“AMG is getting rich. It seems the world—and especially North America—is filled with those who want their Mercedes to go faster and look sexier”

—Dan Jedlicka, Chicago Sun-Times, 15 September 1986

AMG’s customer car business has always been driven by two principles: Technik, which focuses on technological refinement within the car’s drivetrain, and Optik, which enhances aerodynamics and cosmetics to suit the tastes of AMG’s wealthy clientele. This blend of performance and luxury propelled AMG to the forefront of the 1980s tuning boom that brought billions of Deutschmarks into the German economy. By 1981, American demand for AMG products was surging, and company head Hans Werner Aufrecht sought a US agent to directly manage its rapidly growing business in this country.

A chance meeting that same year between Aufrecht and Richard Buxbaum of Classic Motors in Westmont, Illinois led to the creation of AMG North America. This partnership proved critical to the brand’s success in the US market, where Buxbaum’s bespoke “Westmont” cars, known for their Teutonic quality and American flair, captivated an elite clientele of artists, athletes, movie stars, and business magnates. As one contemporary source put it, “If AMG caused a stir in Europe, it caused a sensation in America”.

Now offered today directly from the esteemed ownership of the man who brought this sensation to the United States, RM Sotheby’s is honoured to present “Blueberry,” a bespoke AMG creation gifted directly by Hans Werner Aufrecht to Richard Buxbaum and his wife, Robin.

Customized in complete secrecy as a surprise Christmas gift, Blueberry’s never-before-told story offers a window into the close and rarely explored partnership between two men whose products dominated the cultural zeitgeist of their time and transformed AMG from tuner to titan.

A WELL-LAID PLAN

Blueberry’s origin story begins almost nine months before its completion at AMG’s factory. In the course of their business relationship, Buxbaum and Aufrecht routinely traveled between Affalterbach and Westmont. These visits typically revolved around discussions about product development, the creation of customer events, media planning, and—most importantly—the sourcing of gray-market Mercedes-Benz vehicles which could be imported from Germany to Westmont for sale to domestic customers. In this way Buxbaum purchased groups of German-market cars sourced by AMG, imported them to Westmont, and then modified them with market-homologated upgrades developed by his own staff.

During one such visit to Affalterbach in early 1984, Buxbaum offhandedly lamented to Aufrecht that it was “impossible to find a 500 SEL in great colours”. Taking note of his business partner’s comment, Aufrecht shortly thereafter sourced this car from Autohaus Karl Russ (Dettingen unter Teck) in July 1984, with the intention of modifying it for Buxbaum. To keep up the ruse, later that summer AMG included the car in a batch of cars offered to Buxbaum for export to the US; he purchased the car in the hope of delivery by early 1985.

Obviously, when Buxbaum bought this car, he was expecting it to arrive stateside as a normal 500 SEL in “great colours”. But to his surprise, Aufrecht decided to personally oversee a whole regimen of custom tailoring and upgrades furnished at Affalterbach, thus setting the stage for the creation of “Blueberry”.

BLUEBERRY IS BORN

As a German-market 500 SEL, this car originally came equipped with a 5.0-liter V-8 engine rated at 230 horsepower, 15-inch wheels, and light grey velour upholstery. Its most striking feature was the rare Lapis Blue Metallic (DB 932H) paint, a vibrant blue-purple hue that Mercedes-Benz only made available for four model years due to production difficulties.

In the fall of 1984, AMG’s technicians swapped out this car’s factory velour interior in favour of full Orion Grey leather upholstery, including patterned leather door cards with contrasting blue stitching supplied by renowned interior specialist Gemballa. A matching Italvolanti Corsa steering wheel fronts a complementary AMG gauge suite finished in light grey with dark blue labels and a speedometer that, optimistically, tops out at 190 miles per hour. The upper dashboard features contrasting dark grey leather, while the steering hub boss, lower dashboard, and remaining surfaces have been tailored in matching Orion Grey leather or grey leatherette. AMG also swapped in power-adjustable seats from an S-Class coupe, trimmed in Orion Grey leather.

Throughout the cabin, all the standard Merecedes-Benz laminated zebrano wood trim was chemically stripped, bleached, and then pickled grey before being hand-rubbed with lacquer to a high gloss sheen. Even Blueberry’s wooden center console storage box and gear shift knob were executed in this same pickled grey style.

AMG fitted the car’s chassis with a complete Bilstein sports suspension system executed to the company’s own specifications. Though the disc brakes remained the standard size, they were tucked behind a staggered set of 16-inch light alloy Penta wheels (8-inch fronts, 9-inch rears) featuring colour-matched centers, polished lips, and billet AMG center-caps. All of Blueberry’s exterior chrome trim was colour-matched to its Lapis Blue Metallic paintwork, as were the new aerodynamic front and rear spoilers, side skirts, and rear apron.

