BRABUS MERCEDES BENZ EV12 Review

After 33 years of continuously pushing the boundaries of Mercedes-Benz tuning to higher and higher limits, Brabus is now known not only as a car manufacturer in its own right, but also as the largest car tuner in the world. Their expertise ranges from manufacturing works of art as far as car interiors go to record-shattering sedans that can keep up with the fastest supercars in the world.

Over the years, Brabus has also been known to be a master at shoehorning larger than needed engines in smaller car bodies. Their most famous examples are probably the legacy of taking an "ordinary" E-Klasse – the so-called "taxi of Germany" - and squeezing a V12 engine under the hood. Did we say V12 engine? We meant the internal combustion engine equivalent to a nuclear plant.

Because Brabus wasn't just creating odd conversions but true freaks of nature with this whole big-engine-into-small-car tuning genre. In more ways than expected, the process was pretty similar to how the earliest American muscle cars were created, except that Brabus' conversions work go quite a little more custom than that. Besides the engines, their work includes upgraded brakes, suspension kits, exhausts, transmissions, etc. and these are just a small part of the whole operation.

The first car to unleash an entire saga of record-breaking E V12s is the W124 Brabus E-Klasse V12 conversion kit. It looked like a mildly modified E500, but after going to a complete overhaul, the icing on the car's cake was represented by the addition of a 6.9-liter naturally aspirated V8 with 508 horsepower and a truck-like 710 Nm (523.7 lb ft) of torque under the hood.

That was only a humble beginning though, since the W210 E V12 was so monstrous that it was also included in the Guiness Book of Records for being the fastest four door sedan in the world. In order for it to achieve the electronically-limited top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph), Brabus had installed a 7.3-liter version of the aforementioned Mercedes V12. With no less than 582 horsepower and a staggering 780 Nm (575.3 lb ft) of torque on tap, the naturally-aspirated unit was at the time the most powerful street-legal Mercedes engine in the world.

But Brabus didn't stop there. When Mercedes-Benz switched to a twin-turbocharged setup for its series V12 engine, Brabus engineers immediately got to work and for starters managed no less than 640 horsepower and a tire-torturing 1026 Nm (757 lb ft) of torque, from a displacement of 6.3 liters. Installed in the somewhat aerodynamic body of the W211 E-Klasse, that gargantuan beast of an engine managed to give the car a top speed of 350.2 km/h (217.6 mph), enough to break the Guiness Book of Records for the world's fastest four door sedan once again.

A couple of years and a bit more fine tuning later, Bottrop engineers managed to up the ante once again for the twin-turbo V12, increasing its maximum power rating to no less than 730 HP, while torque figures climbed to an insane 1320 Nm (973.6 lb ft) of torque – sadly limited to "just" 1100 nm (811 lb ft) for reasons of transmission obliteration. After being shoved with surgical precision into a CLS "four door coupe", and after a tonne of other modifications, it managed to help it break another world record with a 365.7 km/h (227.2 mph) top speed on the Nardo circuit.

We know it's becoming a bit redundant to announce this by now, but Brabus is far from ending their V12 tuning lunacy, and they most recently proved this by unleashing an 800 hp and 1420 Nm (1047 lb ft) version of the unit. After electronically limiting the torque to 1100 Nm (811 lb ft) for the reason listed above and fitting it to an "ordinary" E-Klasse, the somewhat new four-wheeled monster is apparently able to hit around 370 km/h (230 mph).

As it turns out, we had the chance to experience just how these latest numbers, accompanied by a 598 thousand Euro ex-works specialty car, actually feel like. Needles to say, our opinions about it might feel a little bit fade, since there are very few words to encompass just how mental this car really is.

There are tonnes of black Mercedes-Benz sedans, especially parked around banks or other expensive and/or high class buildings. Almost none of those looks as menacing as the one we tested. With matte black carbon fiber inserts on almost every side, black painted 19 inch wheels and with al the chrome bits disguised in the same color, the latest Brabus E V12 looks like what Darth Vader would drive if he was a real person and living on Earth.

All the Mercedes-Benz tri-star logos on the car have been replaced with black "Bs", symbolizing the fact that this is no longer a Mercedes-Benz, but a Brabus masterpiece. The color somewhat manages to distract from the rather large size of the car, but it also adds some hearse-looking lines on the side, especially with those matte black carbon fiber inserts.

The front is even more menacing than the one on a stock E 63 AMG, mainly thanks to the aerodynamic bumper with matte black carbon fiber inserts and the dark overall color. The angular quad headlights only come to improve the evil look.

Although it didn't have the rear wheel fairings of the "One of ten" version, our E V12 doesn't look that far from a batmobile as well, especially when viewing its side. Again, the color choice, rim design and size make all the difference.

As far as the design of the rear goes, it looks like almost any other E-Klasse, until you lay your eyes on the aerodynamic bumper, which includes a sculpted air diffuser and four sinister-looking tail pipes. The overall appearance, apart from being a bit ominous to the casual observer, is that of an understated sedan. You'd never think it can obliterate 90% of world's current supercar line-up on a deserted highway.

