Hammer on Ebay With 20K Miles

[ak3249]

http://www.musiccitymotorsports.net/web ... s/11096938

Nice looking car at a fair price in my opinion, thats the dealers website.

[48hp]

Looks like the BHMA example that was up a coupla years back. Stable mates, a hammer coupe and wagon.

[kodiak]

What a difference a couple of years and a new owner makes! Looks terrific to me with the detailed paint and different wheels. Wasn't it sold in 2010 for something real low ($39,000ish) back then or was that for one of it's siblings?

[Dr.Grillz]

I think its one and the same.

Not sure what the sedan sold for, could be $39k. The wagon sold for $40k or low 40k's, so the sedan might have been just a tad lower.

[Trooper6]

I believe that's the wagon that Jono bought at Barret Jackson.

Mike

[RBYCC]

All three cars as pictured were owned by Aaron Ruskin at the time....
My 2008 communication with him:

"The owner of Beverly Hills Motoring Andy Cohen Ordered the two and the wagon was done from Harmuth now with Renntech for a Mr Feingold Out of Canada, they are all clear California titles.

WDBEA50D75A624567 300CE ( C124 )
WDBEB93D7HF036603 300TD ( S124 )
WDBEA30D3HA547274 300E ( W124 ) "

The W124 had about 17K miles and was not sold at Barrett Jackson like the S124 and C124.
In 2008 Ruskin was asking $65K for the W124, and I believe it sold privately in the mid $30k range.
I offered $45K but was turned down !!!

Note that the S124 that Jono now owns had a diesel VIN....
It was a Canadian delivery diesel wagon that was sent to Westmont for conversion.

Ed A.

[48hp]

Something about the bland grey interior on this example that just doesn't live up to the rest of the vehicle.

[AMG5PT4]

I am thinking about driving to Nashville to take a peek at this Hammer. Grey interior is a little flat, but the car looks to be in great condition and the price is very good. This car won't last. Georgia Tech is playing a Bowl game in Nashville Monday afternoon....

[48hp]

If there was an AMG to consider as a collectible, the hammer would be ahead of them all.

[RBYCC]

Sold at the "buy it now" for $51,850.00.....not too shabby !!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-87-AMG-HAM ... true&rt=nc

[48hp]

Hope its real, the sale that is.

[RBYCC]

The last auction bid was $41,500 which is still a strong number considering the economy.
It is odd that the buyer? jumped right to the "buy it now" price the next day.
If I was bidding and was willing to pay the buy it now price and seeing the last auction bid was $10K less, I would have bid about $1K under the buy it now to see how much, if any the last auction bid would increase.

Let's see if it gets re-listed or offered to the last bidder?

Ed A.

[AMG5PT4]

I drove to Nashville yesterday to see this car and go to the Music City Bowl (Tech lost, sigh). Met with Sean Petty. This is a legit Hammer and was originally bought from BHMA and assembled via BHMA and/or O'Gara. This was not assembled in Germany or Chicago. This is not an ex-Feingold car (Canada) like Jono's Hammer wagon. I believe the original owner was a MB dealer in So Cal. Aaron Ruskin owned the car (along with a Hammer Coupe and Jono's Wagon) before selling to Cal Turner in Nashville in 2010 (Turner owns the Dollar General chain of stores).

Very original car. Only missing items are the original Bilstein AMG shocks and probably the pre-merger Aero I's (the wheels in the trunk are ////AMG wheels). Still has the full original Sebring exhaust (downpipes, Y-pipe with no cats, Sebring resonator with a couple rust holes and the Sebring rear exhaust). Still has the white AMG springs. Paint looks original and the car shows as a 20k mile car. All of the door seals were as new and very supple.

