers,
Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher--
I don't have German accents, and I can't even try
to do it as good as James did, but I'm, you know...
But anyway, they're hanging out at Aufrecht's house,
pretty much being like, "mom, can Erhard stay the night?
"We promise we keep it down."
The acronym, AMG, stands for their names.
A for Aufrecht, M for Melcher,
and G for Grossaspach, Germany.
The two engineers would continue to develop motors,
actually, together in their spare time outside of work
because the original engine for the Daimler's racing program
would get axed by Mercedes-Benz,
and they just wanted to do it because they were bros.
And bros don't give up, bros hang out like this.
Forever. And it don't matter.
You wanna know why?
Because they built the son of a (beep) anyway.
They ended up winning the German Touring Car championship
ten times with the motor that they built together
in their little old basement.
Suck it.
You wanna know why?
Bros. Bros to the end.
Once AMG established itself in that initial race,
their growth came rapidly.
You would see AMG begin their engineering firm in 1967,
compete in the 24 Hours of Spa in 1971,
which they took first place in its class
and second place overall.
Just lettin' you know.
Not too shabby for a big, heavy German car, eh?
Times continued to do the engineering firm well,
because instead of just playing the free to play version
of engine tuning, they actually bought the DLC pack
and ended up becoming a full-fledged
engine manufacturer by 1984.
They would continue to introduce massive milestones
into the automotive community by releasing
if I had a prop, it'd be a hammer,
and I'd swing it.
Like a sword.
Because they released the Hammer in the mid-1980s
which pretty much destroyed everything about the world.
The Hammer is the car; if there was a car
that you could pick for the rest of your life forever,
it was the Hammer, because it was bangin'.
It was so well done.
The Hammer just out-performed about everything in the world.
And still probably outperforms a good chunk of it today.
AMG would make all sorts of high horsepower
crazy Mercedes-Benz, and it did so well
that they eventually just created a co-op
with Daimler-Benz so that the AMG parts could be sold
and maintained at any Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Now, up until this point, AMG was a partner,
not a model for the company.
It wasn't until the first true production
Mercedes-Benz AMG car hit the road
from the manufacturer directly.
It was a C36 AMG.
They were known for just making boring German cars crazy.
And they did it with everything they possibly could.
I mean, they even fit a 7.3 liter, seven, I'm not lying,
into an SL roadster for the hell of it.
That's the motor that they use in the Pagani Zonda,
for crying out loud, which was bangin'.
Because why not?
AMG would continue to grow and manifest
into about a billion different models
as they entered the 21st century, and created
a strangle hold in the high horsepower German marketplace.
Barking up the old territories of BMW, Audi, Porche,
and even, Ferrari.
The 5.4 liter supercharged V8 of the E55
would be coined one of the best motors of the year.
That's about it, we're not going to talk about
the (mumbles) of the 62, okay?
But hey, enough history.
You know most of this stuff already.
Because, guess what, people like you,
people like me, we know this stuff anymore.
Okay, this isn't no surprise.
What you do want to know is what to expect
when owning one, right?
That's why we're here.
So you want a Mercedes-Benz AMG.
Well, strap in there bud, because there's a little bit
of extra sauce on this one, and besides you're probably
actually going to need a seatbelt,
'cause if you've ever gotten into an AMG,
especially a tuned one before,
you're probably going to need to have something
to keep you in the seat, or you'll probably just die.
- Off the break. (Cheers) (Engine revs)
Whoa!
- Mercedes-Benz as a modifiable car is a bit like
dropping your first swear word in front of your family
after you've moved out, and you've come back for a dinner.
You're not sure why you did it, you're sweating,
because you have no idea if it was actually a good idea,
but hey, it felt good at the time
and no one else has done it yet so you figured, "why not?"
The AMG platform is an already up-tuned Mercedes-Benz,
which is something to remember right off the bat,
if you go into owning one.
The cars themselves are pretty decent.
You're gonna have to not really do a whole lot
out of the gate because you got the badge, man.
The badge was to make 'em fast,
and they're pretty quick right out of the gate.
Most have an above-300 horsepower number,
decent torque, rear-wheel drive,
and a little exhaust adjustment and intake
can make the car sound like a more refined, proper V8.
(engine revs)
Versus its noisy and unnecessary
untamed domestic counterparts.
I don't need you, I've got leather interiors.
And here's what's so great about them.
They are fantastic cars to cruise in.
After all, it's a Mercedes-Benz, right?
