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Mercedes has long been privy to the fact that more is really quite a lot nicer than less, and has applied this long-held TG maxim to the brand new S600. It's bigger, more powerful and features more tech than ever. Tick.
Gone is the old 5.5-litre V12 from the last S600, and in comes an all-singing, all-shouting 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12. The power figures are quite incredible too: that V12 produces 530bhp (up from 517bhp) and 612lb ft of torque available from 1,900rpm, all channeled to the rear wheels via the AMG 7G-tronic auto ‘box to give a 0-62mph time of 4.6 seconds and limited top speed of 155mph (the S63 does the sprint in 4.4s but will be a little cheaper than this 600).
That engine; there's an all-aluminium crankcase, a forged crankshaft, modified forged pistons and a new ECU, amongst other touches. And then you start rifling through the tech Merc has lavished on the 600. You get (take a deep breath...) an LED intelligent light system, magic body control (that's the ‘chicken advert') with road surface scanning, a driving assistance pack that includes lane assist, blind spot assist, cross-traffic assist and steer control and collision prevention assist (which carries out autonomous braking up to 124mph). We'd joke at this point that any more tech and it'd drive itself but, as you've read here before, that's not far off either.
You can also option a touchpad to control the head unit (that operates like a smartphone) and a head-up display, and Mercedes will only offer this new S600 in a long-wheelbase model. It'll appear sometime after March. Oh, and if you're concerned, though it gets stop/start as standard for the first time on a 600 (to help it hit Euro 6 emissions standards), Mercedes reckon it'll be a winner in North America and Asia in particular.
A brief history of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Written By:- Vijay Pattni
More of this article on the Top gear website