Negatives - there is a slight sheet metal wrinkle on the DS rear fender running from the top of the wheel arch to the rear door seam - about 8" long. Easy for me to see with the highly polished black paint and shop lights. I could not see any rear damage from a rear hit/bump, but the car was clearly in a minor shunt. The wheel arch was a little wanky - perhaps something happened within the wheel well to cause the damage. These are difficult items to get right without having to repaint the fender. Also, the front left wheel/tire whacked the inner fender panel pretty good - the under coating was rubbed off the steel and the steel was beat up a bit. The interior wood was complete, but all the wood was a touch cloudy for 20k miles. The center shift console piece could use refinishing from scratches and wear. The stock driver seat felt soft. Hate the original vinyl steering wheel. The grey faced AMG gauges - I could see a bubble or anomaly on the speedo gauge - looked very much like a sticker or decal on the gauge face. Could not pick up in a picture.

The car is very straight and original, except as noted above. The car has been maintained fairly well. There are no drips or leaks from the 32v engine or tranny. Even where the car had been parked in the shop for 4+ days, no drips on the floor. The car has a 3.06 diff - could not see a GT stamp, but has to be a GT given the 3.06 stamp on the diff case (was not a stock stamping).

The engine started ok and sputtered/stammered to life to get warmed up. I drove the car a good 15 minutes on the interstate. Got it up to 110 in a short burst. These quad cam engines are brutish compared to my SOHC AMG engine. I have driven 3 6.0 32v cars now. I suspect all of the rubber bits need servicing on the engine, which is a challenge and not easy/cheap. Suspension felt tight and stiff vs the soft stock seats. Definitely has beefier sway bars. Car needs Recaros in a bad way. I did not push the brakes hard. I noted new front 4 pot calipers on the car, but was not blown away by normal braking pressure.

For $52k, this was a good buy. Real deal, good colors, original bits, solid car, low miles. I think the car would have brought $60-$75k at an RM or Gooding auction in Pebble or Amelia, but then you have the 10% fee.

I have many pics if anyone is interested. I may post on the net and post a link if there is interest.

Engine # 310 6.0 28
VIN WDBEA30D3HA547274

Al

[RBYCC]

More provenance on the three Hammers from Andy Cohen as posted on BAT in 2011.

Andy Cohen
September 7, 2011 at 6:55 pm (http://bringatrailer.com/2011/09/06/198 ... ent-249529)


I was the AMG west coast distributor as Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories when the Hammers were built and I think I sold half of them. ALL of the U.S. Hammers were built at AMG in Chicago which was owned by Richard Buxbaum, a good friend at the time and still is, although he is not in the car business anymore. They were also all built from brand new U.S. version cars, and the vin numbers were never changed. By the time the Hammers were built the gray market was over and it was virtually inpossible to import European cars, which is why all the cars were built here from U.S. cars. So EVERY U.S. built Hammer had a U.S. vin # .

Hartmut Feyhl who owns Renntech was an AMG employee in Germany, and he moved from Germany to work at AMG in Chicago. He built ALL of the U.S. Hammers. All of the parts were sent from Germany including the 4 vallve engines and Hartmut built all those cars himself. After AMG Chicago was disolved Hartmut moved to Florida and opened Renntech. He was and is a GREAT technician. The red car was sent to me to use as a demo for a while and was reviewed by a bunch of magazines based in California. for sure there was only ONE Hammer wagon done, and the rest were coupes and four doors. So any other wagon claiming to be a genuine Hammer wagon is a fake for sure.

This blue wagon one was built for a wealthy Canadian named Paul Fingold, who has since passed away. It was bought years ago along with a coupe dark gray and a four door black Hammer that was built for Stuart Hayim who currently owns Ferrari of Long Island and Fort Lauderdale, by a gentleman names Aaron Hochman from Connecticut. Aaron had all three cars for a long time and he had them stored at a former employee of mine’s shop. His name was Aaron Ruskin, and he sold them all a year or so ago-I think at Barrett Jackson. The place called AMG West in Northern California was never an official AMG anything. The guy who owned it was named Barry something and he bought parts and put together cars, but never was connected to AMG in any way whatsoever ever.

