Inside AMG's bahnburner bunker

A tour of AMG's factory in Affalterbach confirms why the company has built a reputation as one of the best engine makers in the passenger car business.

AMG's facility is located outside Germany's most famous motor city, Stuttgart which is also home to Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Porsche. We're told the smallish industrial park nestled in Affalterbach farmland is shared with other businesses, however, AMG owns the lot. AMG's buildings are modern and compact, and of course squeaky clean.

The engine assembly area even has boosted atmospheric pressure to keep dust and other nasties at bay. It's noticeable on the ears, but dozens of men* are quite prepared to work in the unusual environment.

With reason, AMG is proud to repeat its 'one man, one engine' ethic in production. There is no assembly line fitting here, rather, each 'mechatechnician' is a fully qualified mechanic responsible for building the entire engine to completion. The point of difference, if not already obvious, is that few auto manufacturers hire mechanics to assemble an engine because it's simply not necessary.

Our invite conveniently coincided with AMG's release of its biturbo V8 engine. Known as the M157, the 5.5-litre V8 is the first of AMG's newest engine family, using twin turbochargers and direct injection with piezo injectors.

Despite the smaller (by 747cc) displacement to the esteemed 6.2-litre V8 that powers most of the current crop of AMG models, the M157 whips the naturally aspirated version. In 'standard' form the biturbo V8 is good for 400kW and 800Nm while an optional Performance Package ups the ante to 420kW/900Nm.

The giant figures place AMG's offering at the top of the luxury performance market tree. The whopping torque in the 400kW version comes at 2000 revs and the Performance Package's 900Nm arrives at 2500 revs. The unit weighs 204kg; 2kg less than BMW's twin-turbo six-cylinder.

We can also expect a naturally aspirated version of the 5.5-litre V8 in smaller AMG Benz models such as the next generation SLK-Class.

Assembly of the 6.2-litre V8 continues alongside the new 5.5, though on the day we visited completion of the '63' units was somewhat behind schedule. Among its efficiencies, presumably the new engine is easier to build.

Time in a dyno room is usually appealing and AMG's was especially so. We were shown a brief rundown of engine data feeds but more interesting was communications manager Ursula Schnabl's explanation of AMG's preparedness to test beyond 'normal' limits.

The company tests its engines to a level beyond any normal usage -- run full-pelt for the equivalent of three weeks. Yes: weeks, at (and beyond) redline. Schnabl mentioned a colleague justified such brutality as the necessity to "break things a dozen times then prevent it, before we can believe it's unbreakable..."

Apart from its own lineup of tweaked Benz models, AMG accommodates special customer requests. The more special of those that Schnabl could reveal was a pair of G-wagens designed to the requirements of a photographer of nocturnal animals. He wanted platforms that raised above the roofline and AMG was required to contact the German army in order to factor-in a night vision feature.

Like any Benz vehicle, customer orders must pass crash-test standards. The photographer's G-wagens, for example, actually numbered five because three were sent into crash barriers. Cost of the exercise: an eye-watering 2m Euro ($A2.8m).

While there, we saw AMG's SLS and C-Class based F1 safety cars and two colourful customer-order cars; the desire of someone rich and confident enough for monogrammed 'R's in the headrests of his E63 and his lover's SLK models.

'R' had ordered powder blue trim for the roadster's interior and, worse still, matching brake calipers and a pearlescent white for the wheels! Very Britney. The E63 was trimmed in navy and quilted brown leather... All of it auto sensory overload, but AMG managed to make it look right.

The tour ended with a walk past AMG's test vehicle carpark. Within it were several Benz SUV and SLS models, and notably, a lone Toyota Prius. We joked with Schnabl on its inclusion: "We must cover all bases," she admitted.

*We say 'men' because AMG told us no woman has as yet been employed in engine assembly operations, despite recruitment attempts.

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