Yahoo Autos Remember When Mercedes Went Crazy and Built a 507-HP Minivan?
Mercedes-AMG offers some pretty weird cars currently–the GLA45 and G65 spring to mind–but none are as bonkers as the R63 AMG. You're excused for not remembering the AMG-tuned R-Class because it's one of the rarest cars AMG ever put its stamp on. No one knows exactly how many R63s were built in its one-model-year production run, but it's almost certainly under 1000, and more likely in the low hundreds.
In the U.S., Mercedes didn't even market the R63–if you wanted one, you had to go to the dealer and special order it. It uses a 507-hp, 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8, sends power to all four wheels, and weighs around 5300 lbs. Oh, and it seats six in comfort, as any proper minivan should.
You can see how the R63's appeal was kind of, uh, limited. While many fork out big money for G63s and G65s, a frumpy, AMG-tuned minivan doesn't have quite the same appeal. Consequently, the R63 was cancelled after just one model year. We, however, think the reasons why no one bought the R63 are precisely what make it so cool. A fast minivan is a wonderfully absurd concept, and AMG brought it to life.
We were reminded of the R63's greatness when one turned up for sale on Bring a Trailer. For obvious reasons, these things don't come up for sale very often, so if you've ever wanted this rare, oddball AMG, you know what to do.
AMG will undoubtedly continue making overpowered SUVs well into the future, but we doubt we'll see anything quite like the R63 again. Sticking an AMG motor in an R-Class may have been bad business for Mercedes, but the result was magnificent.
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