By Jeff Glucker
The Red Pig is one of my favorite cars. Full stop. It’s a racing Mercedes-Benz sedan that managed to snag 2nd place overall (1st in class) at the 24-hour of Spa back in 1971 and helped kickstart the AMG brand. The Mercedes Classic Center built a recreation of that car, but it also made a madder version and kept it silver. This is the Silber-Sau and it’s a glorious monster.
The above video is directed by our friend Cameron Thuman. He’s worked with Magnus Walker a bunch as of late, and we’re happy to see them shoot something that’s not a Porsche. It’s a short video, but a damn fine one. And yes, I regret never attempting to build the Blau-Sau tribute I dreamed up with my old W114. Hell, I haven’t finished the Wombat, so we know the W114 would’ve taken even longer… so let’s enjoy this actually built and driven (and awesome) machine that is the Silber-Sau.
From when AMG, Aufrecht, Melcher in Großaspach was a real company doing real engineering, not Mercedes Benz’s ‘Ghia’ badge. denoting the top trim level.
They”re leveraged by marketing a trim level, but they’re also making their own ground up cars. You can’t say there’s real engineering still not going on.
I do wish Benz would expand the use of Maybach as they’ve done on the W222, as their own Ghia. As you say, for quite a few buyers, the point isn’t so much the performance as the place in the model hierarchy, and something flashy and comfortable is likely more suitable to the needs of most.
At the same time, while there’s been a bit of perversion of the name (the C43/E53 come to mind – nice cars, no handbuilt engines), the full-fat AMG’s at least live up to the standard of the W124 Hammer, right?
Silver Pig sounds a bit like a Hawkwind/Black Sabbath mashup.