The 10 Best Mercedes-AMG Cars Ever

If you want scalpel-like poise and precision, buy a BMW M car. If you want an organ-pummeling point-to-point pace, get an Audi RS car. And if you just want to go very sideways, making lots of noise, with a big, idiotic grin on your face, buy something from Mercedes-AMG.

That’s the way things were for many years, and while those boundaries are getting increasingly blurred as the output of all three of the big German performance divisions covers an increasingly wide breadth, it’s still hard not to see AMG the free-spirited party animal of the bunch. Its cars have always been like that mate who’s brash, opinionated and always takes things a bit too far on a night out, but you nevertheless can’t help but love.

With over half a century of history tuning Merc products, and 25 years since it became a fully-fledged division of the three-pointed star, there’s no shortage of AMG-fettled cars out there. That’s why we’ve done what we know best: picked our 10 favourites, from the sublime to the (very) ridiculous, and put them in a top 10 list.

10. Mercedes G65 AMG

The G65 AMG makes this list not because it was particularly good to drive – we’ve never driven one, but we can be almost certain it’s not.

No, it makes this list because you can’t help but laugh at the idea of what’s effectively a boxy, body-on-frame military vehicle filled with leather and then stuffed with a 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged 621bhp V12. It’s a vehicle so unnecessary, so defiantly out of step with the modern world that it’s remarkable it was on sale in some markets as recently as 2017, and that’s why we love this complete dinosaur.

9. Mercedes-AMG One

Speaking of dinosaurs, you know that Jurassic Park quote? “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could,” and so on. We can’t help but feel it must have cropped up again and again during the five torturous years it took the Mercedes-AMG One to go from reveal to production.

So, can you build a road-going car with a fully-fledged, honest-to-goodness Formula 1 engine? Yes. Should you? Ask anyone involved in the One’s development, and the answer is ‘probably not’. Again, we have no idea how it drives – outside of Merc, a tiny handful of journalists, and whichever customers actually bother to drive it and not leave it trickle charging in a temperature-controlled garage, nobody does. But it’s a total engineering marvel, and the fact it even exists in the first place makes it worthy of inclusion

8. Mercedes SL73 AMG

We’re perfectly used to AMG models being a regular part of the Mercedes range these days, but in its earlier days, its products were much more specialised and far rarer. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the versions it produced of the crisp, modernist R129 SL in the ’90s.

The undeniable peak came with the SL73, and yes, these were the days when the badges actually meant something with regard to engine displacement. That means this car was fitted with a 7.3-litre V12, making 518bhp – all in something that looked near-indistinguishable from an SL280. Oh, and if you needed any more convincing, this behemoth of an engine would go on to see use in uprated versions of the Pagani Zonda.

7. Mercedes E63 Estate W212

Yes, it’s one of the most tiresome car journalist cliches going, but we couldn’t put this list together without a fast estate. Our pick is the pre-facelift W212 E63 (or, if we’re being really picky about chassis codes, the S212 because it’s the estate).

Here was a luxurious estate car with a truly cavernous boot, and a bonnet concealing AMG’s mighty 6.2-litre M156 naturally aspirated V8 (and no, despite what Merc has insisted on telling us for almost 20 years, it’s not a 6.3). What more could you want? Fuel economy? Never heard of it. Oh, and spoiler alert: this isn’t the last time an M156-powered car is going to pop up on this list.

6. Mercedes-AMG GT R

The basic AMG GT showed promise, but the original GT R was one of the first cars to properly show that AMG had more tricks than just juvenile tyre-smoking silliness up its Germanic sleeve. Of course, it could do that too, but it had a breadth of talent that put it right up there as a driver’s tool with the very best from BMW and – whisper it – even Porsche.