The interior of this car is pretty much the embodiment of Brabus' expertise in luxury and opulence, refraining no expense when it comes to treating all your five senses. Everything is practically drenched in soft leather, with no less than eleven hides covering the seats from top to bottom, the dashboard, the three-spoke steering wheel, the pillars and the ceiling.

The attention to detail of the Bottrop-workers can be found in almost every element of the interior. The "Brabus" emblem stitches on each headrest, the diamond patterns on the leather floor mats and even the brown-painted carbon fiber inserts with the chequered flag pattern just scream compulsive care from its manufacturers. Our test vehicle was equipped with beige and black softer-than-a-baby's-bottom leather with enough hand-made stitches to eclipse just about any shed-built supercar.

The overall interior space hosts five persons in complete comfort even if they hate each other and can't stand enclosed areas. A small minus is for the driver and front-passenger seats which, although FAR from giving you any claustrophobic symptoms, are a bit more crowded than we would have expected. Don't take it the wrong way, the front seats aren't crammed or anything, they're just very antithetical in space providing compared with the rear bench, considering they were "borowed" from a much smaller car. All in all, we could definitely call the Brabus E V12's interior as home if we could.

All in all, just like we mentioned in th Brabus GLK test drive, to say that the E V12's interior workmanship is top notch would probably be the understatement of the decade. The quality of each handmade stitching, the feel of the leather upholstery, the Alcantara or the look of the carbon fiber checkered flag inserts is simply mind-blowing. We've never seen so much attention to detail, especially since we're technically talking about a tuner car.

Given the fact that the Brabus e V12 measures a length of almost five meters and has a truck-like width thanks to the track modifications, trying to park this behemoth in the city should prove to be as discouraging as entering a circus tiger cage dressed like Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards. Fortunately, our test car was equipped with an army of parking sensors both in the front and in the rear and a more-than-helpful rear parking camera. Even so, care should be taken whenever trying to squeeze in smaller parking spaces or when cruising one-way streets crammed with parked cars on each side.

The overall visibility is medium, considering the long and somewhat sloping rear overhang and the thickness of all the car's pillars. On the plus side, the driver seat can be configured to elevate you to almost an SUV-like height, while the suspension also has two height settings from the factory. This can especially help you if mother nature has chosen a smaller-than-average height for yourself.

The two suspension settings for the ground clearance are most useful when tackling oversized "sleeping policemen" aka speed bumps, or trying to park your Brabus with the wheels on the curb, which can only work if you have very low heiht curbs. Even so, the overall height of the car is lower than that of the "normal" Mercedes-Benz E 500 by exactly one centimeter, enough to lower its gravity center but not enough to look like a Lamborghini on steroids.

Apart from the discomfort when parking and cruising through busy traffic, another big, or should we say humongous weak point is its fuel consumption. By all means, we weren't expecting a scooter-like fuel economy, but how do 30-35 liters per 100 kilometers (US 5-7 mpg) sound? This, considering we did our test drive in a small German town, where the streets are less crowded than usual. Anyway, apart from the somewhat poor visibility and the inconvenience caused by the sheer size of the car's width, the Brabus E V12's greatest downside in the city is its gargantuan fuel consumption which, even though it has a 80-liter tank (US 21.8 gallons), can just keep you driving between gas stations.

The first time we plant the pedal to the metal, the traction control light starts flickering madly and pretty much becomes a leitmotif for the rest of the drive. The roar from the engine and the quad exhaust fills the cabin and the whole car explodes down the road, carried along on a wave of neverending power and torque.

Obviously, we couldn't care less about the logic behind the creation of a car like this. There is simply nothing quite like a Brabus E V12. To drive one is to embrace its sheer, manic craziness.

To put things into perspective, this is the fastest of a long line of fastest sedans from Bottrop. The first 100 km/h (62 mph) are reached in just 3.7 seconds, which is right up there in Porsche 911 Turbo/Nissan GT-R territory. The top speed on our car was limited via the differential to “only” 350 km/h (217.5 mph), but there is also a blistering fast 370+ km/h (230+ mph) version that has a different final ratio and tires.

In other words, this black, low-slung, four door sedan can keep up with anything on four wheels on the Autobahn. And we mean anything, even a Bugatti Veyron. Such speed seems insane a car like this, as it can be done in Mercedes-style air-conditioned comfort.

The only sign that things aren't quite what they seem is the tendency for the spinning rear tires to fight for controling the car's direction at lower speeds, plus the thundering noise from the exhaust. And then there's the part with the world rushing past the windows at very fast-forward.

Too bad the autobahn traffic, along with our self-preservation instinct, didn't leave us to test it to full speed. That, and the fact that the E V12 we drove was a showroom car, which will soon (if not already, by now) be bought by a rich sheik or something.

If anyone cares about the fuel consumption, during our open road driving session we managed anything from 20 liters per 100 km (US 11.8 mpg) to as low as 12 liters per 100 km (US 19.6 mpg). Not too shabby for a car that's faster than a Ferrari Enzo, has four door, four (five) seats and a real luggage compartment.