Mercedes-AMG Shut Down LA's 6th Street Bridge For The Most Outrageous Car Reveal Ever

For decades, new cars were mainly unveiled at auto shows because auto shows were important. These days, auto shows are arguably less important than they've ever been, so automakers have been finding new ways to reveal their new models. Alternative sorts of car shows, like Monterey Car Week and Villa d'Este, are pretty good places to do it. I've also been to some great car reveals at eight-figure houses in the Hollywood Hills, on rooftops and in theaters, or occasionally on a shut-down part of a city street.

Even the more interesting debuts are usually very automotive media–focused, even if a handful of buyers, investors, and influencers will also be there. They might be live-streamed if it's a particularly big-deal car or if a celebrity spokesperson is there, but it's typically just the real car nerds watching. There's usually a speech, then a sheet is pulled off the car, it's swarmed for photos, and people go back to the party.

But every once in a while, a car company will really pull out all the stops for a reveal, and for Mercedes-Benz these days, every once in a while is more like every single time. Especially over the past two years, Mercedes has put on some absurd unveiling events that are more about the culture than the car itself, but none have been more spectacular than last night's AMG GT 4-Door Coupe reveal. With 600 people in attendance, the automaker shut down Los Angeles' 6th Street Bridge, turning it into a Hollywood Autobahn on which the new EV was ripping burnouts up and down the concrete just after sunset, with Brad Pitt and George Russell sitting shotgun. Then Blink-182 did a 30-minute set and made a lot of dick jokes.

After talking with some people from Mercedes (including the CEO) about the event and the brand's culture-forward strategy, I definitely think it's the most outrageous reveal event that's ever been put on. And I'd be saying that even if I hadn't stood mere feet away from Jacob Elordi.

Full disclosure: Mercedes-AMG gave me a media wristband for the event and Uber vouchers so I could get there and back, and fed me good food and drinks after we sat through some roundtables. I drove back to the event this morning to get a ride-along in the new GT.

In January 2018, when I was fresh to the industry, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the current-gen G-Class in the ruins of the Michigan Theater, constructing a mountain that shot flames for the SUVs to drive up. Arnold Schwarzenegger came on stage to give Dr. Z a cowboy hat, then he did shots with the crowd after. Wild as that night was, it was one of those media-focused launches. But Mercedes' first real shift came with 2024's electric G-wagen.

For that reveal, the automaker took over Franklin Canyon Park in LA, constructing a stage on the water and even repairing some of the park's roads and infrastructure that had been washed away in recent floods. While there was a press-focused reveal happening simultaneously at an auto show in China, this LA reveal wasn't for me, or the two-dozen other journalists there — it was for the fashion writers, celebrities, and actual G-wagen buyers that were in attendance. That's why, with no speech or really any info about the car beyond saying the name, an electric G drove on stage through the haze of a million fog machines and laser lights, and rapper Travis Scott got out and performed for half an hour (sometimes jumping up and down on the roof, which I don't think Mercedes expected). 

Then, the event turned into a chic DJ'd party that just so happened to have some G-wagens around. It was all for the spectacle of the reveal, the photos from the step and repeat, and (much as I loathe the term) the content from the night. Some of my colleagues were totally baffled, but I couldn't believe an automaker would put something like that on in a positive way. Finally, a genuinely fresh sort of car launch event that felt appropriate for the car and its place in the world.

Then last spring, Mercedes revealed the CLA at Villa Miani overlooking Rome, a totally red-themed evening with a performance from Tyla, a fitting pairing for that car. Mercedes got Alicia Keys for the GT XX concept reveal; that was a pretty media-focused event, but still a big one. Just a few weeks ago, the C-Class EV was launched in Seoul on a stage filled with neon lights and Korean restaurant façades, with famous Korean actors and pop idols being part of the reveal. I wasn't at any of those events, but even if I didn't follow the social media accounts of Mercedes and other car writers and influencers, I would have seen photos and video from all of these events. The guest lists were packed, the events reached so many more areas of pop culture, and they were covered more broadly than your typical car launch.

So that's some recent history for you. Ahead of the reveal on Tuesday night, when we knew where the reveal would be, but hadn't seen the setup or the pure scope of it yet, I was part of a roundtable with Mercedes-AMG CEO Michael Schiebe and Mercedes-Benz Group CEO and chairman of the board Ola Källenius. All the other journalists were asking boring questions about cars and the business, but I really wanted to know about event planning. I mentioned what I've already talked about here, how most reveals are boring and media-focused, but Mercedes has been going all-out lately on events where us journalists are kinda the least-important people in the room (my words, not theirs), asking for their perspective on Mercedes' strategy.

First of all, Källenius was very kind and said, "at the event itself, you're still the most important," which is certainly not true because, as I said, Jacob Elordi was there. "You have rightly observed that those events are pretty cool. And the thing is: they get live-streamed, and then recorded," Källenius said, "In the media landscape that we live in, our attention span hellscape that we live in, you're able to watch something cool or something boring. I think something cool is better. This is insanely cool." I definitely agree with him.

