The Forgotten Hammers

The AMG sub-division of Mercedes Benz procures some of the craziest luxury performance cars in the automotive world. From the E30 M3 rivaling 190e 2.5 - Coswotrth to the completely bonkers C63 507 to the twin turbo V8 GT-S, AMG proves how well it can deliver luxury and performance in a road going car. While some of its cars could be considered “sane” compared to cars like the scarcely produced ‘99 CLK GTR and the 622hp SLS Black Series, cars such as the modern S63/S65 and G63/G65 still remain a large part of AMG. In this post, lets take a look at one of AMG’s most forgotten car… the 1986 SEC 500/560 AMG.

AMGs Role

To understand the AMG variants, we must learn what the SEC is. In the 1980s, Mercedes released the S-class in 2 body styles: the SE/SD/SEL/SDL (sedan/saloon) and the SEC (coupe). This is known by the internal code W126. Now where does AMG fit into all this? Well in the mid 1980s, AMG was not directly affiliated with Mercedes despite having upgrade packages for the entire Mercedes model line-up. For the SEC 500 and 560 models, AMG produced body kits and engine/exhaust tuning packages.

SEC 500 AMG

The SEC 500 AMG was the tamer of the two AMG cars. It consisted of a 5.0L V8 that produced between 220hp and 260hp and 265lb/ft and 300lb/ft of torque (sorry I’m American). It was certainly no slouch reaching 0-60mph in about 8.9 seconds and hit the quarter mile in 17 seconds flat. By 1985 standards, this is pretty quick. Between 1980 and 1991 only 30,184 SEC 500 coupes were technically sold worldwide (after 1985, none were sold in American but grey market imports brought them to the States and many other nations). Unfortunately it’s incredibly hard to find sales figures for AMG kits so we are unsure of how many of those 30 thousand cars were AMG spec. AMG even built 2 racing variants of the SEC 500 in 1989 and took them to 24 hours at Spa, but both suffered traumatic problems that caused them to retire early on in the race.

SEC 560 AMG

Now here’s the real beast… the 560 AMG. The 560 AMG is the most desireable of the SECs thanks to its massive 6.0L V8 most well known as the “Hammer V8.” Power sat at a very prominent 385hp and 410lb/ft torque figures. With a 0-60mph time of well under 7 seconds and a quarter mile in less than 15 seconds, this car can still hold its own against some modern sports cars today. Only about 44,000 560s were sold in its 11 year run (once again, very hard to trace the AMG sales) and even rarer is the5-speed manual version. Almost all W126s came with 4-speed automatic gearboxes. Aside from having great performance figures, the 500 and 560 remained at the pinnacle of luxury with immense creature comforts such as everyone’s favorite seatbelt function extending holsters to make reaching the belt easier to climate control to a full wood trim on the dash. Leather wrapped the entire car and an optional leather AMG airbag-less sports steering wheel tied the interior togther quite nicely.

Now that you’ve learned a little bit of AMG history, what other performance cars deserve as much love as their siblings? Let me know in the comments below and I might just write a feature on one! I hope you all learned something today, have a great Monday CTzens!