5 Fast, Powerful Mercedes That Aren’t AMG-Branded – Jalopnik

If you wish to perceive AMG, image an organization Mercedes-Benz purchased particularly to show its luxurious automobiles into correct sports activities automobiles. In follow, which means extra energy, sharper throttle response and dealing with, a dose of carbon fiber for weight financial savings, and easily extra of every part that makes a automotive thrilling to drive. An enormous a part of that formulation occurs below the hood: the range-topping automobiles get hand-built engines, each assembled by a single technician below AMG’s “one man, one engine” philosophy. It’s craftsmanship as a lot as engineering, and it is an enormous a part of what the AMG badge really stands for. 

Still, AMG would not have a monopoly on quick Mercedes automobiles — not even by itself turf. Since folding totally into Mercedes in 1999, AMG has stayed busy, however Mercedes has stored turning out fast and highly effective machines that by no means obtained the AMG badge in any respect. Some of those automobiles buried AMG {hardware} below wise limousine bodywork. Others have been motorsport experiments, electrical SUVs, or range-topping luxurious flagships that merely did not want the AMG therapy. The following are 5 automobiles that show Mercedes-Benz is aware of how one can go quick even when it is not actively attempting to promote you its AMG division.

Jointly developed by McLaren and Mercedes, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren didn’t get the AMG therapy, and you will not discover any AMG badges on it. Granted, the engine it carries was developed and hand-built by AMG in Affalterbach, and it reveals how a few of the strongest Mercedes automobiles really disguise AMG engines below the hood. So why no AMG badge? The SLR was conceived as a joint Mercedes–McLaren halo automotive and a contemporary nod to the 300SLR racer of the Nineteen Fifties, constructed throughout the years Mercedes ran its Formula 1 program alongside McLaren. McLaren dealt with the carbon-fiber monocoque and remaining meeting in Woking, England, so the automotive carried the SLR and McLaren id relatively than the identify of Mercedes’ in-house efficiency division.

As acknowledged, AMG’s job was the hand-built engine, not the badge on the trunk. The supercharged 5.4-liter V8 within the SLR makes 617 horsepower and 575 lb-ft of torque. In the range-topping 722 Edition SLR, energy is pushed to 641 horsepower and 605 lb-ft. All of that is mated to a five-speed automated transmission and is distributed to the rear wheels solely. The consensus is that solely 2,157 SLRs have been constructed between 2003 and 2010, cut up throughout coupe, roadster, and the open-top Stirling Moss speedster. In phrases of velocity, there will not be many AMGs that may go as quick because the SLR can. If you may have the area, the SLR 722 will attain 60 mph from a standstill in simply 3.6 seconds whereas topping out at 209 mph.

The strongest combustion Mercedes you should purchase at the moment with out an AMG badge runs an engine that used to put on one. The Mercedes-Maybach S 680’s 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 is the M279 – the identical unit that powered the S65 AMG till Mercedes wound down its V12 efficiency automobiles. AMG stopped constructing V12-badged fashions, however the engine lived on — and the Maybach is now the one Mercedes you should purchase with it.

In the S680, it makes 621 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque, sufficient to maneuver a full-size luxurious limousine from 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds and on to an electronically restricted 155 mph. In the 2021 W223, it additionally turned the primary V12-powered Mercedes highway automotive to ship its energy to all 4 wheels by way of 4MATIC. However, there is a massive catch to proudly owning one. The V12 not meets Europe’s emissions guidelines, so Mercedes pulled it from the continent completely. If you need the twelve-cylinder S 680, you may want to buy within the US, China, the Middle East, Japan, or South Korea — in every single place else, the Maybach S-Class tops out on the V8 S580. That shortage, plus a V12 clearly on borrowed time, is what makes it one to observe. And though the S 680 is as highly effective because the SLR we talked about earlier than, their particular use-case situations are vastly completely different. The V12 within the S 680 is tuned for smoothness earlier than anything, and in lots of conditions, folks choose being pushed in them, not driving them.

