Brabus Bullit Black Arrow headed for Geneva

Posted Sun Mar 2 2008 11:56 PM by Kenneth Hall

Pegged as a ‘four-door stealth sports car,’ Mercedes tuner Brabus has unveiled a new V12 Biturbo C-Class sedan covered in a matte-black coating, which will be on display at this week’s Geneva Motor Show. Brabus has been transplanting high output, large displacement engines into regular sedans for the past three decades, and the latest model, dubbed Black Arrow, is no different.

Under the hood resides a 720hp (537kW) 6.3L V12 engine with a peak torque of 1,320Nm (974 lb-ft) that has to be electronically limited to 1,100Nm (811 lb-ft) to preserve the gearbox and tires. In developing the new powerplant, engineers at Brabus added special pistons and connecting rods, a new turbocharging system with two larger chargers and more efficient intercoolers, and metal catalysts with a low back pressure stainless-steel exhaust.

Power is transferred to the rear wheels via a massively modified five-speed automatic transmission and a Brabus rear locking differential with a locking rate of up to 40%. The car sprints from 0–100km/h (62mph) in just 3.9 seconds, reaches 200km/h (124mph) after just 10.49 seconds and passes the 300km/h (186mph) mark after a mere 24.5 seconds. Top speed is claimed to be in excess of 360km/h (224mph).

The car also gets its own custom suspension and brake package, designed to accommodate the power and weight of the twin-turbo V12 engine. Engineers installed a height-adjustable coil-over suspension set-up and sport sway bars to improve handling. The brake package consists of monster 12-piston aluminum fixed calipers gripping vented and grooved 380mm discs up front, and six-piston units biting 360mm discs in the rear.

Gallery: Brabus Black Arrow C-Class Bullit

Reader Comments

Mon Mar 3 2008 9:44 AM
HECTOR says

Brabus is the poster child for the old *just because you can do it doesn't mean you should* saying. Much like Audi putting a 580bhp engine in the RS6 Brabus putting 720 in a C class is also ridiculous.
Mon Mar 3 2008 11:58 AM
SuperSkyline89 says

Forget the engine, they took a perfectly good looking car and ruined it.
Mon Mar 3 2008 12:21 PM
chris says

hector; you dont think there are people out there with 3 kids and a summer house in Nice (or florida for that matter), who also want to be able to give their kids whiplash at 90 mph? shame on you. but seriously, that 580 bhp is only 290 bhp per tonne... that is one massively heavy car.

besides, if you call this car rediculous, you may have to call the CTS-V rediculous, considering it should get probably 550 hp, in a similarly sized car.

skyline; how did they ruin it? you mean to tell me you dont want a riced out mercedes in flat black spray bomb?? HAH.

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