Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance Book Review – A Must For Automotive Fans, Aficionados, and Enthusiasts

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Category: Haute This Issue

Published on Friday, 06 February 2026 11:57

Written by Janet Walker

Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance, from Quarto Publishing Group, presents the history of Mercedes-AMG, its evolution from racing legend, and the tethered traditions of design and engineering that support the production, to the manufacturer of fine luxury class automobiles.

Published by Motorbooks, author Matt DeLorenzo begins with a Foreword from Sam Posey and an introduction behind the author's motivation and inspiration to create this luxury homage to the Mercedes AMG and its two humble and modest engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher.

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Told across 15 chapters, Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance  opens the tribute with "This Pig Can Fly," "Meeting of the Minds," "AMG is Born," "One Man, One Engine," "From Burgstall to Affalterbach," "From Road Back to Track," "The Hammer Drops," "Official Business," "The Black Series," "Partners in Performance," "Dawn of a New Era: The Mercedes AMG SLS," "Mercedes-AMG GT: Foundation for the Future," "Going Beyond the End of the Road," "The AMG One Story," and "AMG Today and Tomorrow."

The oversized specialty book is striking in design with multiple full page images that include the sleek and sophisticated finished Mercedes from the early square box automobiles to the creation of the luxury SLS class and the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen.

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DeLorenzo presents this ode to the luxury automaker by introducing reader's to its racing roots. "The Pig Can Fly," is dedicated to the early days of the Mercedes and one day in the summer of 1971 when The Red Pig, wowed the crowds with its tremendous speed, ability to corner like its on rails. The Red Pig was able to drift on all four wheels. With the modifications the engineering team put into the donor SL-300 class Mercedes (which had been damaged in a car accident), the Mercedes racing team, led by The Red Pig, was born. Fifty years later, Mercedes celebrated the humble beginnings with a series of three tribute racing cars.

The first three chapters highlight the early days of the German automaker. Chapter 4, "One Man, One Engine," takes the reader behind the scenes into the Mercedes-AMG assembly line, which has modernized over the years, but the company remains dedicated to a one man-one engine build, with each engineer building the high performance engine using an engine stand, much like a stand up computer desk.

While this may seem like a mythical approach to automaking, the pictures included in the book show both, old pictures of the one man, one engine, and a more modern version, an assembly line, so to speak, of one man per engine. The care and precision used to create these luxury automobiles is precisely the reason behind the concept. Granted, the build does require the engineer to push the engine now modernized to rest on a cart, to each part station in the factory, however, the outcome remains the same.

After AMG joined the Benz family, and began Mercedes-Benz, the auto design also changed. The advancement of technologies also aided the metamorphosis of the vehicles. Throughout the years, the design of the Mercedes-AMG, which had always been unique, almost a signature style, blunt lines, a square shape, flat grill with a hood medallion has slowly adapted a more sophisticated style, elongated body, with aerodynamic, rounded curves, the hood medallion replaced by an encased emblem, and grill symbol with the same stylistic changes to the interior, incorporating the cockpit style information board and a center console.

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Soon the Mercedes would evolve again into the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren luxury coupe. To date, each Mercedes-Benz bears the stamp "Handcrafted by [the name of the engineer] Mercedes-AMG Germany."

Chapter 12, "Mercedes-AMG GT Foundation for the Future" includes a two page photo spread of the manufacturers automotive collection featuring fourteen luxury class vehicles from the luxurious coupe, sedans, and convertibles to family vans and the newest addition the G-Wagen, a four by four off the road vehicle.

Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance is a complete history of the evolution of the Mercedes-AMG, its origins, the masterplan, the designs, the continued development of an automotive vision to create a sleek, seductive, luxurious automotive experience, and a glimpse into the future as the automaker envisions.

The oversized specialty book design and the high end paper quality is noticeable adding to the book's overall appeal. Beyond information, the inclusion of more than 500 images provide a lovely sequential historiography of the German automaker's evolution.

Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance is a must have for car lovers, aficionados, historians, and auto enthusiasts, everywhere.

Available online, and at fine bookstores everywhere.

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Title: Mercedes-AMG: Race Bred Performance.

Author: Matt DeLorenzo.

Language: English.

Release Date: March 2025.

Publisher: Motorbooks, a division of The Quarto Publishing Group.

Cover Design: Amy Sly, The Sly Studio.

Cover images: Mercedes-AMG.

Images: Used with Permission.

Length: 224 pages.

ISBN: 978-0-7603-9445-8.

MSRP: $55.00 (U.S.), £38.00 (UK), $72.00 (CAN.).

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.