The Maybach EQS 680 SUV is essentially the most highly effective non-AMG Mercedes-Benz. However, its electrical motors do come from an AMG. The twin-motor structure is identical one Mercedes suits to the AMG-infused EQS 53 sedan, which is how the Maybach model finally ends up with 649 horsepower and 700 lb-ft of torque — a giant soar over the 536 hp the usual EQS 580 SUV musters. That’s sufficient to launch this 6,779-pound ultra-luxury SUV from 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, although high velocity is capped at 130 mph. The AMG EQS 53 begins at that very same 649 hp however stretches to 751 with its optionally available Dynamic Plus enhance — a celebration trick the Maybach doesn’t include.

Its relatively sizable 118-kWh battery is sweet for proper round 280 miles on the EPA cycle, and it will DC fast-charge from 10 to 80 p.c in roughly half an hour. It is value mentioning that none of those have really helped make the EQS SUV promote effectively. Mercedes low cost on the Maybach EQS is so massive to purchase a wholly separate Mercedes.

Every automotive we talked about to date has hidden AMG bits someplace. For the SLR and the S680, it was the hand-built engine; for the EQS, it was the electrical structure. The electrical G-Wagon breaks from that sample. Mercedes-Benz credit the automotive’s four-motor system to the Mercedes-Benz Group itself, particularly noting that the G580 with EQ tech is the primary mass-produced Mercedes mannequin with real individual-wheel drive. In different phrases, one motor drives every wheel, collectively placing out 579 horsepower and 859 lb-ft of torque. Interestingly sufficient, the G 580 really out-torques the top-spec gas-powered AMG G 63, which manages 627 lb-ft. Still, straight-line velocity favors the G 63, largely as a result of it’s roughly 1,200 kilos lighter in comparison with the electrical G.

Still, the G 580 can attain 60 mph from a standstill in about 4.1 seconds, in line with Car and Driver, and high out at a restricted 112 mph. This is a secure platform restrict greater than the precise high velocity of the G-Class chassis, since even the G63 AMG’s high velocity is 137 mph. The G 580 additionally will get the party-trick “G-TURN” mode, which lets it rotate round its personal axis on unfastened floor like a tank. It’s genuinely distinctive within the Mercedes lineup — although a 2026 recall masking 3,734 early electrical G-Wagens discovered their wheel bolts may fall off below the electrical drivetrain’s added torque. A 116-kWh battery sits low within the ladder body for an EPA-estimated vary of round 239 miles. Moreover, 200-kW quick charging will get it from 10 to 80 p.c in roughly half an hour.

Maybach was type of its personal model inside the Mercedes umbrella when it launched the 57 S and the long-wheelbase 62 S in 2005. Both ran a 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 lifted straight from the Mercedes S65 AMG, making 604 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. This allowed the shorter 57 S to succeed in 60 mph in below 5 seconds and attain a claimed high velocity of 172 mph. This was not the tip of it, although. Mercedes gave the 57 S and 62 S a mid-cycle facelift on the 2010 Beijing Motor Show, and quietly bumped the identical AMG-built V12 to 630 horsepower, whereas torque remained unchanged at 738 lb-ft. That’s not simply extra energy than the originals — it is greater than the 621-hp Maybach S 680 that carries the Maybach identify at the moment.

In its facelifted guise, the 2010 630-horsepower 57 S may reportedly attain 60 mph in as little as 4.6 seconds, with an unrestricted high velocity estimated at over 190 mph. This underlines simply how particular the Maybach lineup was at launch. In 2003, the usual Maybach 57 began at $308,000. By the time the 604-hp S variant arrived for 2006, its base worth had climbed previous $367,000. Thankfully, depreciation hasn’t been type to both of those, and the most cost effective 57 S examples have offered for as little as $44,000.