Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher laid the foundations of AMG in 1967. They believed they could win the racetrack. They started with what they knew best: the cars of Mercedes -Benz, and how to optimize an engine for more power. Their devotion to their craft was matched by their dedication to their racing customers. Before long, Mercedes-Benz AMG was competing against better-known teams and becoming known — and known to be better — for themselves.

Before founding AMG, both Aufrecht and Melcher had worked at Daimler-Benz. They created a vehicle for a friend and driver of Mercedes-Benz race cars, Manfred Schiek, to enter the European Touring Car Cup. Based on the new 300 SE sedan, they modified their 6-cylinder engine. They increased the red line to 7,300 rpm and power to 238 hp, a 40% increase. Schiek went on to win 10 races in the car. Aufrecht and Melcher decided to break out on their own.

In an old mill in Burgstall, some 60 miles from Stuttgart, they founded AMG – taking their initials plus that of Aufrecht’s birthplace, Grossaspach, to form the name. As of June1967, AMG was in business with the mission to engineer, build and test racing engines. They began preparing series-production Mercedes-Benz sedans to enter — and win — touring car races. Success led to growth, and within 10 years they’d outgrown the mill and moved to Affalterbach. The move cast the Mercedes-AMG relationship as an enduring alloy of cooperation, synergy and technical partnership.

The 2018 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG S is a 4.0-liter V8 engine equipped with two turbochargers. Power shared among the coupe, sedan and convertible ranges from 469 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque in standard trim, to 503 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque in the C63 S trim. The standard Mercedes-Benz S AMG specs rocket the car from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds, while the S shaves off one-tenth of a second for its 0-60 sprint. Top speeds for the standard and S-trim are 155 mph and 180 mph, respectively.