AMG

Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG (initially known as Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach (German)), is the high performance division of the Mercedes-Benz car company. Mercedes-Benz acquired majority interest in AMG in 1999.

AMG or Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach was founded as a racing engine forge in 1967, as AMG Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (AMG Engine Production and Development, Ltd.), by former Mercedes engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, in a town called Großaspach, near Stuttgart.

"AMG" is an abbreviation which stands for: Hans Werner Aufrecht (A) and Erhard Melcher (M) who were partners, while Aufrecht’s birthplace of Großaspach (G) supplied the third letter in the company name.

Motor Racing
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, AMG entered the big Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 V8 saloon, affectionately named the "Red Sow", in the 1971 Spa 24 Hours, and the European Touring Car Championship. AMG and Mercedes worked together on Mercedes-Benz W201 cars for the 1988 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM, German Touring Car Championship). AMG was made the official partner.

In order to retain a small dedicated racing team, H.W.A GmbH was founded by H.-W. Aufrecht in 1999. Their first car was the ill-fated Mercedes-Benz CLR. Since 2000, HWA builds and runs the cars for Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), as well as the M271 engine tuned for use in Formula 3.

Six successive lightly modified Mercedes-Benz AMG models (including, most recently, an SL 63 AMG) have acted as the official Safety Cars of the F1 racing series.