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Video | AMG ‘Red Pig’ recreation
The first car Mercedes performance division AMG ever made, the Red Pig has gone down in history … but has been reborn for the present!
Words by: Dan Trent
Published on 17 October 2024 | 0 min read
You’ll have seen the initials AMG everywhere from the back of Mercedes road cars to the F1 machines raced by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. You probably have a sense of what it stands for in terms of speed, glamour and all the rest. But do you know what it literally stands for?
This car explains it all! Built to go racing in 1971 by two Mercedes-mad tuners, the AMG name comes from their surnames – Aufrecht and Melcher – and the town of Großaspach in which they were based. They took a stately Mercedes 300SEL saloon, removed the already gigantic V8, stripped it all back, made the engine even bigger, stuck on some steamroller tyres and then took it racing. The car, nicknamed the Red Pig, caused such a stir that Aufrecht and Melcher built a business out of it and AMG was born. The car Rory drives here isn’t the original Red Pig, though. That car was long since destroyed, living on in myth, legend and now in replicas like this one. While it’s actually an old Mercedes body grafted onto the engine, suspension and running gear of a more modern C63 Rory discovers it may just be the most fitting tribute to AMG’s long traditions of putting gigantic V8 engines into otherwise standard looking Mercedes saloons. A tradition that has, to the dismay of some of the hardcore fans, been replaced in recent times by the inevitable switch to hybrids and electrification. Perhaps in that sense this is the AMG story coming full circle, given it’s a homebrew project cooked up by some talented engineers, improvising as they go and creating something monstrous and magical in the process! Watch the full video for more on how they did it, and what this modern-day Red Pig is actually like to drive. And if you enjoyed this and haven’t already subscribed to the channel then please do so, give it a like and join the discussion in the comments thread below!
This car explains it all! Built to go racing in 1971 by two Mercedes-mad tuners, the AMG name comes from their surnames – Aufrecht and Melcher – and the town of Großaspach in which they were based. They took a stately Mercedes 300SEL saloon, removed the already gigantic V8, stripped it all back, made the engine even bigger, stuck on some steamroller tyres and then took it racing. The car, nicknamed the Red Pig, caused such a stir that Aufrecht and Melcher built a business out of it and AMG was born. The car Rory drives here isn’t the original Red Pig, though. That car was long since destroyed, living on in myth, legend and now in replicas like this one. While it’s actually an old Mercedes body grafted onto the engine, suspension and running gear of a more modern C63 Rory discovers it may just be the most fitting tribute to AMG’s long traditions of putting gigantic V8 engines into otherwise standard looking Mercedes saloons. A tradition that has, to the dismay of some of the hardcore fans, been replaced in recent times by the inevitable switch to hybrids and electrification. Perhaps in that sense this is the AMG story coming full circle, given it’s a homebrew project cooked up by some talented engineers, improvising as they go and creating something monstrous and magical in the process! Watch the full video for more on how they did it, and what this modern-day Red Pig is actually like to drive. And if you enjoyed this and haven’t already subscribed to the channel then please do so, give it a like and join the discussion in the comments thread below!