Some other AMG trivia:

Ever Hammer was a 300E based car, either four door(most common) or coupe or the one wagon. No 126 body styles were ever Hammers. There were a handful of SEC’s and SEL’s with four valve motors built by AMG in Chicago, but they were not known as Hammers;they were just 126 cars with the four value motor. We even bought a 560SEL with just a few hundred miles on it from Phil Hill and AMG Chicago shipped us a 4 valve motor and Hartmut flew out to California and installed the engine and transmission and other pieces in the SEL and I sold it to a local client. There were also a handful of wide body SEC’s built in Chicago with four valve motors, and Stallone’s girlfriend Bridget Nielson had a black one in Beverly Hills that we serviced. About 15 years ago I sold Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories to Paul Fingold who had the blue Hammer wagon!

[RBYCC]

More Andy Cohen:

Andy Cohen
September 8, 2011 at 7:55 pm (http://bringatrailer.com/2011/09/06/198 ... ent-249691)

Some further AMG comments:

AMG North America was owned by Richard Buxbaum and was in Westmont, Ill and was the, and the only official AMG facility for building AMG cars, and specifically AMG Hammers in the U.S.

My Beverly Hills Motoring business was the West Coast agent for AMG North America, but I did not build cars: all of the Hammers and SEC’s that I sold were built in Chicago with the exception of the Phil Hill 560SEC that we built here in Beverly Hills, but we exported Hartmut from Chicago to Beverly Hills for a few weeks to do the job.

By the way Hartmut is a delightful guy who has the most extensive AMG knowledge of anyone in the U.S. And since there is no AMG facility in the U.S. Renntech would be the place to go to get any AMG work done.

All of the 4 valve engines that they installed were built at AMG in Affalterbach, West Germany at the AMG plant, and they came complete and were installed at that facility by Hartmut. Hartmut worked at AMG in Germany before he moved here to work at AMG North America, so it really was like Germany being here in the U.S. with this setup.

Again as far as I remember there were only about 10 U.S. Hammers built and for sure only ONE station wagon. The Hammer’s required so many extensive modifications to accomodate the big engine in the car that only came with a 6 cylinder motor from the factory, that as far as I know there were NO other cars built with the 4 valve motor by AMG North America because it would not be safe to do so without all of those extensive frame, brake, suspension, rear end, etc. modifications.

The Hammers were basically a 300E body with all W126 components installed to be able to handle the power of the engine and also be able to handle and stop properly. 126 cars were different as it was pretty much a bolt in modification to put a 4 valve motor in a SEC or SEL.

The reason the Hammers were built in North America was that by that time you could not import a Hammer from Europe due to anti gray market regulations, so the decision was made to build the cars at AMG North America with virtually all of the parts that were used in Germany, with the same craftsman, Hartmut Feyhl, so A US Hammer was identical to a German built one except for the U.S. vin #.

The Hammers were all made from BRAND NEW 300E’s bought from Mercedes dealers in the Chicago area. So in my mind it is doubtful that this other wagon was built at AMG North America.

The cars were very expensive when new at $175,000,but they were so much faster than anything else at the time that there were a handful of people that boought them, and all were ecstatic with their purchases.

As far as 6 speed cars go, I do not remember any 6 speed cars being built at AMG in Chicago. I know there were a few 500SL’s
built at AMG in Germany in the early 80′s before AMG of North America was formed with manual transmissions and were imported to the U.S. when Gray market cars were allowed. I remember one white with tan and one black with tan, but there were not many more.

In 1985 I decided I wanted a manual transmission 500SL with a four valve motor. So on a business trip to AMG I asked Mr Aufrecht, owner of AMG, if they could put a 4 valve motor in the car, and they said they would try, so I ordered a brand new European 500SL triple black from a Mercedes dealer in Israel and sent it to AMG.

Mr Aufrecht asked Hartmut, who was still working in Affalterbach as this was before AMG of North America, to try to install the 4 vslve motor in the W107 for me, but the engine bay was just not wide enough to accomodate the width of the four valve heads, and the car would have required major butchering, so Hartmut built me a 5.4 liter 2 valve motor for it, and they used the Gertrag 5 speed manual transmission. It arrived in Beverly Hills a few months later, and it was my everyday driver from 1985 until 1993, when I sold it to a client who still owns it! It had the 5.4 motor with manual transmission, AMG body kit, Suspension, limited slip differential, factory back seat, AMG steering wheel, and an AMG stereo system. It was a fun car and really fast for its time.

