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We sample five million dollars' worth of AMGs in the desert
Mario Spitzner is a man who loves motorcycles, loves his job, and loves America.
Spitzner is the current director of branding and marketing at Mercedes AMG, a role he started 24 years ago working for Hans-Werner Aufrecht -- the "A," quite simply, in "AMG." He is thin and wiry, always eager, always grinning -- a font of AMG lore and knowledge that he never ceases to dispense. "It's just so cool to be here," he gushed, soaking up the sun from behind blue-tinted Ray-Bans. "If I could work here -- " instead of Stuttgart, where he mostly terrifies autobahn laggers in Italian sportbikes that sound like tanks -- "I would start yesterday!"
See, began Spitzner, AMG was founded by two guys who first hated each other. Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher both worked at Mercedes-Benz's R&D department, hired personally for engine development by Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the father of the SLR. Melcher was an engineer, and an engine genius as well. Spitzner called him "the camshaft emperor."
The two started their garage in an old mill building in Burgstall, shortly after working out their differences and summoning the courage to leave Mercedes-Benz together. It was 1967. Their first race car came four years later; it was based on the 300SEL 6.3, already a mind-boggling concept within Benz's then-conservative halls. AMG bored the engine to 6.8 liters, painted it red, struggled to find a driver willing to race the "Roten Sau," found one (Hans Heyer), found another one (Clemens Schickentanz), placed 2nd at the 1971 24 Hours of Spa, and laughed all the way to the bank.
AMG celebrated its hundredth employee in 1985; they'll have to uncork some more champagne for the 1,200 workers that now ring the clock at Affalterbach. Of those 1,200, just 70 build engines -- a privilege granted after they complete mechanics certification and a six week apprenticeship. These engine builders are so celebrated that customers routinely send them gifts; when they visit the factory, they giddily take pictures with the very man who worked on their car. Some customers go as far to order another AMG only if its engine is built by the same man. AMG does this, sometimes, but "we can't do this on a bigger scale." Is there a popularity contest within the halls of Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft? Not even Spitzner knows.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20131023/CARREVIEWS/131029962
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