VintagEuro #016
When AMG Built Wild Cars in America
I was recently reminded on two separate occasions that before AMG was a performance-infused sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz, it was an independent speed merchant, a power broker with a global footprint. And somewhat surprisingly, some of the firm’s most iconic vehicles were built in the United States, not far from from where I once lived, in fact.
The first occurrence was a random photo that showed up in my Facebook feed of an advertisement from the 1980s for AMG North America. The second was an auction photo shoot shared by Chicago-based automotive photographer friend Jeremy Cliff, which he shared on the same platform. The subject of his work was “Blueberry ,” a bespoke AMG Mercedes S-Class sedan commissioned for and by Richard Buxbaum, the founder and former president of AMG North America. The car was built in Westmont, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, where Buxbaum’s AMG Central distributorship was based for about a decade.
AMG itself was founded in Grossaspach, Germany in the late 1960s by former Mercedes engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher. These guys converted Mercedes sedans into road racing machines and developed aftermarket performance upgrades for roadgoing models. By the end of the 1970s, AMG had earned a reputation for making fast examples of the fairly conservative models from Germany’s most prestigious carmaker.
With growing demand for “grey market” personal imports of European luxury cars in the early 1980s, the German tuner - by then officially a vehicle manufacturer and relocated to Affalterbach - sought to expand its market by setting up distributors outside of Europe. After a reportedly short discussion with Buxbaum, who owned a Chicago-area brokerage specializing in high -performance and luxury imports, and AMG North America was born.
Throughout the ‘80s, AMG North America set up regional dealers throughout the country who offered the brand’s signature wheels, spoilers, body kits, and other popular modifications to discerning Mercedes owners. But in Westmont, the American affiliate also built complete AMG-branded vehicles, including 13 of the 30 iconic Hammer sedans and the only official Hammer Wagon.
While the boys in Affatlterbach developed all the go-fast and look-fast parts, as well as built special vehicles for the home market, AMG North America applied their improvements to US-spec Mercedes models, bypassing the hurdles of importing modified Euro-spec cars and certifying them after the fact.
As a car-obsessed teen growing up in Chicago’s western suburbs in the late ‘80s, I remember discovering the rather unassuming AMG facility by accident cruising Ogden Avenue with friends one Saturday night. I had no idea the magic was made so close to home. Once I discovered it, I made it a ritual to check in occasionally, just to see what was there.
A few years later, I ended up working just a couple miles away at a dealership in the next town over, Downers Grove. Once in a while I’d end up in Westmont for lunch and would drive by to see the shop. There wasn’t much to see by then, however. By 1999, Mercedes-Benz had acquired a majority stake in AMG, and by 2005 it had absorbed the company entirely. With that move, the remaining global aftermarket affiliates were dissolved.
By chance, I would eventually come to know some of the former AMG North America staff as I continued to work in the automotive business in that immediate area. One notable former employee would occasionally stop in the dealership where I worked, tape measure and legal pad in hand to document new models for their floor mat patterns. Since leaving AMG North America, he’d founded a small company bringing in rubber floor mats from England, along with some high-end baby bottles. You may be familiar with David MacNeil, founder of WeatherTech, who once worked as a salesman for Buxbaum.
A decade later, I got to know another former staffer, Tom Guido. Once AMG North America closed, Tom followed the company’s technical director Hartmut Feyhl to his new firm, RENNtech. By the late-‘90s, he was running his own high-end detailing business nearby and would occasionally stop into a car accessory boutique that I managed so he could buy some of our exotic detailing supplies. He would later prep and paint one of my personal project cars, the first one I ever had featured in a magazine.
For years I would still drive by the old AMG facility trying to catch a glimpse of what had been. At one point, I seem to recall the building was occupied by a kind of upscale lawn/garden/patio retail business [Edit - It was, in fact, Mrs. Buxbaum’s Old Plank Antiques]. When I looked up the address to write this article, I discovered it was most recently a Play It Again Sports resale shop. How the mighty have fallen.
I somehow lost the ‘80s-era advertisement for AMG North America that sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place. However, while searching the internet I found a later version (shown above) from 1987 that listed the full AMG dealer network at the time. As chance would have it, the town where we’ve resided for the last 11 years after moving out of the Chicago area was also once home to an authorized AMG dealer. In fact, the same building that was once housed Keenan Mercedes-Benz in Doylestown, Pennsylvania is now a fancy Italian market where I regularly treat myself to a proper cappuccino and cornetto pistacchio.
Today, AMG has become something else altogether. It’s mostly a luxury/performance sub-brand of Mercedes that banks on the image of its F1 race team to sell tarted-up sedans and coupes at a premium. Today’s Keenan dealership, just up the road from its former location, displays the large AMG letters proudly on its modern, brand-aligned Taj Mahal building. But they don’t build any cars there.
Nevertheless, I’m amazed at how small the world often seems and that I’ve been lucky enough to have lived so close to the things I love so much. Perhaps it’s merely coincidence that I got to actually know and work with some of the people who worked at AMG. Right place, right time and all that. But the odds of having my coffee in the former showroom of one of the few AMG dealerships that ever existed, well that seems like the world telling me I’m where I belong.
Goods & Gear
AMG Embossed Sweatshirt
As far as ‘80s tuner cars go, the stuff from AMG was fairly subtle and demure. The trunk spoilers and color-matched wheels were a tip-off to those in the know, but most people had no idea the performance potential that lived under the hood. We think this simple grey (market) sweatshirt is the ideal blend of old-school aesthetics with modern simplicity.
It features the signature AMG logo embossed on the chest, following the company’s love for monochrome color treatments. There’s a flash of red inside the collar if you need to see some contrast, along with a black neckband incorporating white AMG lettering.
Available at mbusa.com or at Mercedes-Benz dealers.
Classic & Cocktails
The Hammer
A strong, sophisticated, no-nonsense drink, it’s the perfect analogy for AMG’s most famous vehicle of the pre-merger era. For those who want a serious cocktail, this one drinks a bit like an Old Fashioned, though we wouldn’t recommend the 6.0-liter version.
My whiskey of choice for this one was once again the Four Walls Irish/American whiskey blend, and for the Amaro (traditionally an Italian herbal liqueur) I went with Philadelphia-made Vigo Amaro. But tip whatever you normally drink, you won’t be disappointed.
Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey
1 ounce Amaro liqueur
1/2 oz simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Preparation
Combine whiskey, amaro, simple syrup, and bitters in a mixing glass with ice
Stir until chilled and strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube
Garnish with an expressed orange peel