Here’s how close AMG came to winning PCOTY previously

When we began tallying the votes for our 2021 Performance Car of the Year award we stumbled upon a realisation that surprised many of the MOTOR team – AMG has never won our biggest award.

Despite building some of the most bombastic and technically impressive performance cars in modern history, the top step has seemingly eluded Mercedes-Benz and its AMG sub-division.

We have trawled the archives, and poured over previous PCOTY issues to find out exactly how close Mercedes-Benz and its performance arm have come to winning over the award’s 25 year history.

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The AMG bridesmaid curse began at the very first Performance Car of the Year in 1996 when the Mercedes-Benz AMG C36 came second to the Porsche 993 911 Turbo.

There are plenty of brands that have had their PCOTY hopes torpedoed by Porsche, but AMG has had to play second-fiddle a surprising number of times.

This is a testament to the strong record of consistent well-engineered performance cars to be released from Affalterbach.

In total AMG has finished on the PCOTY podium eight times, winning once, finishing second five times, and filling the final podium position a further two.

During PCOTY’s 25 years, an AMG-badged model has finished within the top five an impressive 15 times. Six times Mercedes’ performance weapons have been the first of the non-podium finishers, while in 2009 the C63 secured the brand’s sole fifth-place result.

The cars AMG has almost won with are an eclectic and impressive group; ’99 E55, ’03 SL55, ’18 E63 S, and ’20 GT63 S 4-Door.

This year AMG took two of the three podium places with the A45 S securing third – one up compared to the previous-gen model which took fourth in 2013. The modern classic SLS earned an impressive third place in 2012.

While 2021 is AMG’s first PCOTY victory, we feel like it won’t be the last. For 2022 the bonkers AMG GT Black Series looks set to make a strong run at back-to-back titles – though it’ll have some stiff competition.

Excited? You should be!

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MERCEDES-BENZ AND AMG’S BEST PCOTY FINISHES

1st

• 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro

2nd

• 1996 Mercedes-Benz AMG C36
• 1999 Mercedes-Benz AMG E55
• 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG
• 2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S
• 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4-Door

3rd

• 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
• 2021 Mercedes-AMG A45 S

4th

• 2001 Mercedes-Benz CLK
• 2003 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG
• 2005 Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG
• 2008 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG
• 2011 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
• 2013 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

5th

• 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

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