Brabus SV12 R Biturbo 800

With its thump-truck credibility on the line like never before, German Benz hot tuner Brabus has responded by creating the world's most powerful luxury four door limousine.

With the SV12 R Biturbo 800, Brabus has squeezed 588kW from the S-Class Mercedes-Benz's twin-turbo V12 power plant to make a limousine that hits an astonishing 350km/h (217mph).

Brabus had to make a move, though, with Benz's all-new twin-turbo V8 cranking out 320kW of power and 700Nm of torque giving the standard Mercedes range surging performance.

But the way it has worked the old V12 has produced more than double the torque of the new V8, with 1420Nm (1047lb-ft). While Brabus limits its output to 1100Nm (812lb-ft) to keep its gearbox alive, it's still good enough to hurl the two-tonne limo to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds and it will keep surging in a wall of speed to hit 200km/h in only 10.3 seconds. That means the SV12 R Biturbo 800 will take just 6.4 seconds to sprint from 100km/h to 200, which is better than a lot of supposedly fast cars take to hit the metric tonne.

While it hasn't skimped on luxury, the main focus has been on the SV12 R Biturbo 800's performance, so the 5.5-litre (336ci) V12 engine from Mercedes has been enlarged to 6.3 litres (385ci) thanks to both bore and stroke increases.

It now has larger pistons and balanced connecting rods, plus angrier camshafts, freer-breathing cylinder heads and a new, carbon-fibre air intake system.
It has four water-to-air intercoolers to feed its two turbo chargers and the powerplant is finished off with a four-tipped, stainless-steel exhaust system, all of which complies with EURO V emission laws.

It's not a high-revving engine though, with peak torque thumping home at 2100rpm and peak power coming and going at 5500 -- and it's still rear-wheel drive only, even though Benz offers the S-Class with an all-wheel drive option.

While Benz itself has high-tech seven-speed automatic transmissions available, they've not been designed to cope with this level of power, so Brabus has beefed up a five-speed auto (which doesn't seem to hurt its acceleration figures) and run the torque through a limited-slip rear diff.

Given that Benz limits its own S-Class sedans to 250km/h, Brabus has had to work hard to keep the SV12 R Biturbo 800 on the ground in braking, suspension and aerodynamic development.

The grip begins with the massive monobloc wheels, which range from 19- to 21-inches in diameter and wear either Pirelli or Yokohama sports 265/30 ZR 21 at the front and 295/30 ZR 21 tyres at the back.

With its own suspension system also fitted, the SV12 R Biturbo 800 uses enormous 12-piston, fixed aluminium brake calipers on a 380mm x 36mm steel front braking system, and there are six-piston calipers with 355mm x 28mm discs at the rear, to provide more than double the braking power of the standard S-Class.

Brabus also tweaked the Active Body Control's computer to lower the ride height 15mm (0.6 inches) to minimize body roll and to help keep the aerodynamics more stable at high speed, along with a distinctive front lip spoiler. There's also a clear-coated, carbon-fibre rear spoiler lip, too, and the new rear bumper has customised cut-outs for the four exhaust tips.

The interior upgrades include an iBusiness multimedia pack to sync the car to Apple-based systems, like the iPhone or iPad, while Brabus can tailor the interior trim to any colour of leather or carpet anybody might want.

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