One more thing, was that EVERY AMG engine built at the time was put on an engine dyno at AMG,and run at redline for a long time and then checked again before being put in the car. That is why there were minimal engine problems when these cars were new.

[KoenigSpec]

Good info.
Regarding the sale, if I wanted to buy a very special car and I had the money for it I would hit the buy now. Why risk it to go to an other
bidder if the money is no issue?!

[KoenigSpec]

I would get this if I had the $
http://www.gooworld.jp/usedcar/spread/g ... 22001.html

[48hp]

I would get this if I had the $
http://www.gooworld.jp/usedcar/spread/g ... 22001.html

Gorgeous! Now that's an interior equal to the rest of the vehcile's mods.

[48hp]

More provenance on the three Hammers from Andy Cohen as posted on BAT in 2011.

Andy Cohen
September 7, 2011 at 6:55 pm (http://bringatrailer.com/2011/09/06/198 ... ent-249529)


I was the AMG west coast distributor as Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories when the Hammers were built and I think I sold half of them. ALL of the U.S. Hammers were built at AMG in Chicago which was owned by Richard Buxbaum, a good friend at the time and still is, although he is not in the car business anymore. They were also all built from brand new U.S. version cars, and the vin numbers were never changed. By the time the Hammers were built the gray market was over and it was virtually inpossible to import European cars, which is why all the cars were built here from U.S. cars. So EVERY U.S. built Hammer had a U.S. vin # .

Hartmut Feyhl who owns Renntech was an AMG employee in Germany, and he moved from Germany to work at AMG in Chicago. He built ALL of the U.S. Hammers. All of the parts were sent from Germany including the 4 vallve engines and Hartmut built all those cars himself. After AMG Chicago was disolved Hartmut moved to Florida and opened Renntech. He was and is a GREAT technician. The red car was sent to me to use as a demo for a while and was reviewed by a bunch of magazines based in California. for sure there was only ONE Hammer wagon done, and the rest were coupes and four doors. So any other wagon claiming to be a genuine Hammer wagon is a fake for sure.

This blue wagon one was built for a wealthy Canadian named Paul Fingold, who has since passed away. It was bought years ago along with a coupe dark gray and a four door black Hammer that was built for Stuart Hayim who currently owns Ferrari of Long Island and Fort Lauderdale, by a gentleman names Aaron Hochman from Connecticut. Aaron had all three cars for a long time and he had them stored at a former employee of mine’s shop. His name was Aaron Ruskin, and he sold them all a year or so ago-I think at Barrett Jackson. The place called AMG West in Northern California was never an official AMG anything. The guy who owned it was named Barry something and he bought parts and put together cars, but never was connected to AMG in any way whatsoever ever.

Some other AMG trivia:

Ever Hammer was a 300E based car, either four door(most common) or coupe or the one wagon. No 126 body styles were ever Hammers. There were a handful of SEC’s and SEL’s with four valve motors built by AMG in Chicago, but they were not known as Hammers;they were just 126 cars with the four value motor. We even bought a 560SEL with just a few hundred miles on it from Phil Hill and AMG Chicago shipped us a 4 valve motor and Hartmut flew out to California and installed the engine and transmission and other pieces in the SEL and I sold it to a local client. There were also a handful of wide body SEC’s built in Chicago with four valve motors, and Stallone’s girlfriend Bridget Nielson had a black one in Beverly Hills that we serviced. About 15 years ago I sold Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories to Paul Fingold who had the blue Hammer wagon!

Great chunk of AMG NA history Mr Cohen provided. Thanks for bringing this forward again rbycc. More details in the link provided above and here in this thread:

http://www.mercedes-amg-classic.com/for ... Cohen#p857

[48hp]

I drove to Nashville yesterday to see this car and go to the Music City Bowl (Tech lost, sigh). Met with Sean Petty. This is a legit Hammer and was originally bought from BHMA and assembled via BHMA and/or O'Gara. This was not assembled in Germany or Chicago. This is not an ex-Feingold car (Canada) like Jono's Hammer wagon. I believe the original owner was a MB dealer in So Cal. Aaron Ruskin owned the car (along with a Hammer Coupe and Jono's Wagon) before selling to Cal Turner in Nashville in 2010 (Turner owns the Dollar General chain of stores).

