Mercedes Benz AMG UK Hammers

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Riva144

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Jun 13, 2021
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London
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SLR 722, R129, 500E, 500E LTD, G55 AMG, Maybach 57, Taycan Cross Tourismo 4S, 993 Turbo S, Fiat 500
I have been trying to find any information on pre merger AMG's that were built in RHD. I know Stratton's were the guys who did them back in the day, but it's very hard to find information on how many were converted or still exist today.

I follow the Patina Collective on Instagram and they bought a lovely red RHD 3.2ce widebody still with the Strattons kit, a source said only 2 exist, where is the other one?

Of course you could buy these cars less than 10 years ago for a fraction of the price today however I can't help but think there are some old garages full of them, maybe not full but even 1 would be a find, wishful thinking of course.

I went to the Concours of Elegance back in 2018 and saw a RHD 300E with 5.0 AMG conversion, the owner didn't want to sell then and I am sure he doesn't want to sell now. As a keen collector and enthusiast these cars excite me so much more than the modern ones, my G55 gives makes me smile every time I get in it, not when I have to fill it up every 100 miles.

Anyone got any stories about these from way back when or even now? I would love to hear them. There was a thread from 2007 with the then owner of this car, I know it went through Avantgarde around 2014, I imagine to the current owner.

It is a thing of beauty.
 

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There was very little documentation on AMG builds back before the merger. This is complicated more by the fact Stratton didn't seem to ever build the same car in the same way twice and even they sent some back to the factory if it was a full on build from the ground up.

Then much of what history there was was lost in a factory move by Mercedes a few year back.

Then there are some who don't consider any of these cars to be an actual "Hammer" unless it was built back at the factory in Germany - like the George Harrison car that Talbir bought.

You'll simply not find a difinitive list of what was built, we looked for this information 20 years ago when I was heavily into the SEC AMG's. I even mananged to get a genuine AMG bodykit from Mercedes Germany back then for a narrowbody facelift SEC AMG.

The beauty of AMG back then was you could have anything you like, it really was a old school bespoke custom build - but you had to pay. Often more than the cost of new Ferrari, or Aston Martin at the time. That's why here are so few of them.
 
There was very little documentation on AMG builds back before the merger. This is complicated more by the fact Stratton didn't seem to ever build the same car in the same way twice and even they sent some back to the factory if it was a full on build from the ground up.

Then much of what history there was was lost in a factory move by Mercedes a few year back.

Then there are some who don't consider any of these cars to be an actual "Hammer" unless it was built back at the factory in Germany - like the George Harrison car that Talbir bought.

You'll simply not find a difinitive list of what was built, we looked for this information 20 years ago when I was heavily into the SEC AMG's. I even mananged to get a genuine AMG bodykit from Mercedes Germany back then for a narrowbody facelift SEC AMG.

The beauty of AMG back then was you could have anything you like, it really was a old school bespoke custom build - but you had to pay. Often more than the cost of new Ferrari, or Aston Martin at the time. That's why here are so few of them.

Very true, I did hear they lost a lot of history when they made the move. The SEC is a beautiful machine. I would love a low mileage one.
 
There was very little documentation on AMG builds back before the merger. This is complicated more by the fact Stratton didn't seem to ever build the same car in the same way twice and even they sent some back to the factory if it was a full on build from the ground up.

Then much of what history there was was lost in a factory move by Mercedes a few year back.

Then there are some who don't consider any of these cars to be an actual "Hammer" unless it was built back at the factory in Germany - like the George Harrison car that Talbir bought.

You'll simply not find a difinitive list of what was built, we looked for this information 20 years ago when I was heavily into the SEC AMG's. I even mananged to get a genuine AMG bodykit from Mercedes Germany back then for a narrowbody facelift SEC AMG.

The beauty of AMG back then was you could have anything you like, it really was a old school bespoke custom build - but you had to pay. Often more than the cost of new Ferrari, or Aston Martin at the time. That's why here are so few of them.

Really appreciate that insight. I saw a YouTube vid a few nights ago about some chap in America saying he managed to buy an original SEC Wideboy (without the 6.0 engine) that had essentially been abandoned. He was almost bragging that he bought such a rare, expensive car for peanuts ....... And I couldn't help but think 'Without the engine and presumably without the paperwork (Seeing as it has been abandoned), how do you know it was an actual AMG build and not just a kit that was bolted on at a local bodyshop?'
 