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"Next to your valuable presence, who are we talking to? We're talking to our customers, and if you want to talk to your customers — millions of people that watch this — next to the fantastic car and pulling the sheet off of it, it doesn't hurt to put on a good show," Källenius added. Some of AMG's most valued customers would be there, and owners who are part of the AMG Private Lounge that are in "constant exchange" with company executives. "For us, it's not only presenting this baby to the world," said Schiebe, "it's also giving a great thank you to our customers, to our fans around the world." And yes, the promise of famous faces attending is also a draw to put on an event like this, and to hold it in Los Angeles, Källenius said. 34% of AMG's total sales are currently in the U.S., and its sales have been getting stronger around the world.

The AMG boss said Mercedes wouldn't have put on such a big event for just any car, though. "This was such a big engineering endeavor for the whole company, this is the biggest development project that AMG has ever done, and there is a team behind it that spent so much time, effort, numerous hours, and even sweat and tears into it. So we want to celebrate it," Schiebe said. As the sun was setting in LA and the main event started, a huge group of people at AMG headquarters in Affalterbach had gotten together at 5 a.m. to watch a livestream and do an in-person reveal for the public.

Initial planning for the event started last summer, with the team pitching their first ideas in August. "You just cannot go to a city like Los Angeles and say 'hey, we want to close one of the most important streets in the city' and then you get 'yes, let's do it,'" Schiebe said. "You need to have a few talks and show your concept and what you want to do and how you can make it easy for all the people that live in the city — and of course, also in addition or a benefit for the city to do something like this."

Dozens of people helped put on the show, and the bridge itself had been closed for almost an entire week in preparation. And when I say closed, I mean closed. The entire thing was shut down from end to end, surely to the annoyance of many an Angeleno. One Mercedes insider told me the company was able to get the event more easily permitted by billing it as a film shoot, which is completely true — in addition to the filmed reveal, and the content being filmed by us media today, the company is also using the location to shoot a new ad campaign for the car before it finally relinquishes control of the bridge on Saturday.

The pre-party with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres was at Soho Warehouse nearby, where I started to notice some people I recognized beyond my fellow journalists and car influencers. The vodka pasta was particularly tasty. Once 7:00 p.m. rolled around, people started filtering outside, getting into Sprinters, GLS SUVs, or, if they were particularly VIP, a Maybach S-Class, to head over to the bridge. Despite being just around the corner, it took quite a while to get there, with lines of silver GLS's as far as the eye could see as we approached the east-side entrance.

Immediately upon getting our wristband checked and walking through the gate we were greeted by an AMG One (I saw its owner in the crowd, as he was wearing an AMG One jacket). On the other side of the bridge, a bit further up, there was one of Mercedes' Formula 1 cars, followed by a DTM racer, a CLK63 Black Series, a 190E Evo II, an SL Purespeed, and a car-hauler Unimog with a crane attachment. There was a huge lineup of local food trucks, and thankfully, some genuinely nice bathrooms.

Further up, about a third of the way down the bridge, was the main stage. It was constructed like a highway overpass, with stepped standing areas on either side and a big central viewing area, forming a tunnel below. At the entrance sat a GT63 coupe with a Polizei wrap and emergency lights. As the sun was getting ready to set, I grabbed myself a good spot right along the edge, having been tipped off by Mercedes PR where the hosts, band, and cars were going to be. What looked like a huge highway sign was one big display screen, which was used for the event countdown, to show infographics and images, and project a live camera feed of the event.

The sun set and the event began, with Källenius coming out first as the screen showed a graphic of the Hollywood sign. He waxed poetic about reasons people love LA, chief among them the city's amazing driving roads, and talked about how the country's first freeway was constructed here. He made some jokes about LA traffic, mentioning how Germany gets traffic jams too, but at least they have the Autobahn. "You don't have that here in LA, do you?" No, Ola, we don't, thanks for rubbing it in. "Good thing we brought the German Autobahn with us, and you're standing right on it." Mercedes had even installed the round signs for unrestricted sections to the bridge. He described the team's pitch for the event as being "next-level madness, but then, it's the world premiere of an AMG. An AMG has never been about doing what's expected; it's always been about being bold and pushing limits — sometimes a little further than seems reasonable."

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After a bit more talk about the GT XX concept, Schiebe came out to really get into some of the GT's technical details. I laughed when the big screen showed the axial-flux motors and complex battery technology, and could definitely tell the majority of the crowd was getting a bit antsy. Luckily, just a few minutes later, the real show began. After a brief film was shown, an electro-lime GT 4-Door drove up through the tunnel, got into position, and then blasted off the line, making shouty V8 noises as it did so. Then a second GT came up behind, pulled off a lurid instant burnout, and rocketed off down the bridge. A moment later, a third one drove out and, you guessed it, launched. Someone from Mercedes told me they wanted to remove all of the yellow bulges, rumble strips, and safety lights on the bridge, but the city said "yeah, no," thus why there were no donuts spun or other more dynamic sorts of driving. I mean, those burnouts were impressive enough.

