50 years of AMG: Success was the only way

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The motor racing has meant the world to Hans Werner Aufrech, starting day one. Together with his friend and business partener Erhard Melcher, he built AMG, turning a simple hobby into making history.

Aufrecht tells his side of this story of success. Exclusive audio bits and videos from the early 70s show how AMG ruled the racing world. It started with the Spa race, on June 24th, 1971, when “The Red Pig” Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 AMG battled with 80 cars, rivals of high rank and won.

“For us, Spa was a dramatic kickoff and a huge success. All of a sudden, we were famous”, tells the half of the AMG history.

“Our goal, from the beginning, was to be an exclusive partner for Mercedes”, he confesses. And all they had in mind was to build cars that give you goose bumps.

Take a glance through the keyhole into the AMG backstage:

 

When the company and the name “AMG” was acquired by Mercedes-Benz in the late 1990s, Hans Werner Aufrecht used his initials for the name of Mercedes’ official racing team, HWA Team. Starting 2000, when the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters debuted, the HWA Team is in charge of the Mercedes-AMG official factory entry in DTM. His former AMG partner, Erhard Melcher, is the founder of Burgstall, a company that supplies parts to AMG.