If you remember back in January Mercedes tuner Carlsson announced its plans to reveal a bespoke super GT at 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Well, here it is! and as much as it pains me to say it, those early renderings looked much better than the finished product. The C25, which is limited to 25 units, is actually a half a million euro facelifted model of the SL600, which also gets its V12 engine, but with a whole lot more power.
Of course this car certainly got the presence and it’s as unique as it gets, but in terms of beauty and style, well it doesn’t float my boat! They should have hired an Italian to design it. And what the hell is that orange stripe all over the car?! What they were thinking. It’s ugly and also ruins the whole image. Who told them this is cool?!
Apart form the styling though, anything about this car is fantastic. Carlsson has deeply modified that 6.0 liter V12 and extracted 735 hp and an unbelievable 1320 Nm of torque which had to be electronically restrained at 1150 Nm, because any further and the gearbox would be blown into pieces!
Speaking of the gearbox, it’s a 5-speed automatic SPEEDSHIFT which sends the power to the rear axle, enabling this heavyweight car (1950 kg) to go from zero to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds and onwards to a top speed of 352 km/h (219 mph). Because the car is so heavy, they have used a sophisticated C-tronic suspension system which constantly monitors movements of the body and adjust them for spot on handling.
So there you go! If you want one of the 25 Carlsson C25 Super GTs, set aside 510,000 Euro. Or you can just go and buy a 05 or 06 Pagani Zonda. That’s what we would do!