A one-off Mercedes-Benz 300 TE 6.0 “Mallett” will cross the auction block in Miami on March 2, 2024. Created by the North American division of AMG in 1988, it is set to sell for U.S. $300–400 thousand.
In the late ‘80s, the then-independent tuning company headed by Richard Buxbaum, introduced the Hammer Wagon, a highly modified Mercedes-Benz estate car with a custom engine rated at roughly 380 horsepower (283 kilowatts). It was a 5.6-liter V8 mill sourced from an S-Class and bored out to full six liters of displacement. AMG also gave it a new cylinder head assembly and four valves per cylinder.
The project was carried out upon the request of an affluent customer and cost a small fortune (arguably without the “small” part). For instance, the cylinder heads alone cost $65,000 – or that’s what the hearsay is, at least. When it was complete, the car garnered ubiquitous praise from the media, prompting Buxbaum to announce a series of similar, but simpler and cheaper AMG wagons. Each would receive an M117 engine block with 16 valves, modified heads, and 310 hp (231 kW) at the output end.
As for the AMG Mallett, it featured a tuned four-speed AT, an S-Class rear differential, upgraded suspension and an aggressive body kit. The local media wrote that the car accelerated and handled way better than most supercars of the era, including even such icons as the Ferrari 412, Lamborghini Jalpa and Porsche 911.
In the end, however, AMG had to cancel the production. As tempting as the Mallett was, it was simply too expensive for a family hauler – even one made by the renowned tuning company. The only example made originally belonged to Buxbaum himself and later went on to change multiple owners, some of them AMG car collectors. It is now being sold with minor cosmetic modifications made by one of those previous owners.