Really appreciate that insight. I saw a YouTube vid a few nights ago about some chap in America saying he managed to buy an original SEC Wideboy (without the 6.0 engine) that had essentially been abandoned. He was almost bragging that he bought such a rare, expensive car for peanuts ....... And I couldn't help but think 'Without the engine and presumably without the paperwork (Seeing as it has been abandoned), how do you know it was an actual AMG build and not just a kit that was bolted on at a local bodyshop?'

Would be interesting to see that YT video.
Can you link?
 
Curated TV by John Temerian on youtube have done a couple videos about hunting these down and the more recent one suggested they were in the process of trying to create a register, may be worth getting in touch with them
 
Love the Hammers....this is my favourite...the 1992 300 CE 6.0 AMG Widebody.....only 12 ever built. One sold in 2019 for £207,000!

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Just picked up on this thread. The Hammer you see at the Concours was my car back in the 2000's. I found it advertised in a 3 line advert in Mercedes Enthusiast which stated that it had a busted engine.

Long story short I bought the car and it was in a sorry state. My luck changed when I found the original mechanics who worked for Srattons back in the day and they rebuilt the quad cam V8 for me and did a great job.

I sorted the bodywork and researched the cars history which turned out to be the 1st of the 3 RHD Hammers. It was the press car and appeared in a number of mags back in the 80's.

There is a lot of mis information out there regarding Hammers and when people say its not a real Hammer if it wasn't built at AMG....well most of the American Hammers were built in the US by Hartmut Feyhl the AMG Tech Director in the US.

Srattons here in the UK were the agents for AMG and they had a big influence on AMG as they were doing some interesting conversions such as G Wagens for the Middle East fitted with AMG's Quad Cam V8 and apparently it was Ron Stratton who suggested fitting the Quad Cam into the newly introduced W124 and the rest is history. My Hammer was a very early W124...from memory July 1985 making it one of the earliest W124's in RHD. It started life as a 200 (as were all 4 door Hammers) and was then converted into the Hammer and it was a huge conversion, hence the price at the time.

Having got the car back onto the road I sold it shortly thereafter as I got my enjoyment from resurrecting a busted rare car and enjoyed the hunt for parts, history and finding the guys to work on it. It was an awesome car and I fondly remember having an entertaining dice on the M40 late one night with a guy in a Lamborgini who couldn't figure out how a 1985 old Merc was keeping up with him...his salute and shrugged shoulders and quizzical look on his face was a picture.

It's in very good hands with the guy who owns it now.
 
Just picked up on this thread. The Hammer you see at the Concours was my car back in the 2000's. I found it advertised in a 3 line advert in Mercedes Enthusiast which stated that it had a busted engine.

Long story short I bought the car and it was in a sorry state. My luck changed when I found the original mechanics who worked for Srattons back in the day and they rebuilt the quad cam V8 for me and did a great job.

I sorted the bodywork and researched the cars history which turned out to be the 1st of the 3 RHD Hammers. It was the press car and appeared in a number of mags back in the 80's.

There is a lot of mis information out there regarding Hammers and when people say its not a real Hammer if it wasn't built at AMG....well most of the American Hammers were built in the US by Hartmut Feyhl the AMG Tech Director in the US.

Srattons here in the UK were the agents for AMG and they had a big influence on AMG as they were doing some interesting conversions such as G Wagens for the Middle East fitted with AMG's Quad Cam V8 and apparently it was Ron Stratton who suggested fitting the Quad Cam into the newly introduced W124 and the rest is history. My Hammer was a very early W124...from memory July 1985 making it one of the earliest W124's in RHD. It started life as a 200 (as were all 4 door Hammers) and was then converted into the Hammer and it was a huge conversion, hence the price at the time.

Having got the car back onto the road I sold it shortly thereafter as I got my enjoyment from resurrecting a busted rare car and enjoyed the hunt for parts, history and finding the guys to work on it. It was an awesome car and I fondly remember having an entertaining dice on the M40 late one night with a guy in a Lamborgini who couldn't figure out how a 1985 old Merc was keeping up with him...his salute and shrugged shoulders and quizzical look on his face was a picture.

It's in very good hands with the guy who owns it now.
Wow that is a great story, well done. 👏

So the owner now is the person you sold it too? Worth asking if they want to sell?

