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W124 AMG Hammer...a great day!

V

Vlad

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After a long time waiting, I got a great phone call today and was told..." listen to this"....My AMG Hammer was started for the first time in 9 years after having a complete rebuild and sounded awesome.

I was then told that 2 dead mice got fired out the back of the exhaust, followed by hay, leaves and nut shells, due to various rodents making their home in the exhaust system.

Amazingly, everything on the car still works and no warning lights have come up on the dash...the engine is idling nicely and the sound that comes out of the AMG exhaust system sounds fantastic:rock:

The guys who have been responsible for rebuilding the engine will now change all of the brake fluid, diff oil, tranny oil etc etc and then take the old girl out for a couple of shake down runs before putting her in for an MOT.

So after two years since I bought the car, it looks as if I'm going to be picking the car up from Manchester in the next couple of weeks....can't wait.

The plan after that is to have the car reviewed by a couple of car mags who have been keen to get the car into print due to its rarity...so watch this space.
 
Great! I'm sure it'll all be worth the effort and cost. :rock:
 
Pardon for being unknowing, but what is this AMG "Hammer" - it sounds like the devil's car itself with that name (!).

I've never heard of it before...W124 as well, must be like a rocketship!
 
OK...story goes like this.

1) AMG Hammers.....only 27 produced, most of which were CE Coupe's and most of which were sold to the US. The reason why so few were made was down to cost....the last 6.0l versions in 1990 cost $161,000

It appears that 5 saloons were made of which mine is one of them and the only RHD drive version still in existance.

The AMG Hammers came in three different engine sizes...5.0 with 340bhp, 5.6 with 360bhp and the 6.0 with 380 bhp.

The base engine was a standard MB M117 V8....AMG then fitted their own quad cam heads to enable the engines to breathe better. Various other mods were also done, but you would be surprised how much of the engine was stock MB, especially the bottom end.

The BHP's for each engine size were all "rough" figures as each and every engine put out slightly differing power outputs....interestingly AMG would build the engine around a used engine block rather than a new engine block. The reason for this is that the used engine block would have been broken in or "seasoned" as they called it and this would enable them to build the engine to higher tollerances.

These same engines were also used by the Sauber Le Mans cars in the mid 80's where they were twin turbocharged and used to pump out @ 750-800bhp.

Only 195 Quad Cam engines in total were produced....many of them were used and destroyed by Sauber, but they were also used in W126 Saloons and the SEC Coupe's.

Mine is an early 5.0 car....interestingly the W124 went on sale in the UK in October 1985....my car is also registered in October 1985, so must make it one of the earliest RHD W124's and one of the first W124 Hammer conversions. Most of the conversions were done by the AMG Agents in the UK or the US for example, however, as mine was a very early car it was produced in house at AMG in Germany.

The AMG conversions were very comprehensive....engine bay had to be made wider, revised suspension, revised brakes, bigger transmission tunnel, S Class gearbox, bespoke Gleeson rear diff, extra strengthening to the rear chassis, bespoke AMG interior etc etc etc.

In its day the Hammer was at one stage the fastest four door saloon in the world with one topping out at 186mph at Nardo and had faster in gear acceleration than a Ferrari Testarossa, Porsche Turbo and Lamborgini Countach....not bad for a 4 door automatic

Mine was then used as the UK press car and used to run on the registration "1 AMG". The car was reviewed by a couple of car mags at the time and I have a copy of an article by Fast Lane Magazine, a mag which is no longer with us.

The car then passed through various hands, one of which was a Hong Kong Kung Fu movie star.

The car then came off the road 9 years ago with just 42,000 miles from new with a cracked cylinder block. It then sat in a Barn, albeit in a car cocoon with the engine sitting along side it.

I bought it as seen and then spent the next 12 months looking for somebody who could rebuild the engine.

I was finally tipped off by a fellow member of the MB Owners Club that I should speak to some guys in Manchester. Turned out that these guys were the ex AMG mechanics who used to work for Strattons the UK AMG agents prior to MB takeover of AMG. They had set up their own garage specialising in high performance motors.

I therefore loaded the huge V8 into my wife's A Class:eek: and took it upto Manchester. The guys at R&D Motors were superb...they had the heads off in 10 minutes and still had tool cabinets from their AMG days with all of the specialist AMG tools.

The trick to these engines is understanding how to set them up as there is very little information left that has things like valve clearances, timing etc written down....thankfully the main man, Nick, still had this info lodged in his brain!!!! He was also able to know that things like Plug seals for the engines were Jaguar items....had it not been for Nick, there is no way I would have been able to get this engine back up and running.

I left the engine with them and told them to work on it when they could.....15 months later its ready;) ....I've been in no rush to speed it along as I have had more than enough other stuff to occupy my mind in the meantime, such as a new business etc etc.

In terms of what my AMG Hammer looks like....well it looks like any other 1985 C reg W124 albeit in very very good condition. OK it sports some 17" AMG Aero 1's and a nice AMG Exhaust, but other than that it looks standard. It originally had a typically over the top mid 80's AMG bodykit fitted to it, but a later owner took it back to Strattons and asked them to strip it off as he wanted the ultimate wolf in sheeps clothing and thats how it still looks today. I would have attached a photo but its on an old computer thats knackered, but I'll post some when I get it back.

So there you have it...a quick history lesson on the Hammer.
 
Sounds fantastic. I remember reading the article in Fast Lane too !
Nice one
 
Well done mate, sounds amazing cant wait for pics..:rock:
 
I've got most editions of Fast Lane in the garage. I'll look for the article at the weekend. What issue was it?

PJ
 
Fantastic news, and riveting read.

I suspect you may never sell, and fear I could never afford it, but please give me first refusal if you decide it's time to move on!! My mouth is watering just reading about it!! :)
 
Would be a good story for the Gazette.
 
Top stuff, I can't wait to see pictures and if possible hear this badboy.

A legendary car for someone in the forum to have, and a slice of AMG history as well. AMG equates to cool because of cars like the Hammer!
 
Hate you Vlad ;) :devil: Very good result. A note about my opening comment. Vlad beat me to this monster by a couple of hours and I live nearer to Manchester too :p Dying to see the final result pics.
 
Cant wait to see Pics of this, good to see it being restored to its former glory!
 
Must say i am looking forward to photos - also like the idea that a previous owner got rid of the body kit.

Very few body kits actually 'work' on cars - esp 80's style ones.
 
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