Starting off with a standard GT, the R made everything wider, lower, lighter, and tighter. Its party trick (other than its 4.0-litre 577bhp twin-turbo V8) was its nine-stage traction control, the settings of which ranged from “I’ve got you covered” to the full-on “hope that tree doesn’t do too much damage”. It was all clothed in that spectacularly menacing, widened version of the standard car’s already pretty body, and was one of those cars that showed the 911 GT3 that it can’t have it all its own way.

5. Mercedes SLS AMG

The SLS could so easily have been nothing more than a retro pastiche, a car defined by its showy doors and nothing else. Thankfully, it wasn’t. It was a jaw-droppingly elegant grand tourer powered by an all-time great engine, the 6.2-litre M156 (yes, it’s back!).

The hardcore Black Series was good, but it’s the timelessly pretty original that wins it for us. No, it wasn’t as polished or sharp to drive as some of its supercar contemporaries, but it was never really about that. It was about covering huge miles in sumptuous comfort, listening to that wonderful V8 barking away, and making just a bit of a scene when you got to your destination and swung those doors straight upwards.

4. Mercedes CLK GTR

No problem! Here’s the information about… only kidding.

The CLK GTR does not have ‘AMG’ in its name, but it was literally built by AMG at its famous Affalterbach facility, so it absolutely gets a free pass here. And do we really need to explain why?

There isn’t a single ’90s GT1 racing homologation special that isn’t painfully cool, but the CLK GTR is up there with the coolest of them all. It had a thumping 6.9-litre V12, pushing 622bhp, and despite being effectively a road-legal racing car, had something approaching a luxurious interior. And we’ll never not laugh at the off-the-shelf grille, headlights and tail lights that were a desperate attempt to link it to the much more pedestrian CLK coupe with which it shared its name – even if it did pull off the look remarkably well. And speaking of CLKs…

3. Mercedes CLK DTM AMG

DTM or Black Series? Which of the two hardcore specials based on the second-generation C209 CLK coupe to include was a point of serious debate, but in the end, we had to go for the earlier DTM.

It just seemed totally out of the blue – normally, when a car company wins a racing series (as Merc had with the DTM touring car series in 2003), the commemorative special edition involves some stickers and a numbered plaque. Here, though, was a full-on skunkworks special with a wider body, less weight, and a thunderous 5.4-litre supercharged V8 under the bonnet. With a 199mph top speed, it was faster than the later Black too, and for reasons we’ll never understand but always be grateful for, it also came as a convertible.

2. Mercedes AMG Hammer

Second place goes to another pre-Merc-ownership AMG special: the Hammer. If you’re not familiar with this car, it was a heavily modified version of the W124 Mercedes – the predecessor to the E-Class – a car that already had a hot version from Merc in the form of the Porsche-assembled 500E.

Available in various guises, the top version featured a 6.0-litre V8 churning out 375bhp – rather a lot in a sensible saloon car in the late ’80s. It came as a saloon or a coupe, while a grand total of one estate was built too. All featured flared bodywork, most were finished in menacing black paint with body-coloured split-rim wheels, and all were almost overwhelmingly cool. But the main reason it almost tops our list? It’s called the Hammer.

Image: Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

1. Mercedes C63 AMG Black Series

The hardcore Black Series cars have always been among the most revered AMGs, and we reckon the lineage (so far) peaked with the C63 Black. Back once again was the M156 V8, now pushing out 510bhp, and making a rather exciting noise doing it.

Complementing it were a host of chassis changes, including fully adjustable KW suspension, a limited-slip diff and a three-stage stability control programme that would allow it to do the kind of long, lurid, smokey skids you always picture when you think ‘AMG’.

And to top it all off, you had the Black Series’ best trick: amped-up, subtly swollen bodywork that made it look like the kind of car whose pint you really wouldn’t want to spill. In short, like the car that topped our list of the best BMW M cars – the M3 CSL – it took a relatively pedestrian compact exec coupe and turned into an uber-cool, ultra-focused, lightweight streetfighter. It’s a damn near irresistible recipe, and that’s why the C63 Black takes our top spot.