Our latest Car of the Week is an excellent example of AMG performance: the Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer.
A muscle car, when you get down to the basics, is simply a mid-size car with the engine from its bigger counterpart swapped in. Our Car of the Week sticks to that formula perfectly.
When AMG (still an independent company at the time) got a hold of the W124 300E, they went nuts with it. First they got rid of the original engine and replaced it with the powerplant from the 560SEC. Customers could opt to have that bored out from 5.6L to 6.0L. AMG could also throw in some new suspension, wheels, a limited-slip differential, chassis mods, interior trim and the like, all for the small sum of $161,000 ($310,000 in modern-day money).
In raw numbers, it’s simply amazing even to this day: it could achieve an estimated top speed of 185 mph, putting it close with the best hypercars of the age. 0-60 mph was dealt with in just 5.4 seconds, a figure which could rival many modern sedans.
The Hammer was a rather obscure deal in Europe, but not in America, where it was sold through a dealership in Beverly Hills. There it became very successful and was soon featured in many automotive magazines. AMG would go on to become a branch of Mercedes-Benz after a deal was made to sell to sell AMG vehicles through Mercedes dealerships.
The Hammer was a German muscle car, going head on with 80’s supercars and still on par with most sports car of today. And that’s why it’s more than worthy of being our Car of the Week.