For Sale: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 560 in San Diego, California

Symbolic International is pleased to present this awesome late-80's/early-90's German supercar icon better known as the 560SEC AMG 6.0 Widebody.

These were produced while AMG was still totally independent of Mercedes-Benz as their most respected tuner.... So respected that just a few years later in '93/'94 MBZ purchased a 51% share of AMG and shortly after started offering the first post-merger AMG car that was the small sedan called the C36 AMG (first offered here to U.S. customer in early '95).

According to Motor Trends roadtest in 1989 of a U.S. spec (10-15 less hp than our Euro-spec car here) AMG 6.0 Widebody SEC, it will achieve 0-60mph in 5.8 seconds and the 1/4 Mile in 14.3 seconds thanks to is AMG massaged 385hp V8. In 1990, the full cost of this car was $143,500 USD ($280,000 in todays USD).

- 3-owner SEC
- 66,850 Miles (107,648 kilometers)
- "Blauschwarz" (paint code: 199) with Black Recaro Seated Interior
- 6.0L AMG V8 (type: M117) Producing 385hp & 410 Pounds of Torque ($39,950 6.0L Engine Conversion in 1990)
- 4-speed Automatic Transmisison
- Fortified Gleason-Thorsen Limited-Slip Differential ($2,395 option in 1990)
- AMG Tubular Headers ($1,695 option in 1990)
- AMG Exhaust ($3,300 in 1990)
- 17" 3-Piece O.Z Racing/AMG "Aero" Wheels ($5,125 in 1990)
- "Big Red" Brembo Front Brake Calipers
- Momo Euro Type M38 "AMG" Steering Wheel
- Power Sunroof
- Newer Tires

Compression Numbers (as of May 7, 2019):

Cylinder # PSI
1 155
2 155
3 153
4 155
5 155
6 155
7 153
8 154

Background:
AMG was founded as a racing engine forge in 1967 under the name AMG Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (AMG Engine Production and Development, Ltd.), by former Mercedes engineers Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher in Burgstall an der Murr, near Stuttgart. The letters "AMG" stand for Aufrecht, Melcher and Gro�aspach (Aufrecht's birth Town). In 1976 most of AMG moved to Affalterbach, with the racing-engine development remaining at the old location in Burgstall. At this time Erhard Melcher ceased to be a partner, but continued to be an employee at the Burgstall location.

From 1986 to 1992, interest and the desirability of AMG tuned and prepared Mercedes Benz road cars bordered on the obsessive with demand and interest far exceeding the small firms capabilities to keep up. These facts were not overlooked by MB corporate personal and in 1993, Daimler-Benz AG and AMG signed a contract of cooperation, allowing AMG to leverage Daimler-Benz's extensive dealer network and leading to commonly developed vehicles (the first one being the Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG, in 1993). On 1 January 1999 DaimlerChrysler, as it was called between 1998 and 2007, acquired 51 percent of AMG shares, and AMG was renamed to Mercedes-AMG GmbH.4 #fn4 Racing engine development was divested and continues to exist in Burgstall under the name HWA (Aufrecht's initials). On 1 January 2005 Aufrecht sold his remaining shares to DaimlerChrysler, and since then Mercedes-AMG GmbH has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG.

1986-1992 The Golden Years of AMG:
The release of the AMG Hammer sedan in 1986, based on the W124 E-Class, took AMG's performance modifications for a fast midsized sedan to a new level. AMG made the world's fastest passenger sedan at the time, nicknamed the Hammer,7 #fn7 by squeezing Mercedes 5.6-litre V8 tuned by AMG to 360 hp into a midsized sedan. It was very aggressive for the era, with 32-valve cylinder heads and twin camshafts, and said to be faster than the Lamborghini Countach from 60 to 120 mph.8 #fn8 Later models were even more powerful and introduced the 17-inch AMG Aero 1 Hammer wheels. 1986 was also the year Mercedes introduced the 560 M117 engine. This provided yet another opportunity for customers to order the largest AMG displacement available at the time, the 6L 100 mm bore SOHC or DOHC engines available for both the W126 coupe and sedans.

1990 AMG 560SEC 6.0 Wide-Body "Widenamebody":
AMG received a series of orders from several prominent Japanese Private Museums and Collectors in the late 1980s. Shortly thereafter the first of a handful of fully re-engineered 560 SEC 6.0 "Wide-Body" Coupes fitted with the ultimate development of the already legendary M117/9 V-8 engines appeared in several Japanese motor shows. The engines were now fully developed to 6.0-liters with radically improved cam and ignition timing on the quad-cam, four-valve cylinder heads. Massive increases in bhp were achieved but more impressive was the fact that these machines now produced more than twice the torque and at 1/2 the rpm of the original MB Factory design. The result was un-heard of performance in an utterly reliable overall package that came with the same warranty as provided new by the MB Factory. Such performance and utter exclusivity came at a steep cost. Individual sale prices varied but they were now all in excess of $200,000 and even at that level, there were long wait lists and very few such examples were completed.

WDB1260451A367614:
This particular 6.0 Wide-Body was one of 6 similar vehicles completed for Japanese enthusiasts based on a series of orders submitted in the Spring of 1990. These were all ordered and completed at about the same time and based on brand new, fully warranted 1990 560 SEC models. Unlike some later examples, these six vehicles were all "clean-build" from new by AMG Germany on brand-new, Tourist Export, German Market 560 SEC models delivered directly form Mercedes Benz to AMG for conversion and completion.

The transformation and re-engineering took a fair amount of time and it was nearly two years before they began to appear at Japanese Motor Shows and in various Japanese enthusiast magazines. This led at the time and still to this day a false belief that these were being assembled in Japan by a new devision of AMG. The simpler answer was that at the time few other buyers had so much extra cash on hand to give AMG free reign to build and design as best they could with otherwise little to no restriction. A handful of additional examples were completed before AMG came under more direct control of the MB Factory in 1993 and the model phased out of production.

Our subject AMG 6.0 Wide-Body was built under AMG Production Sequence No. "473 6.0 37" which is stamped in various places on the vehicle today. This loosely brakes down to AMG sequential assembly project No. 73 and that it is a type 6.0-liter, four-cam, four valve "wide-body 560 SEC. It was sequentially the 37th of a total of 100 planed vehicles to be completed in the program. (Today, most experts do not believe that many were actually completed and the actual total production run is probably less than 50 examples.) After initially delivery and road-registration to Japan, this example remained carefully conserved and preserved in the care of an obsessive Japanese enthusiast many years during which time it covered just over 107,643 kilometers (66,886 miles.)

This is absolutely warranted and guaranteed to be an original AMG, full steel-bodied example built new and not converted on an used or donor vehicle. ...for more information please contact the seller.