The all-aluminum V-8 engine was supplied with a complete sports exhaust system that begins with a set of hand-fabricated tubular headers and terminates in a single chrome-finished, twin-tipped AMG muffler. Power is routed to the rear wheels via the stock four-speed automatic transmission and an AMG-spec’d limited-slip differential. This curated suite of aerodynamic, mechanical, and chassis upgrades make Blueberry notably faster and better behaved than its stock version, and with performance equivalent to sports cars of its era.

FROM HWA TO ROBIN: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Unaware of the car’s ongoing transformation, Buxbaum and his family visited Affalterbach in late December 1984; copies of photographs from this trip are included with Blueberry’s sale and reveal much about the close relationship between the two business partners.

But what these photos don’t show is Blueberry, which Aufrecht had no doubt sequestered away in some hidden corner of the AMG campus in fear that Buxbaum would instantly recognize its especially uncommon paint color. In any case, Blueberry wasn’t completed yet, and so this extravagant Christmas gift would not be revealed face-to-face but rather by fax machine three weeks later.

Blueberry had evidently been finished by 11 January, the date listed on its original invoice; Aufrecht secretary faxed it over to AMG North America a few days later, much to the Buxbaums’ surprise.

Sometimes, the best way to endear yourself to someone is to get along with their spouse; Aufrecht no doubt understood this when he made out Blueberry’s invoice to Richard’s wife, Robin. Similarly, the list of AMG modifications is equally vague in a likely attempt to evade customs duties, and Blueberry’s total price is listed at “only” 78,085 Deutschmarks.

For Aufrecht—a man so famously frugal and so absolutely committed to growing his business that he literally built his house on top of his factory—to give such a lavish gift was, as the Buxbaums recall “beyond unexpected” and “shocking”. The fact that Aufrecht never again gifted his American partner anything so much as a pair of socks during their business relationship—before or after January 1985—evinces the surprising, singular nature of Blueberry’s genesis.

By March, Blueberry arrived stateside in Westmont; in late April 1985 it had cleared customs and been registered for road use. Both Richard and Robin enjoyed Blueberry for the next 15 months and 15,365 miles, during which time it admirably served varied uses as “the boss’s car” parked out front of AMG North America’s premises, as a school bus for the Buxbaum’s three children, and also a high-speed taxi used to ferry visiting AMG customers between O’Hare International Airport, Westmont, and Jean Banchet’s Le Francais restaurant—the company’s go-to dinner spot for visiting out-of-towners. Buxbaum and his employees were locally notorious for treating Chicago’s highways as their personal autobahn; suffice to say that Blueberry took part in a few of these “test runs” that beat a breakneck path to Banchet’s dining room.

BLUEBERRY, A BILLIONAIRE, AND THE GREEN MOUNTAINS

In June of 1986, Vermont-based billionaire Rick Cohen approached AMG North America looking for a “nice S-class in a unique color”. After a quick chat with Robin and their children—who by now had grown quite fond of Blueberry—Richard Buxbaum sent Cohen a colour picture of the car as well as an offer sheet with the company’s banking information. Cohen’s reply reportedly included delivery instructions to Vermont and a wire notification for the full asking price plus shipping.

On 9 July 1986, Cohen registered Blueberry in Vermont as “2N830” and would use this remarkable AMG as his daily transportation for the following five years—bombing across highways all over New England to visit his company’s ever-expanding network of facilities. During this time, Cohen’s entire fleet of cars was always maintained by Mercedes-Benz specialist John Quay, III of Brattleboro, Vermont.

By October 1991, Cohen was ready for some heavier metal. AMG North America business ledgers show that he traded Blueberry back to Buxbaum for a new 32-valve, 6.0-liter SEL. A few days after the car had returned to Westmont, John Quay walked into the showroom. The only thing more surprising than the fact that Quay had shown up, unannounced, 900 miles from Cohen’s garage, was the revelation that he was there to buy Cohen’s old car and drive it back to Vermont!

In Quay’s ownership, Blueberry was initially registered as “AHK511”, and then later with the vanity plate “JEQIII”. He sparingly enjoyed Blueberry as his weekend car during his ownership, accruing only 12,000 miles between 1992 and 2023. Registration records show that Quay removed the car from use sometime around 2007, and it remained parked in a covered barn on his property for the next 16 years.

Meanwhile, the sale of Blueberry had become a point of regret for the Buxbaums in the years following Cohen’s purchase. Though car dealers are typically immune to sentimentality, this particular AMG held special significance for the family because it was gifted by Hans Werner. Buxbaum often reflects that it was the only AMG he ever considered reacquiring. To that end, he called John Quay every year between 1993 and 2022, inquiring after the car.

These calls never led anywhere until October 2022, when Quay called Buxbaum with a direct message: “Come get her. You’re the only one who will restore her back the way she deserves”.

AWAKENING A SLEEPING BEAR

After assessing Blueberry’s highly original condition, Buxbaum decided to restore it completely, focusing on preserving and rebuilding as many original components as possible, replacing only the original AMG and Mercedes-Benz parts when absolutely necessary.

