The Mercedes-AMG Performance Tour celebrates 50 Years of Performance Driving at this year’s SA Festival of Motoring at the Kyalami racetrack.
AMG – these three letters stand worldwide for supreme automotive performance, exclusivity, efficiency and highly dynamic driving pleasure. In 2017, the company founded by Hans-Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher is celebrating its 50th anniversary worldwide with many high performance activities.
For all at AMG, the focus will be on the brand promise of “Driving Performance”, which unites the core strengths of AMG: cutting-edge technology and a passion for dynamic, emotively appealing products. Mercedes-AMG stands worldwide for outstanding engine expertise, which includes not only development, but also the “one man, one engine” philosophy, which means that each engine is, so to speak, handcrafted by one engine builder. With almost 100,000 units delivered in 2016, i.e. over 40 percent growth, and the biggest strategic model initiative in the company’s history, AMG makes this anniversary year with record figures.
“The Mercedes-AMG C 43, C 63 and C 63 S will now also manufactured at our East London plant for local and international markets. Excitement was at an all-time high as the first locally manufactured Mercedes-AMG C 43 4MATIC rolled off the production line in East London in mid-July. We will see the C 63 and C 63 S models manufactured in East London line early in 2018,” says Selvin Govender, Marketing Director Mercedes-Benz Cars.
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Following a successful local AMG marketing campaign, excitement has heightened with the activation of fans testing their growling skills, whilst imitating the AMG growl. Some reached levels of the growl to that of the AMG A 45, C 43 and a C 63 S, and possibly through to the SLS AMG and AMG GT S, affording fans the chances of winning an AMG Advanced Driving Academy course and two tickets to the festival.
“South African’s have shown us just how much they love our AMG cars, especially the iconic and visceral sound exhaust note, and this is why we have profiled our fans doing the growl, while highlighting the inherent beauty of our AMG range. It’s a celebration of Driving Performance as well as a ‘thank you’ to all who hold our brand close to their hearts,” says Govender.
The AMG Performance tour takes place in Pits 1 – 4 at Kyalami, with the AMG GT family performance cars, the AMG GT S, AMG GT R and AMG GT C and the E 63 S sedan. Fans will have an opportunity to experience these beauties in hot laps by the AMG Driving Academy team.
“Launched locally in June, the new generation E 63 S 4MATIC+ is taking dynamic driving limits of this performance sedan to a completely new level. The vehicle’s beating heart is the powerful 4.0-litre V8 biturbo engine, which achieves a new peak power of 450 kW. This makes the V8 the most powerful engine ever in an E-Class,” said Govender.
“Putting in a personal appearance on the track will be motorsports and AMG Expert Karl Wendlinger from Austria. Former Formula 1 and DTM-Driver, Karl has been an AMG brand ambassador since 2013 and is also a popular television co-host and F1-expert. Karl is THE AMG Expert in motorsports and Engineering, and with his invaluable experience, will give personal insights into the powerful world of AMG,” adds Govender.
“The 63 series models still constitute our core product line, and they continue to delight auto enthusiasts around the world. In addition, our AMG GT family series, which was developed entirely in-house, is now available as a broad-based family, with which we have impressively demonstrated our expertise as a sports car brand,” added Govender.
With the Mercedes-AMG GT series, AMG is once again underlining its status as a highly dynamic sports car brand. Following the SLS AMG, the GT models are the second sports car family developed entirely in-house. The front mid-engine concept with transaxle and the intelligent aluminium lightweight construction form the basis for a highly dynamic driving experience. AMG is adding particularly dynamic and fascinating models to the GT family in the form of the GT R and the two open-top roadster variants, the AMG GT Roadster and the AMG GT C Roadster. But that’s not all: following the AMG GT C Roadster, the Coupé is also available with the same next-level performance and technology. Positioned between the AMG GT S and AMG GT R and, is exclusively equipped as the Edition 50 special model. At the same time, the Mercedes-AMG GT and AMG GT S benefit from visual and technical enhancements.
“We are also pleased to showcase the Mercedes-AMG GT C 50th Edition as our hero car at the festival, this model will take pride of place with the Supercar display in the John Love area at Kyalami,” adds Govender.
“We will host various exhilarating activities celebrating our 50 years of driving performance with unique activations in the skidpan area with variants in our AMG 45, AMG 43 and AMG E 63 models,” concludes Govender.
A special focus on the successful Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Agility offering will draw customers interested in to discuss the recently introduced Mercedes-Benz C-Class “Edition C”, in the Paddock area. The latest C-Class “Edition C” model is available in the C 180, C200, C 220 d, C 250, C 250 d and C 300 variants. The “Edition C” uses distinctive stylistic elements and together with a combination of exterior and interior equipment features. Standard exterior features include sporty elements such as the AMG Line, sports suspension, LED high-performance headlamps and 18-inch AMG 5-spoke light-allow wheels. The high-quality interior is even more stylish with the ambient lighting, the multifunction sports steering wheel with flattened bottom section as well as an exclusive trim combination of open-pore black ash trim on the centre console and light longitudinal-grain aluminium trim. These additional stylish features offer customers a much sportier and individualised version of the C-Class sedan.
SUV fans will not be disappointed with the #EveryTerrain interactive 4×4 demonstration in the off-road area with the iconic Mercedes-AMG G 63 and the S-Class of Suv’s, the GLS 63 models. No vehicles are better equipped for an experience of discovery and inspiration than the class-leading top-of-the-range of Mercedes-Benz SUVs. Whether fans choose to experience the legendary G-Class, or spacious GLS, they will always be able to find their best, regardless of the terrain.
The Kyalami Grand Prix facility is a vast area and a number of courtesy smart forfour shuttles will be available to chauffeur guests around the showgrounds. Patrons will unfollow the norm and will get from one area to another conveniently and comfortably as they discover that the funky smart forfour is as every bit as exciting and fun to drive and who knows where the smart will turn up next!