Very original car. Only missing items are the original Bilstein AMG shocks and probably the pre-merger Aero I's (the wheels in the trunk are ////AMG wheels). Still has the full original Sebring exhaust (downpipes, Y-pipe with no cats, Sebring resonator with a couple rust holes and the Sebring rear exhaust). Still has the white AMG springs. Paint looks original and the car shows as a 20k mile car. All of the door seals were as new and very supple.

Negatives - there is a slight sheet metal wrinkle on the DS rear fender running from the top of the wheel arch to the rear door seam - about 8" long. Easy for me to see with the highly polished black paint and shop lights. I could not see any rear damage from a rear hit/bump, but the car was clearly in a minor shunt. The wheel arch was a little wanky - perhaps something happened within the wheel well to cause the damage. These are difficult items to get right without having to repaint the fender. Also, the front left wheel/tire whacked the inner fender panel pretty good - the under coating was rubbed off the steel and the steel was beat up a bit. The interior wood was complete, but all the wood was a touch cloudy for 20k miles. The center shift console piece could use refinishing from scratches and wear. The stock driver seat felt soft. Hate the original vinyl steering wheel. The grey faced AMG gauges - I could see a bubble or anomaly on the speedo gauge - looked very much like a sticker or decal on the gauge face. Could not pick up in a picture.

The car is very straight and original, except as noted above. The car has been maintained fairly well. There are no drips or leaks from the 32v engine or tranny. Even where the car had been parked in the shop for 4+ days, no drips on the floor. The car has a 3.06 diff - could not see a GT stamp, but has to be a GT given the 3.06 stamp on the diff case (was not a stock stamping).

The engine started ok and sputtered/stammered to life to get warmed up. I drove the car a good 15 minutes on the interstate. Got it up to 110 in a short burst. These quad cam engines are brutish compared to my SOHC AMG engine. I have driven 3 6.0 32v cars now. I suspect all of the rubber bits need servicing on the engine, which is a challenge and not easy/cheap. Suspension felt tight and stiff vs the soft stock seats. Definitely has beefier sway bars. Car needs Recaros in a bad way. I did not push the brakes hard. I noted new front 4 pot calipers on the car, but was not blown away by normal braking pressure.

For $52k, this was a good buy. Real deal, good colors, original bits, solid car, low miles. I think the car would have brought $60-$75k at an RM or Gooding auction in Pebble or Amelia, but then you have the 10% fee.

I have many pics if anyone is interested. I may post on the net and post a link if there is interest.

Engine # 310 6.0 28
VIN WDBEA30D3HA547274

Al

Amg5pt4, thank you for the detailed review! Rarely do "we" get an experienced, first hand opinion on the vehicles on the market. Glad you had a chance to see it in person and check its vitals.

[RBYCC]

I would get this if I had the $
http://www.gooworld.jp/usedcar/spread/g ... 22001.html

Gorgeous! Now that's an interior equal to the rest of the vehcile's mods.

+1 ^^

[KoenigSpec]

YES, I really like it a lot. The amount of work went in to install the 32V in this cars is crazy. This has the super interior with an AMG production plate on the bonnet. The price would be a bit higher then the one just sold but it is a more fully loaded, complete car.

[bondavi]

Al, did you drive the w126 6L 32V sedan as well (jono's)?

Curious how weight plays a factor between the long wheelbase SEL and the 124.

[AMG5PT4]

I've driven this Hammer, a wide body SEC (client of Jono's) and the SEC that is my DD before the 6.0 32v was removed. The W124 Hammer is a much smaller and lighter feeling car than the W126 coupes, so the experience was different. However, all three cars had similar responsiveness to the brutish 32v engines. These are cammy engines with lots of lift and duration. All 3 were lopey and not smooth at idle and preferred to be at operating temp. I am sure a recently tended to 32v would be more tame.

[RBYCC]

Can anyone confirm if the EBAY buyer has concluded the transaction?