Monday 8th April 2002

World's Fastest Saloon

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[james]

Pretty impressive. Brabus still hold the world records for fastest estate car (E Class at 203mph), fastest SUV (M Class at 165) and even turbo diesel (E Class again, not sure what the speed is, but I think it's something like 180mph).

Nice to see that they're all held by Mercedes though

James (with a Mercedes E55)

>>> Edited by james on Monday 8th April 15:35

[castex]

Is that Mercedes as in the people that don't build F1 engines?
Have to admire Brabus for their subtle approach, but they're not strictly (original) production cars, or Mercedes now, are they?

Fastest estate: Audi RS4
Fastest "SUV" : Lamborghini LM002, for a short while
Fastest saloon: I don't know...one of those crazy Holdens?
Fastest People Carrier : Renault Espace F1!

[nonegreen]

I believe the Sultan of Brunai has a Bently saloon capeable of over 220 MPH. A confidential source from Crewe told me.

[mattjbatch]

Mate of mine is an apprentice at Bentley. At the moment they're building up stock of the new model before its launch. He's not been allowed to see it or get a photo though But if he does get a piccie I'll put it straight on here somewhere.

[james]

Audi RS4? It isn't all that fast is it? It'll be the same speed as just about every other German car. 155mph.

>> Edited by james on Tuesday 9th April 09:57

[Cotty]

quote:
Is that Mercedes as in the people that don't build F1 engines?
Have to admire Brabus for their subtle approach, but they're not strictly (original) production cars, or Mercedes now, are they?

Fastest estate: Audi RS4
Fastest "SUV" : Lamborghini LM002, for a short while
Fastest saloon: I don't know...one of those crazy Holdens?
Fastest People Carrier : Renault Espace F1!

Fastest saloon: I think the Lotus Calton used to do about 187mph
Obviously beaten by now though.
Fastest Van: Ford Transit (supervan)

>> Edited by Cotty on Tuesday 9th April 14:12

[james]

Yes, it's been beaten by the car that's the subject of this news story. A modified E Class.

[rthierry]

What I quite like about the Brabus car is that they look - almost - normal. I could do with one !

[Cotty]

quote:
Yes, it's been beaten by the car that's the subject of this news story. A modified E Class.

Arr but's whats the standard saloon car record, could you ask for the Lotus coversion as an option as in ill have the sun roof, a/c and the Lotus pack. Also ill have an E class with the V12.

After market conversions dont really count

[pbirkett]

quote:
Audi RS4? It isn't all that fast is it? It'll be the same speed as just about every other German car. 155mph.

Yea, but I think it can do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. Sounds pretty fast to me

[james]

The story's about fastest top speed, not acceleration.

I guess it depends on how you class a production car. If you can go into a dealer and say "I'll have one of them please", I suppose it'll still be the Brabus, because you can buy one at any Mercedes dealser

James

[castex]

I'm surprised about that. I thought it was AMG that were all cosy with Merc. Doesn't that push their noses out of joint? Can you imagine Porsche inviting Ruf to share floor space? Ferrari keeping an office free in Egham for Willy Koenig and his crazy creations?

RS4's limiter is less than strict, i've heard, so you can get up to 175-ish. Chance would be a fine thing

[james]

AMG are part of Mercedes these days, but their product line is different from Brabus. AMG offer a line of standard performance cars (like my E55 for example). Brabus offer more of a bespoke service. They'll sell you any one, or more of their modifications to your standard Merc (or AMG Merc). There's very little by way of crossover between the products of AMG and Brabus. In fact, Brabus offer performance mods to AMG cars - just in case they aren't fast enough for you already

James