The Mercedes-Maybach S 650 Night Edition is here, and you can't have one. Only 15 of these ultra-exclusive luxury sedans will be built, fitted with monstrous 6-liter V12 engines and beaten heavily with the luxury stick.
That twin-turbo V12, unchanged from the non-Night-Edition S 650, is tuned for a supercar-like 621 horsepower and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque, but the sumptuous bulk of this thing holds the sprint time back to a brisk but unthreatening 4.6 seconds from 0-60 mph (0-98 km/h).
For a car that's destined to spend most of its life in chauffeur service, it sure looks like it'll handle the bends nicely. A camera scans the road ahead, tracking bumps and dips to prepare the "Magic Body Control" suspension's ability to counteract them. It leans proactively into corners, both for added stability and to give the occupants a comfier ride.
The seats, as you'd expect, are the kinds of things you normally need to put coins into at an airport; they recline to 43 degrees, with powered calf rests, and there are built-in massage systems as well as entertainment consoles in the rear. You can choose between 64 colors of ambient LED lighting.
So how do we tell it from the US$202,550 standard edition S 650, which itself is an upgrade to the S-class Mercedes-Benz that starts at US$94,250? Well, there are some bits of carbon trim in the front and rear of the cabin, "smoked" 20-inch forged rims, Night Edition badges around the place, special floor mats, and a hilariously tiny strip of carbon on the lid of the trunk as a spoiler. Seriously, look at this thing. Do you think you'll be able to handle all that downforce?
These accoutrements only cost you an extra $40,400, for a retail price starting at $242,950. A bargain at twice the price, you couldn't buy the materials for that! Fifteen of these chariots are now on sale at Maybach dealers across the United States, which is the only country where you'll find them. We doubt readers in other regions will shed too much of a tear over that.
Source: Mercedes-Maybach
