From the December 1986 issue of Car and Driver.

Don't ask, "What's in a name?" Hammer means in German precisely what it means in English, and this car's name says exactly what it is: a hard-hitting tool. AMG crafts it to pound everything else flat.

The Corvette, the 911 Turbo, the Testarossa, and the Countach may be a wee bit quicker in a category or two, but no cigars. They may also take the cake for sex appeal, a highly prized attribute in this speedy league. But this four-door German hot rod utterly flattens them all on comfort, on practicality, and, most important, on the absolutely unadulterated, instantly available ability to rocket across the face of the earth. The Hammer we tested leaped from 0 to 60 mph in five seconds flat. It hurtled through the quarter-mile in 13.5 seconds at 107 mph. And it pounded down a long, flat straightaway to a top speed of 178 mph.

Like the Corvette, the 911 Turbo, the Testarossa, and the Countach, the Hammer covers ground so quickly that you swear you can feel the earth's curvature racing to meet you. Yet the Hammer is different. This AMG-modified sedan keeps you completely at ease as you pierce the atmosphere like a horizontal bolt of lightning. All that's lacking is the stench of scorched sulfur from the shocked aftermath of your receding thunder.

View Photos RON STRONG Car and Driver

We have watched AMG, Germany's famed Mercedes-Benz tuning firm, tap an ever wiser and wider range of experience. Always high on horsepower, the company has now come to grips with handling and aerodynamics as well. Hans-Werner Aufrecht, its owner, and Richard Buxbaum, his henchman at AMG of North America, in the Chicago suburb of Westmont, are moving quickly to expand their market. How better than by offering the fastest sedan available anywhere?

View Photos Ron Strong Car and Driver

Before you auction off the family Countach, however, we have a disclosure to make: the Hammer pictured here is a rough prototype. According to Buxbaum, the performance of the finished products will be nearly identical to our test car's, but a number of alterations to the blueprint are planned before the conversion of customer cars begins. Instead of starting with a European-specification 230E, as AMG did in the case of our test car, future Hammers will be based on U.S.-spec 300Es. (The 230E, which is not available in the U.S., is essentially a 300E with a 2.3-liter four-cylinder instead of a 3.0-liter six.) High-performance three-way catalysts will be added, and KE-Jetronic fuel injection will replace the K-Jetronic of our prototype. Two bodywork pieces that on our test car were fiberglass prototypes will be fabricated from more permanent materials: the front air dam will be made of reaction-injection-molded polyurethane, and the ducktailed deck lid will be steel. Together with the safety hardware on the U.S.-spec 300E, these changes will increase the Hammer's weight. AMG expects no loss of horsepower, however, because the U.S.-specification fuel injection is more sophisticated than the equipment in our test car and should more than make up for the exhaust restriction caused by the addition of catalysts.

View Photos RON STRONG Car and Driver

AMG is also considering the use of stronger driveline components as a result of a failure that occurred during the final stages of our testing: a CV joint and a rear-axle half-shaft broke. AMG views this as a freak occurrence—no such troubles have cropped up in European Hammers—but it also realizes that a carefully nurtured reputation is at stake, so appropriate measures are under discussion. The Mercedes S-class four-speed automatic transmission and differential assembly have proved quite reliable to date in this application, and neither suffered a moment's hesitation during our tests.

Thanks to Mercedes-Benz's original efforts, the car that AMG begins with is thoughtfully designed, usefully packaged, exceptionally comfortable, and wonderfully practical. It gladly carries four adults, plus luggage. And with a little help from the mechanical midwives at AMG, it is reborn to buffalo those who buy megabuck cars more for brazen trolling than for brilliant driving.

View Photos RON STRONG Car and Driver

The heart of the matter is a brawny V-8 stuffed into the hole left by the removal of the standard Mercedes in-line engine. The Hammer conversion begins with the disassembly of a brand-new 5.5-liter powerplant from the S-class line. After polishing, blueprinting, and balancing the all-aluminum engine's gleaming guts, AMG swaps the stock single-cam, two-valve-per-cylinder heads for its own free-breathing twin-cam, four-valve-per-cylinder units. Each engine is carefully reassembled and tested on a dynamometer for eight to ten hours.

The payoff is 388 pound-feet of torque at 4500 rpm and 355 horsepower at 5500 rpm. That's 60 hp more than a stock European 5.5-liter Benz, and 125 hp more than America's hoo-boy 5.7-liter Vette. Just as important, the AMG engine in our test car whirred with no nasty quirks. Around town or flat out, it always slathered its ferocity with imperturbable smoothness.

View Photos RON STRONG Car and Driver

The Hammer is more than just an expensive engine swap. AMG's striking 8.0-by-17-inch alloy wheels look both aggressive and aerodynamic, and they wear Pirelli P700 215/45VR-17 rubber up front and 235/45VR-17s in back. A set of shorter, stiffer springs lowers the car, and the inner fender lips are pruned slightly to provide clearance for the huge tires. Snugly valved shock absorbers retain the famed Mercedes ability to keep the chassis off its bump stops, even under duress. In fact, AMG has made its greatest strides in suspension tuning. The firm ride comes up a little thumpy over potholes, but not harsh. Over relatively smooth surfaces, it borders on silky, presuming you like your silk over a touch of muscle tone.

View Photos RON STRONG Car and Driver

Either of two sets of bodywork finishes off the package. The more extreme choice consists of extra-low front, side, and tail skirts, said to cut the European 300E's drag coefficient from 0.29 to 0.25. The aero package applied to our Hammer hugs the ground less tightly, producing a claimed 0.27 Cd and few scrapes against tall curbs and steep driveways. Thanks both to its aerodynamics and to its tall final-drive ratio (2.24:1), the Hammer's thirst for premium fuel can be limited to a gallon every twenty miles or so when cruising, but only beneath the throttle foot of a saint.

Specifications VEHICLE TYPE

Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 4-door sedan

PRICE AS TESTED:

$137,000 (base $125,000)

ENGINE TYPE

DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads

Displacement: 338 cu in, 5547 cc

Power: 355 hp @ 5500 rpm

Torque: 388 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 4-speed automatic

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 110.2 in

Length: 186.6 in

Width: 68.5 in

Height: 54.1 in

Curb weight: 3636 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS

Zero to 60 mph: 5.0 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 12.0 sec

Zero to 130 mph: 22.8 sec

Top gear, 30-50 mph: 2.8 sec

Top gear, 50-70 mph: 3.1 sec

Standing ¼-mile: 13.5 sec @ 107 mph

Top speed: 178 mph

Braking, 70-0 mph: 165 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.85 g FUEL ECONOMY

C/D observed: 15 mpg

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