When the cars drove back up towards us and parked, with a dozen columns of flame shooting off behind, Brad Pitt and F1 driver George Russell got out of the passenger seats. Brad walked away, but since George is contractually obligated to do these sorts of things, he stayed on stage to talk about it. Russell has actually been a part of this car's development, even doing some stints in the GT XX's record run, and he described it as being the fastest car he's ever driven, something people really need to experience for themselves. (He also said they hit 160 mph driving down the bridge earlier in the day.)

"Did you see his smile when he got out of the car? That pretty much I think said it all," Schiebe said, "And we are seeing that same smile literally on everyone who has been able to experience it. I think that is so important, because ultimately that is what a sports car is about." They continued to talk more about the car and its development, and how AMG strived to make it not only as good as its V8 cars, but that it had to be better. "When I drove this car for the first time, it really felt like I was driving a V8, and it just flew off the line," Russell said a couple of minutes later into the conversation. "It's really difficult to put into words; I don't even put this into the category of an EV, it's in a totally different stratosphere to anything I've driven in a road car before. This is definitely the real thing."

After Schiebe thanked the audience and the team watching in Affalterbach, Russell got into one of the cars and drove off. As Schiebe and host Becky Evans continued to banter a bit, from way off in the distance at the other end of the bridge came that Polizei GT63 racing toward them. "I think it's time for less talk and more rock," Schiebe said, as the screen and announcer said road work was being done for the next few minutes. That's when Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker walked out on stage.

Sadly, Mercedes' YouTube video of the reveal cuts out before the performance started. Maybe they didn't pay to license the music, but I have a feeling it was more because of all the dirty jokes and quips about their hosts Hoppus and DeLong kept making to each other when bantering between songs. I think my favorite was: "First time I got a hand job was in a Mercedes-AMG in 1979. It was a family trip!" After some nervous laughter from the crowd, he followed it up with "You guys like hand jobs or something?" They said Mercedes asked them to come up with a 30-minute show, so they put together a setlist of 9 songs; Mercedes said 'nevermind, do 8 songs please." 

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

I've been to some concerts with intense pyrotechnics before, but this show may have taken the number one spot away from Lady Gaga. Those pillars of flame (and fireworks!) were near-constant in some songs, including one with an almost minute-long drum solo. "Ever since we were kids we've been wanting to do that guitar and fire sh*t!" It's never too late to live your dreams. In the lead-up to the penultimate song, DeLonge said, "It's called 'All the Small Things,' it's about Mark's dick." I'm telling you, it was a lot of dick jokes. They even sang a bit of TLC's "No Scrubs." Again, not your typical boring journalist-focused car reveal.

Blink-182 finished their set and were whisked away in a GT. Then, the area was opened up to the crowd. There were a couple of static cars for people to pose in front of and take photos — I walked up to snap a pic of the car when I thought there was an opening in the crowd, only to realize Heathcliff himself was right there. Now that's a man! Sadly, I somehow missed Kimi Antonelli, and I once again failed to get a selfie with Toto Wolff. Mercedes was giving passenger rides to guests up and down the bridge, but I let the potential buyers wait in line for that, as I knew I'd be coming back later to get my own passenger experience. There was certainly a lot of tire smoke being churned into the air.

The bridge remained open for a few hours after the performance was over, so people could mingle, get their content, and enjoy the food trucks. Along with some other journalists and a bunch of AMG's important customers, I was eventually whisked away to an undisclosed location nearby to view an upcoming AMG product in what the PR people were calling the "secret chamber." I can't say anything about it, but you probably have some good guesses.

The actually famous people went back to Soho Warehouse or one of the afterparties, while I went back to the hotel that Mercedes was hosting out-of-town media at (also the location of the day's roundtables). Every person I spoke to at or following the reveal, whether they were automotive media, Mercedes employee or another sort of creative or car industry person, had the same reaction as me: "That was the craziest f**king reveal I've ever been to."

Källenius and Schiebe both seemed to feel the same way. When I said hello to Schiebe a few minutes after the band finished, he had a Cheshire Cat grin on his face, giddy over how cool the event had been. The Mercedes team was clearly riding on a high of "we can't believe we pulled this off," and I can't really believe it either. No one on the team would give me even a ballpark of how much it cost to put this thing on, but the figure is surely astronomic. Having now gotten to ride shotgun in the GT and experience the performance for myself, the craziness of the reveal perfectly matches the car. If there was any launch to go this hard on, it's this new AMG GT.

I don't expect that many, if any, other automakers will do events even half as nuts as this one, and I seriously doubt Mercedes will be able to top this anytime soon. But then, that's what I said just two years ago at the electric G-wagen reveal, and the automaker has a ton of exciting new product coming out over the next few years. It may not shut down a whole bridge again, but Mercedes has clearly figured out how to make new car reveals genuinely exciting and important not just for us industry nerds, but for the broader culture as a whole.