Leather interior, a million different seat adjustments,
incredible sound dampening material
that makes it sound like you could be running something over
and you wouldn't even know.
A beautiful exhaust note, and a blast to cruise
with your friends in the backseat,
and still walk past most sports cars.
I would say probably the biggest thing
to take a look at, especially out of some platforms
like the E55 and C-Series, the four doors,
is that you can still fit a bunch of stuff in the car,
and still race about everything.
At the end of the day, people like you and people like me
are going to end up looking at the following AMG models:
the W204, which was a C63 AMG,
the W211 E55 and E63 AMG, and if you're feeling
a little bit dangerous, because you just want to risk it,
the W221 S63 AMG.
Allow me to start this out by saying
that if you're buying any one of these cars,
you're gonna want to have a few dollars saved up
in the back of the old pocket as insurance.
'Cause it's not a matter of if they'll break,
it's just a matter of when.
These cars are high performance,
mass produced German executive cars
that happen to be just a bit used.
And usually, they're abused to (beep).
They're gonna have issues, almost all of them.
E55s, when they first started coming out,
eventually became plagued with some little
electrical gremlins, due to the overly sophisticated seats,
or your entertainment system that eventually
started to get fixed up towards the end of its series,
but ultimately still had a couple two-three problems.
The C63 pre-face lift doesn't like its own head studs
and can cause issues.
The S63s will begin to have sluggish
and clonky transmissions.
Clonky is not a word.
If you can get past their independent occasional issues,
you'll probably run into their overall
"I'm a Mercedes, hear me roar" issues.
Such as-- I love these cars, but damn,
they don't make it easy to love 'em.
Airmatic suspension failure,
you had your heat blower premature failure,
you had some central gateway module problems.
Those ones were a doozy to figure out,
don't even get me started.
And it's not just all oil changes here, bud,
there's a few extra goodies that AMGs just love
to let you know are going out.
'Cause it's an AMG.
But does that mean you shouldn't buy any of them?
Hell no!
AMGs are the bomb dot com, and I am biased and I don't care.
They are fast as (beep), they are comfortable as hell,
they depreciated as hard as humanly possible
and out of any known German car manufacturer,
because it's a Mercedes-Benz.
But they don't look half bad,
anyone that's ridden in one wants one.
Anyone that's owned one has been like,
"Yeah, it was pricey, but it was fun."
And they're, a couple years later, like
"I want another one."
And anyone who has no idea what an AMG is
has probably just looked at it and said,
"That is an ugly old Mercedes; why would anybody
"under the age of 50 actually drive one of those?"
Don't be the last one, okay?
AMGs are fun, they're automatics.
I'm sorry, they don't come in a manual
because AMG doesn't trust you with that.
They don't trust you with that sort of power.
But get a TCU tune on an old E55 AMG,
and you'll be havin' a spankin' good time, I promise.
(car engine revs and accelerates)
Mercedes-Benz AMGs hold a special place in our hearts.
They look best with a meaty staggered set up.
Usually on some Borsheimers, Rotiforms,
or, probably, Rohanas because of their massive breaks
which, if you have to replace those, bless your heart.
Tire choices have gotta be the grippy boys
because it's an AMG.
Get your Michelins, (mumbles), or even Toyos,
since you'll have some wider tire options for the rear
and since most of them run a staggered set up.
And for suspension, most people just end up
ripping out the old airmatic,
since it's a pain in the ass to replace,
and they replace it with your BC Racer or KW counterparts.
Sometimes they'll even throw a little bit of a lowering link
in there until the air suspension does go out,
which makes it look like you have air,
and you're technically not lying
when you say your car's on air.
AMGs are fantastic cars, they give domestic muscles
a true run for your money when it comes down to sound,
performance, and overall quality.
Sure, they can be a little bit of a pain
in the tooshie, kind of like a puppy,
like, you want one until you have to own one,
and then you're like, "oh, this maybe was a terrible idea."
But, they're fun to have around.
You know they're gonna occasionally
(beep) on your rug, but hey, it's just a rug, kay?
It's worth it in the end.
So what do you think about AMGs?
Drop a comment below, and let us know
what you guys want us to talk about next.
Don't forget to subscribe, and of course,
check out www.fitmentindustries.com
for all your wheel, tire and suspension needs.
Like Varrstoen, Rotiform, Rohana.
If you've got the good ol' AMG already,
just lettin' you know.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
We will see you later, yet again, peace.