Pre-merger AMG products are perhaps the most copied and most sought Mercedes-Benz products from the 1980s. Like many famous works of art, there are plenty of copies, replicas and pieced-together pretenders out there. As with Ruf, Alpina and Hartge – amongst others – you could buy many of the AMG bits originally from authorized dealers and install as many or as few as you’d like. You could also have an authorized dealer install the bits for you. Therefore, the definition of what actually makes a pre-merger AMG a “true” AMG varies depending on interpretation. Most seem to feel that it required at least 3 items to be installed by an authorized dealer of AMG products; a strange definition in some ways, since you could buy, for example, a steering wheel, rear spoiler and wheels – thereby gaining no real performance advantage – but if installed by a dealer, it could be considered an original AMG. Of course, there was much more available than just those items, and the most desirable are the bespoke AMG-engined “Hammer” models with their massive V8s. Not everyone could afford those, so there were lesser models available too:
