Brabus E V12 Black Baron

Just how many German tuners are there anyway? Every time I turn around there seems to be another one out there that's cramming a Maybach engine into VW Polo or some such. And now, here's another one. Yes, I've heard of Brabus before, and no, I don't really have any problems with what they've been up to. And what they've been up to is something called the Brabus E V12 Black Baron.

The Brabus E V12 "Black Baron" is based on the latest E-Class, which in and of itself is interesting. It looks like an S Class to me, and whatever Brabus has done to it only seems to make it look more hulking and glowering. Of course, the most impressive thing they did was shoehorn in a twin turbo, 6.3-liter V12 that cranks out a whopping 800 hp and an electronically-limited 811 lb-ft and a ram-air system and a tuned ECU.

Naturally, they had to work over the suspension. It's fully-adjustable and also features much bigger brakes and tires. The Black Baron has an electronically-limited 217 mph top speed which is surely impressive. No doubt that's what the wheel spats over the back arches are for. I hope they're not just for styles sake.

And speaking of limiters if you take off torque limiter, the Black Baron can squash out 1,047 lb-ft of grunt, and if you loose the speed limiter, it can supposedly hit 230 mph. And it still gets 15 mpg.

Brabus is making only ten of these guys, which makes sense because the going price is over €600,000 (or $875,000). Which would get you a couple of Ferraris, and a Maserati Quatroporte and still leave you money left over. A lot of money.

Which brings me to the real question: Why? Yeah, I know. Because it's fun to play around with stuff like this. What happens if you take a '72 Malibu and cram in a Keith Black drag motor with a blower? That sort of stuff is fun. I've had plenty of friends that have done things like that.

But it's another thing entirely to want to make more than one, and then sell them for a price normally associated with a condo in Manhattan.

Source: AutoBlog