To carry out this demanding task, Buxbaum assembled two of Chicagoland’s finest restoration specialists and gave them full freedom to complete the job, without concern for cost or time, as long as they adhered to the “preserve or replace” philosophy. Brian Murphy of Willow Automotive (Chicago, IL) took on the mechanical recommissioning, while Tom Snellbeck’s The Last Detail (North Chicago, IL) and Scott Ales of Drycenation (Mount Dora, FL) managed the cosmetic work.

Blueberry’s reawakening began in late October 2022, only days after it had been removed from Quay’s barn and bypassing Willow Automotive’s multi-year waitlist. Upon disassembly, the biggest surprise was the chassis and underpinnings showing no signs of the salt-cured rust expected from a car that had spent the last 30 years in Vermont.

The fuel system required extensive work, including new fuel lines, hoses, seals, gaskets, filters, an accumulator, pump, and hardware, along with a new fuel tank. The braking system also underwent a complete overhaul, with new calipers, pads, rotors, and hydraulic lines installed at all four corners. The cooling system was similarly addressed with new radiators, coolant lines, and a thermostat.

Willow’s technicians replaced the Bosch ignition module and distributor cap with correct-type parts and added a new throttle linkage to ensure optimal engine performance. They also fitted a full set of new belts, injectors, spark plugs, gaskets, and seals across the engine’s top end. Compression and leak-down tests (results on file) and internal scoping revealed that the original bottom-end internals remained intact, retaining excellent pressure and requiring no work beyond further exercise. The camshafts and valvetrain also showed impressive health.

The engine’s original distributor assembly and warm-up regulator received complete rebuilds, as did the front pair of AMG-spec Bilstein shock absorbers. Additional suspension remedies were limited to a pair of front tie rods and ball joints, although the entire undercarriage was fully inspected for any problems and lubricated as required. In total, Blueberry was lavished with more than $50,000 of mechanical labour and parts in pursuit of Buxbaum’s outrageous “preserve or replace” philosophy.

As equally amazing as the structural preservation of its chassis was the fact that Blueberry still wore the two beltline pinstripes which Buxbaum commissioned from legendary Chicago pinstriper Karl Wolbrink in 1985.

Overall, the original Lapis Blue Metallic paint finishes on the car’s upper half were deemed salvageable. The car’s lower half (below the pinstripes), however, was stripped and then precisely colour-matched exactly to the restored and masterfully detailed upper half—thereby lending to the incredible quality of Blueberry’s aesthetic brilliance.

Blueberry’s custom-tailored cabin was entirely disassembled and fitted with a new custom-made carpet kit while the original seats and interior panels were UV-treated in custom fabricated jigs, and all the interior ducting was sanitized and ozone-treated. Most of the car’s original pickled zebrano wood trim had faded, so it was entirely restored by Buxbaum’s own furniture restoration company to match the finish and color specified by Hans Werner Aufrecht. The AMG gauge cluster was rebuilt and cleaned, while an OEM set of Euro-market headlamps were sourced and fitted replete with period-style amber lenses.

The iconic 16-inch AMG Penta wheels were rebalanced, refinished, colour-matched, and treated to a beautifully machined lip which truly sets off the famous monochrome “Eurotek” appeal of the car’s AMG aero kit. Speaking of that, Blueberry’s original aero kit remains intact and required absolutely no repairs except the replacement of its rear decklid spoiler with a correct-type substitute. Invoices on file document that cosmetic restoration efforts racked up nearly 400 hours of painstaking labour and nearly $46,000 in expenditures over the course of 26 months.

BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEBUTANTE

En route to its primetime concours debut at ModaMiami 2024, Blueberry was submitted to an exhaustive dry-ice cleaning regimen executed by Drycenation. Over the course of five months, Ales spent hundreds of hours dry-ice blasting, detailing, and paint-correcting every square inch of Blueberry’s interior, exterior, engine bay, and undercarriage.

Following its very well-received debut at ModaMiami, Blueberry was also photographed in a stellar series of staged shots by renowned automotive photographer Riocam, digital copies of which accompany the sale. Since the completion of its exhaustive recommissioning regimen, Blueberry has been regularly enjoyed at high speeds and exhibited at local automotive events around Chicago such as Fuelfed Winnetka and Fuelfed Lake Forest.

If AMG’s unlikely but meteoric rise from an independent automotive tuner to a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz—with more than 50 racing championships in their trophy case and several hundred million dollars in annual revenue streaming through their coffers—can be attributed to just two figures, than those two must surely be Hans Werner Aufrecht and Richard Buxbaum.

Offered publicly for sale for the first time in its life, directly from the ownership of the man who brought AMG’s legendary products to North America, Blueberry’s sale offers the world’s most attentive Youngtimer enthusiasts an unrepeatable opportunity to acquire a significant pre-merger AMG. More than that, it is a cherished gift of irreplicable provenance—a gesture of supreme respect from Aufrecht, the man who co-founded AMG, to Buxbaum, who helped make AMG everything it is today.