I have a 190E 3.2 AMG that is supposedly the only RHD 3.2 190 but I don’t have much paperwork with it. Anyway you can point me in the direction of who helped you track the history?

Tjanks
 
Wow that is a great story, well done. 👏

So the owner now is the person you sold it too? Worth asking if they want to sell?

I have a 190E 3.2 AMG that is supposedly the only RHD 3.2 190 but I don’t have much paperwork with it. Anyway you can point me in the direction of who helped you track the history?

Tjanks
Re tracking down History....that was all period Magazines and Internet..took a lot of leg work.

As for who owns it....I'm afraid that's down to them and is not something I'm going to divulge as it's not my car any more.
 
Just picked up on this thread. The Hammer you see at the Concours was my car back in the 2000's. I found it advertised in a 3 line advert in Mercedes Enthusiast which stated that it had a busted engine.

Long story short I bought the car and it was in a sorry state. My luck changed when I found the original mechanics who worked for Srattons back in the day and they rebuilt the quad cam V8 for me and did a great job.

I sorted the bodywork and researched the cars history which turned out to be the 1st of the 3 RHD Hammers. It was the press car and appeared in a number of mags back in the 80's.

There is a lot of mis information out there regarding Hammers and when people say its not a real Hammer if it wasn't built at AMG....well most of the American Hammers were built in the US by Hartmut Feyhl the AMG Tech Director in the US.

Srattons here in the UK were the agents for AMG and they had a big influence on AMG as they were doing some interesting conversions such as G Wagens for the Middle East fitted with AMG's Quad Cam V8 and apparently it was Ron Stratton who suggested fitting the Quad Cam into the newly introduced W124 and the rest is history. My Hammer was a very early W124...from memory July 1985 making it one of the earliest W124's in RHD. It started life as a 200 (as were all 4 door Hammers) and was then converted into the Hammer and it was a huge conversion, hence the price at the time.

Having got the car back onto the road I sold it shortly thereafter as I got my enjoyment from resurrecting a busted rare car and enjoyed the hunt for parts, history and finding the guys to work on it. It was an awesome car and I fondly remember having an entertaining dice on the M40 late one night with a guy in a Lamborgini who couldn't figure out how a 1985 old Merc was keeping up with him...his salute and shrugged shoulders and quizzical look on his face was a picture.

It's in very good hands with the guy who owns it now.

Do you have any photos of the car when it was in a sorry condition and after when it was fixed up?
 
I do but they are stuck on a knackered Lap Top

Sratton mechanic you found, did he manage to restore the engine with genuine AMG parts?
Parts for W124 AMG were still available for sale at MB?
The engine did it work like new after and did you get all the horsepower back?

The cosmetic AMG parts were they still available for your old car?
 
Wow that is a great story, well done. 👏

So the owner now is the person you sold it too? Worth asking if they want to sell?

I have a 190E 3.2 AMG that is supposedly the only RHD 3.2 190 but I don’t have much paperwork with it. Anyway you can point me in the direction of who helped you track the history?

Tjanks
Hi bud! Just stumbled across this post. I actually heard about the car being for sale around the same time you bought it through my mechanic. Did you ever manage to find out more about the history on the car? I have a collection of 190e’s (the only variety i collect lol) and would be cool to see the car in all its glory as well as maybe convince you to let me add it to my little collection. Love a 190e!
 
Hi bud! Just stumbled across this post. I actually heard about the car being for sale around the same time you bought it through my mechanic. Did you ever manage to find out more about the history on the car? I have a collection of 190e’s (the only variety i collect lol) and would be cool to see the car in all its glory as well as maybe convince you to let me add it to my little collection. Love a 190e!
Hi bud! Just stumbled across this post. I actually heard about the car being for sale around the same time you bought it through my mechanic. Did you ever manage to find out more about the history on the car? I have a collection of 190e’s (the only variety i collect lol) and would be cool to see the car in all its glory as well as maybe convince you to let me add it to my little collection. Love a 190e!
Hey, I haven’t actually but to be honest I haven’t got round to digging.
the car is with a friend of mine, so I am sure he would happily show it to you. I tried to send you a PM but it won’t let me.
 
Hey, I haven’t actually but to be honest I haven’t got round to digging.
the car is with a friend of mine, so I am sure he would happily show it to you. I tried to send you a PM but it won’t let me.
Ah awesome. I tried to PM too but doesn’t seem to be an option. My numbers 07478 012345
 

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