Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG V8 Supercar: Erebus's Three-Year Experiment

This was never a factory effort from Mercedes-Benz Australia. Instead, a customer programme run by Erebus Motorsport put three E63 AMG cars on the grid for three seasons, with few results and a short life. This is how the car came about, how it raced and why the programme was abandoned.

What was the E63 AMG built to do?

The E63 was a silhouette touring car based on the Mercedes-AMG E63 W212 road car. It was designed for V8 Supercars' Car of the Future regulations, which aimed to halve costs by standardising the chassis and roll cage while keeping the popular 5.0L V8.

V8 Supercars announced the new rules in 2010 as part of future-proofing discussions, with the goal of attracting new manufacturers alongside Holden and Ford. The regulations came into effect in 2013, a year later than originally planned.

Built around a Mercedes-AMG customer deal, the E63 gave Erebus three seasons of hard lessons before the team switched to Holden.

How did Erebus and Mercedes-AMG get together?

Mercedes-Benz Australia was initially dismissive of the category. On 19 September 2012, however, V8 Supercars announced that Stone Brothers Racing would merge with Erebus Motorsport and field three Mercedes-badged cars through AMG's Customer Sports Program. Erebus completed its takeover of SBR in January 2013.

The deal carried no factory involvement from Mercedes-Benz Australia. Erebus's owner Betty Klimenko funded the programme with existing team sponsors, and the cars could carry Mercedes badges but no other signage, so television broadcasts showed the Erebus logo instead. Ross Stone remained as general manager after the merger.

What was the E63's engine?

The engine was Mercedes' M159 unit from the SLS AMG GT3. It was originally a 6.2L, destroked to the 5.0L limit of the category, and it was unusual among V8 Supercars of the period because it began with a flat-plane crank, a fly-by-wire throttle and electric power steering.

Those features caused early reliability and ergonomic problems. After a weak start at Symmons Plains, Erebus dropped the drive-by-wire system and dual butterfly intakes for traditional cable actuation, following consultation with AMG and HWA. At Pukekohe all three cars finished every race, though none finished higher than 16th.

How did the 2013 season go?

The 2013 season was a difficult debut. Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade stayed on, Maro Engel replaced Shane van Gisbergen, and the team's best results included two top-ten finishes in Darwin and a fourth place at Sandown. Erebus finished 11th in the teams' championship.

Holdsworth suffered a brake failure during the shakedown at Queensland Raceway, and he burned his feet on the pedal box at Adelaide. Craig Baird was given Engel's car at Calder Park to troubleshoot electronic issues, and Slade endured two engine and driveline failures at the non-championship Australian Grand Prix.

Holdsworth then went through five straight retirements across Darwin, Townsville and Ipswich, while Slade managed two eighth-place finishes in the same period. V8 Supercars also let Engel's car and two Nissan Altimas trial a 70% ethanol blend at Winton, instead of the usual 85% mix. The change was reverted after the two Nissans finished first and second in the opening race, despite inconclusive evidence that the blend helped.

Before the Sandown 500, Mercedes-AMG's head of vehicle development said the brand was unhappy with progress, and the team had to win races for its contract to be renewed. Holdsworth and Baird responded with fourth at Sandown, the best result for the car to that point.

At Bathurst, Slade and Thompson crashed in practice, and Holdsworth and Baird finished 14th. Slade was confirmed as leaving at the end of the season, and Engel was dropped for budgetary reasons despite still having a year left on his contract.

What changed in 2014?

Erebus cut to two cars when the Rosenberg licence moved to Walkinshaw Racing. Will Davison joined Lee Holdsworth from Ford Performance Racing, and the team's new livery launched on 14 February 2014 after the loss of its primary sponsors.

At Winton, Holdsworth passed Fabian Coulthard late in the second race to give Erebus and Mercedes their first race win in V8 Supercars. A failed sponsorship deal with Dogecoin later led to AMG Customer Sports branding in Darwin and Townsville, and Davison's first podium for the team came in Race 20.

After Holdsworth's flip at Griffins Bend during the Bathurst 1000, Erebus had to resurrect a Stone Brothers-built chassis for the Gold Coast. Davison took the team's first pole position at Sydney Olympic Park. Holdsworth announced his departure before the Phillip Island round, and Erebus finished seventh in the teams' standings.

How did the 2015 season go?

The E63 began 2015 with a changed team. Ashley Walsh made his main-game debut alongside Davison after finishing third in the 2014 Dunlop Series, Ross Stone left as general manager and Campbell Little joined as an adviser. The car moved from a silver livery with a blue rear-end to a black design, and Davison began the year with Solar Australia backing.

Adelaide was poor. Davison's car shut down during Race 1, Walsh crashed into Andre Heimgartner a few seconds later, and Davison missed Race 2 with a clutch failure. In Launceston James Courtney turned Davison around at the start of the first race, and Davison publicly criticised him afterwards.

Davison then won in Perth through tyre strategy, denying Craig Lowndes his 100th ATCC/V8 Supercars race win. The E63 managed only four top-ten finishes across the next 14 races, and Davison took two seventh places at Queensland Raceway.

For the Enduro Cup Erebus kept the Davison brothers in one car and promoted junior Jack Le Brocq to partner Walsh. The cars carried anti-domestic violence messages at Sandown after a spate of incidents across Australia. Erebus then dropped Walsh after Pukekohe in favour of experienced drivers, and Davison's best finish of the season was 11th at Sydney Olympic Park.

Why did the E63 programme end?

Erebus and AMG confirmed on 9 March 2015, a week after the Adelaide 500, that the customer contract would not be renewed. Erebus planned to keep using the E63 until the end of 2016 with privately developed parts.

That plan changed. Erebus abandoned the E63s at the end of 2015, citing the cost of development and a lack of progress, and replaced them with Walkinshaw-built Holden Commodore VFs for 2016. The team also moved its V8 Supercar programme from Yatala into its Melbourne GT base.

Klimenko later said that HWA had liked the idea of V8 Supercar racing, but that personnel changes in Germany brought the programme back to Australia. Holdsworth confirmed in 2021 that Erebus had been close to switching from Mercedes to Volvo for 2015 before that deal collapsed at Bathurst.

Will Davison later described the E63 as a good racecar that always needed a better set-up window, particularly lower in the rev range.

What happened to the four chassis?

Four chassis carried Mercedes body panels and engines: one built by Stone Brothers before the merger and three by Erebus. Two cars stayed in Erebus's workshop with panels but no engines. One was kept as a ride car before being sold in 2022, and the fourth was converted to Holden ZB panels while keeping its M159 engine.

The car also appeared in popular culture. The E63 AMG V8 Supercar was a playable vehicle in Forza Motorsport 6, alongside other V8 Supercar models from the 2015 season.