Brabus

[JohnH]

Read an interesting article about Brabus and info was pretty mind boggling. Apparently every time they change a tyre profile on a car it costs them 15K USD in TUV fees. Perhaps MBs new strategy to get more sports oriented is working as apparently 9 of the 11 MB board members drive around in Brabus's.

Am I wrong in thinking that Brabus is a bit like Alpina used to be in shoe-horning large engines into cars. Seems that Alpina don't do that any more which is a pity.

Anybody on the board ever owned a Brabus?

[Andy G]

I think that's what they do best, big engines into smaller cars, but I've never seen one on any of our roads.
Seen plenty of AMG or AMG lookalikes. but have only read about the Brabus.

[para22]

I have seen one brabus S 5.8 , around november 99 and it was the w220 s-class (the current one) and it was standing at the czech/austrian border , guess what ... it had ukrainian plates... i think that's why austrians couldn't belive this car was legal... i couldn't too... Also when i'm in Germany i see brabus cars ... i mean with brabus wheels or maybe chips and some other work , but never seen any of those V8 or V12 monsters driving on the road... maybe johann , Gustav or any other board member that participated in the ///M power tour , they visited brabus so they could say something ... anyway check the trip stories ... they're cool...

[Andy G]

Just had a look at the Brabus site, interesting reading, especially the kits available for the new Smart cars.

http://www.brabus.com/homee.htm

[JetBoy]

Originally posted by JohnH
Read an interesting article about Brabus and info was pretty mind boggling. Apparently every time they change a tyre profile on a car it costs them 15K USD in TUV fees. Perhaps MBs new strategy to get more sports oriented is working as apparently 9 of the 11 MB board members drive around in Brabus's.

Am I wrong in thinking that Brabus is a bit like Alpina used to be in shoe-horning large engines into cars. Seems that Alpina don't do that any more which is a pity.

Anybody on the board ever owned a Brabus?

I agree. If I had an Alpina I wouldn't like to see a Brabus behind me in the autobahn...except if I was driving a B7/B10bt or so.

I 'feel' quite bad after visiting the Brabus site, lot of fast cars...I wish Alpina would be less confort oriented and more performance oriented as it used to be. The Alpina Z8 roadster is a good example.

I have never seen any of those in our humble roads, they look like stock Benzs right ? Yeah, I like that...

[KnightRider]

i've seen some brabus mercs in moscow, mostly g class though. they did look rather stock, you had to look close to see the differences, exterior wise it's rather like an M5 and 5 series relationship. rims, exhaust tips, interior can give a game away. logos too, if they are not stolen of course.
a guy across the street has S 500 with Carlsson exterior. rims, spoilers, quad exhaust tips, etc. except for the engine which is standard 500. it looks ok, but quad exhaust looks a bit out of place on an s class i reckon.
carlsson www.carlsson.de i believe is just as radical as brabus when tuning cars, they have a very very beautiful new SL modification with very appealing rims and interior. CM50 K, it has characteristics similar to sl55 amg, having 430 hp and 650 NM.
para22 and i am not sure how an issue of legality intersects with an s class having ukranian numberplates? well, i've seen b12 6.0 with moscow plates too, so what?

[JetBoy]

Originally posted by KnightRider
[b]i've seen some brabus mercs in moscow, mostly g class though. they did look rather stock, you had to look close to see the differences, exterior wise it's rather like an M5 and 5 series relationship. rims, exhaust tips, interior can give a game away. logos too, if they are not stolen of course.
a guy across the street has S 500 with Carlsson exterior. rims, spoilers, quad exhaust tips, etc. except for the engine which is standard 500. it looks ok, but quad exhaust looks a bit out of place on an s class i reckon.
carlsson www.carlsson.de i believe is just as radical as brabus when tuning cars, they have a very very beautiful new SL modification with very appealing rims and interior. CM50 K, it has characteristics similar to sl55 amg, having 430 hp and 650 NM.

Hi !

If you read the AUTOMOVIL magazine ( I'm sure you do ) you would find lot of carlsson adds there... I thought they only put chips and bodykits. They do look good too me too. I think they also sell chips for A4, A3 and cars like that ?

[JetBoy]

Hi again,

Have you ever seen Alpinas in Spain ? I think some time ago there was a B8 4.6 for sale in Alicante ??

Thanks.

[KnightRider]

hi
i read automovil on occasional basis, but, no offence intended, i prefer english/american and german magazines, i find them to be more professional.
i never really pay attention to advertisements or classifieds, so i am not sure about alpinas for sale here, but i've seen the other day 10/99 alpina 3.3 advertised, the car was at barcelona mercedes dealership. there was no price or mileage, probably it wasn't a bargain anyway.
previous m3s are going now for good prices, especially 286 hp ones, you can get them really cheaply these days.
however, i've seen many 321 hp ones for relatively low prices too. now this is a good value for money.
i've seen several alpinas here, all with foreign numberplates though. i've seen this summer b12 5.7 with belgian plates, b10 4.6 touring with swiss plates, maybe some others, don't remember. yesterday i saw e30 m3...quite a lot of cool cars around here actually. oh, last week there was bentley azure with private british plates going southbound down A7, to La Manga i guess. he was doing weeeeell over 70 mph more like a ton or something.
take care,

[para22]

Originally posted by KnightRider

para22 and i am not sure how an issue of legality intersects with an s class having ukranian numberplates? well, i've seen b12 6.0 with moscow plates too, so what?

In Ukraine pepole have way worse living and less money than in russia , russia isn't very rich , but they have lots of reach pepole , because in such a big you'll always find some rich pepole , and Ukrainians come to Poland to work illegall , they work here like 3 months and with that money they can live like 1 year or longer in ukraine , and remember that Poland isn't the richest country ...
It could be legal , but i don't think it was for legal money... it wasm't any goverment member or other diplomat so i think it only could be mafia or something... in ukraine on averege pepole make about 1500$ a year...

And the other thing was that on that time you didn't see many new s-classes even in germany , not to mention other countries...

[KnightRider]

para22, i guess you are right in the end, expensive cars with east european plates is a rare sight. but i wouldnt say that all of them are illegal, more likely that they are, you are right in that respect.

[Mr Janne]

As Para22 said we visited Brabus at the M-Power trip and we were mighty impressed by their facilities and cars. This is a very serious company and if I should "tune" a Mercedes I would definately go for them. But they are very expensive. For example they offer a brake-kit for the W220 S-class and CL-coupes for over 25000DM.

[Prometheus NY]

Well, after seeing the pictures of the Carlsson SL above, I have to say that if I couldn't have an M5 then that would be my next choice. The Carlsson SL is absolutely gorgeous. What a beautiful, beautiful car. I'm sure that the Brabus SL will be just a pretty and probably be a significant performer - although I hear that the new SL is said to be no slouch either.

I'm glad that Mercedes is putting out such nice products. I think that in this way they force BMW to stay at the edge of their game.

Cheers to the guys at M-B!

My father has an 2001 S500 in black. Unfortunately, it's not a Brabus but we've outfitted the car with 20" Brabus rims, and it's a GORGEOUS. I'll be visiting California in February and I intend to make a visit to Brabus to see the showroom.

Be well!