A Brief History
In the early 1950s, a young Eric Waxenberger started work at Mercedes-Benz. Over time he grew to be appreciated for his engineering talent and his ability to "always find a way". He quickly formed relationships with some of the most important people at mercedes, such as Rudolf Uhlenhaut (creator of the 300SLR "Uhlenhaut" among other important cars) and Fritz Nallinger (significant to Benz' early development, and influential on the board at Mercedes).
Waxenberger was involved with the production and development of a few of the early SL models, namely the 190SL (W121), the 300SL (W198) Coupe and Roadster, as well as the experimental 220SL (W127), which never entered production. He was also involved with getting the later "pagoda" SL (W113) ready to be taken rallying. He had a front row seat to Mercedes' monumental racing success in the 1950s. The success was cut short however, when in 1955 at Le Mans, a 300SLR collided with another car at high speed, causing it to explode, sending shrapnel hurtling through the crowd, killing between 77 and 83 people, and injuring many more. This event would become known as the 1955 Le Mans Disaster, and Mercedes would pull out of Motor racing almost entirely as a result.
The story goes, that one day, Waxenberger went to the office of Rudolf Uhlenhaut. In Uhlenhaut's office was the chief editor of an influential German automotive magazine, "Auto Motor Und Sport", Hans Ulrich Weiselmann. Weiselmann brought up the severely atrophied state of Mercedes racing program, and allegedly told Waxenberger, "you're finally getting old too". This statement apparently lit a fire under Waxenberger, who proceeded to undertake a rather special project.
It was not only the comments of Weiselmann that inspired Waxenberger's special project. The public as a whole had started to view Mercedes as a maker of cars for old people; comfortable, well-engineered, but slow. Waxenberger's first idea to remedy this situation was to put a turbocharger in the 300SEL S-Class (W109), but the engineers had rejected this idea. The 3-Litre in-line 6, related to the one in the 300SL, was already stressed, and an aging design. Waxenberger's best idea was yet to materialise however, as he turned his gaze to Mercedes' top-of-the-line ultra luxury icon, the 600 "Grand Mercedes" (W100).
The Mercedes 600 was intended to fit the needs of the world's most powerful heads of state, politicians, and celebrities, and was fitted with the largest engine in Mercedes lineup at the time, a 6.3 Litre V8 monster, with more than twice the displacement of Mercedes next biggest passenger car engine at the time. Waxenberger's idea was to take this engine and squeeze it into a car nearly half the weight of the massive 600, the (W109) Mercedes S-class.
Waxenberger took a 250SE Coupe (W111) that had fallen off the production line, and using his flexible engineering prowess, shoe-horned the large V8 into the smaller car's engine bay. Late one Friday night, he took it out for a test drive. He hoped that it was late enough that everyone had gone home. However, Uhlenhaut was still in his office. Thinking he had heard a V8 race car drive by he called Waxenberger into his office the next day to see if he knew anything about it.
Waxenberger confessed to his secret project, explaining that the comment by Weiselmann (Chief Editor of "Auto Motor und Sport") had pushed him to do something about Mercedes' languishing reputation. Uhlenhaut couldn't quite believe that Waxenberger had fit that engine into that engine bay, and asked to experience it in action the next day.
Sunday came, and passed with no test drive. The car simply was not ready, so Waxenberger had a mechanic remove the car's front brakes to make it undrivable. It took only three more days it to be ready though, and Uhlenhaut was blown away. Waxenberger had done it. The car was unbelievable, but undeniably very real.
Uhlenhaut wanted to put the car into production, but he had a few requirements, before he could present Waxenberger's secret project to the company board for approval. The car still needed to cater to Mercedes typical audience somewhat, so it needed to be more luxurious to drive, and it needed it's body-roll to be reduced. Oh, and it needed to be ready in a fortnight.
Waxenberger, of course, pulled it off, and the car was presented to the board. There where complaints, saying that the government would never certify such a monstrous car, and that they would never sell, but these complaints where overruled. As far as the boss, Fritz Nallinger, was concerned, Waxenberger had created something outstanding.
Waxenberger was instructed to make the car ready for the public, so that it could be sold. As part of this he took the car out on public roads for testing. Allegedly, during one of theses test runs he passed a Porsche 911 at over 230km/h (143mph). The bewildered 911 driver caught up to Waxenberger at a petrol station and asked him what kind of car he driving. Waxenberger told him he could just check the badge on the back of the car, but the 911 driver was sure that it couldn't possibly just be a normal 250SE. Waxenberger told him his speedo must not be working. The 911 driver insisted that he was sure he had been doing 230km/h. So Waxenberger told the driver of the flat-6 Porsche 911 that he must be missing two cylinders. After the 6.3 was officially presented to the public, the Porsche driver called Waxenberger to tell him he knew why Waxenberger had said he was missing two cylinders now.
Just six weeks passed after the 250SE test mule was first driven before the Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 was ready for production. 6526 were sold to the public, far more than the, "not even fifty", that had been claimed by the less optimistic members of the board. Waxenberger was not yet done with his secret project though. It was time to take Mercedes back to the racetrack.
Back in 1955, after the Le Mans Disaster, Mercedes had nearly entirely pulled out of racing, and didn't intend to return. Waxenberger had other ambitions, so when Mercedes received a call from a Mercedes dealer in Macau asking if they could compete in the 6 Hours of Macau endurance race, and Uhlenhaut gave his approval to go ahead, Waxenberger was on his way.
The Mercedes upper management where unaware of this racing attempt, as they would never have approved. The car used for the race was likely owned by Hong Kong billionaire Sir Albert Poon. All the other competitors where incredulous that someone would enter a large Mercedes sedan in an race like this, and expected it to perform poorly when up against Porsches, BMWs and the like. Their expressions must have been quite something to behold when they where all beaten. Especially, when they learned the main driver was an engineer named Eric Waxenberger.
Waxenberger then wanted to enter the car at Spa. He gathered three more competent drivers, and bored out the engines of three modified 300SEL 6.3s to 6.8 Liters. This time however Mercedes became aware of his antics before he could pull anything off, and removed any uncertainty. Mercedes was not going racing.
Waxenberger accepted that he could not convince Mercedes management to budge any further. However, he made sure that the cars themselves would get a chance. The cars where given to Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, owners of a growing Mercedes tuner company known as AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher, and Großaspach).
Aufrecht and Melcher would take the already tuned Mercs and tune them further, painting them red in the process, creating what would later become known as the, "Rote Sau", or Red Swine (often mistranslated as Red Pig). The Rote Sau would take them to second place at Spa, a massive victory. In the process they cemented their reputation as a legendary tuner brand and the legacy of a now legendary car, a true classic, the Mercedes 300SEL 6.3.