A great S 600 Guard review from fly-wheel.com.
The German Luxury “Tank” – Mercedes-Benz S-Class S600 Guard
All the management gurus and psychologists in this world or the next

often say ‘Power’ is what a man needs to attain the orgasm of life. The power enjoyed by those who really have it , are in different forms, it can be the power of the no 1 citizen of a nation, He/she can be the emperor of a huge business enterprise, and can even be the celebrated position of a well know artist, sportsman, religious guru etc etc and a big etc. “Along with great power comes great responsibility” – that’s my copycat brain showing its liking to Spiderman movies, but I would like to add something else to this phrase- “Along with great power comes great enemies” . And for handling these threats, these distinguished men/women often employ Personal bodyguards (Oh yeah! the sexy long legged ones like in the movies), secured mansions and fort like business offices and houses. But all this security elements can’t help these men stay alive when they are on the move. A simple bullet or landmine can easily take their lives when ever they are in motion in an Automobile in motion. For that they need an automobile that is capable of moving round in the safest manner without compromising the comfort, luxury and speed that they enjoy in their “normal” life. A customized Automobile can be made if your pocket is deep enough, but an Obama mobile like chariot with its different exterior look may welcome unwanted attention, which again may make these men easily identifiable.
In these situations what these powerful personalities require is a car which look very similar to what we see on our roads, tops in luxury and loaded with the best features on offer capable of safeguarding the occupants from the deadliest of attacks. Hello “World’s most wanted men/women“ If these are the features you are looking for, look no further, your wait is over – he has already touched Indian soil, the machine with the highest safety ranking for any civilian vehicle ever built, built on the platform of the best car in the world by a manufacturer with the richest heritage of eight decades of making armored passenger cars. Yes! The Mercedes-Benz S600 Guard. The latest and most sophisticated offering in the world of armored cars, the S600 Guard is the first and only car to offer VR-9 range of ballistic protection. Mercedes-Benz India launched this high protection luxury vehicle for a whopping price tag of Rs.8.90 Crores upwards. If you still can’t convince your mind about this extra terrestrial price tag, I won’t blame you, even I took a moment to actually count the no of zero’s in the press release to make sure my school teacher taught me the proper math!
Rather than getting emotional I decided to go deep and inspect what made this S class this expensive. Externally the car look exactly like the W222 series S class which was launched here last year, but there are few trim differences which is the identity of flagship variant S600, the double slack radiator grille, slightly different chrome on both bumpers, S600 special quad exhaust and mighty V12 badging on front fender are the only difference our eye can find apart from a very different 7 spoke alloy wheels which is actually built for a purpose which you’ll learn towards the end of this review.
The additional amount you are paying for the S Guard is gone inside the skin in the form of high density steel sheets through out the passenger shell, doors and under-body which is denser than eight normal metal sheets put together which is used in building a normal S class. Other than that the entire aluminum body parts have been replaced by steel and the entire body frame is reinforced by high strength steel. It’s not only the metal part which got beefed up, entire windows and windshields are thicker by seven layers with a poly carbonate quoting on inner side which is capable enough to withstand even bullets triggered from bad boy’s favorite M60 and sniper guns. The car is reinforced not only to withstand bullets but also the blast from grenades. These reinforcing resulted in building up the kerb weight of the car to 4.5 tons almost double of a normal S class.
If u are among that elite of the elite buyers of S Guard, I’m sure a second in your life would be more expensive than an average mans entire life savings. Hence you won’t be happy if your protective luxury barge’s heavy weight makes your movement slow. Mercedes is clever enough to employ a brilliant 6 Liter V12 bi-turbo petrol silky smooth powertrain with 530hp of power & 830Nm of torque in S600 Guard, which is manufactured by the Factory tuning division AMG. It’s mated to a 7G-Tronic seven-speed auto tranny. In spite of the hefty body weight this tank can propel to a 100 km/h in just over 7 seconds and the top speed is limited to 210 km/h. In order to achieve this performance figures S- Guard engineers have reinforced the differential and changed the drive ratio to take on the power from powertrain to wheels in the most effective way. You may not even be concerned about the fuel economy of you chariot which can safeguard you on move, but Mercedes Benz is keen to be the most fuel efficient among the similar offerings in market which make this the most fuel efficient armored luxury car with 3 km/l. S Guard is also environmentally conscious and meets the stringent Euro 6 emission standard.
If you are still not convinced to shed a pile of extra crores on this armored luxury barge, here are the added additional safety and comfort features. In case of an explosion or fire, the cabin is protected from toxic air and will supply fresh oxygen. If the car gets caught on fire, there is a self-extinguishing system, which can be operated by touch of a button hidden in the front cup holder area on center console. In a dangerous circumstance where the only way out is to drive there are two additional features; a special Michelin PAX run flat tyres with an inner rubber shielding on wheel which even when deflated fully can run upto 30km at a speed of 70km/h which is quite enough to escape from a danger area. Other than the protective tyres there is a set of extra batteries below the boot, which gets activated within just 15 sec to keep the powertrain alive. Braking with additional weight always is a big challenge, so to over come that S-Guard engineers have fitted a bigger brake disk with eight piston calipers. Other additional safety features for S Guard apart from the all these are opaque roller blind through out, heated windscreen and windows, panic alarm, hydraulic power-window motors, special rear end cooling compartment.
S Guard have not compromised in the signature industry benchmarking comfort of S Class, engineers have restructured the entire AirMatic suspension and added two additional stabilizers to take on the additional weight. The result is evident when I tested on slalom course, in spite of being double heavy the car was so stable and was predictable on the driving line. Even though there was a bit body roll on high-speed bends of Buddh Circuit, S Guard is still a very effortless car to drive like a normal S Class. Other than on a hard braking event there is never a sign of addition weight while driving this bulletproof car. Power steering is light and communicative and the signature Mercedes low turning radius also remains the same.
Before I end this story I have only one question left; that is not to ask you whether you are convinced on how much value you get for your money, which am quite sure that you need no more explanation. But my question is can all these protective safety features stop you from hearing the call of death?
The most luxurious and safest place to be on the road
Flying through the track
A definite eye-catcher
At the Slalom course
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