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It's a Mercedes - at a stretch
Well over 20ft long, the ultimate in limo-length luxury has a three-pointed star on the bonnet, but it's the Mercedes-Benz you can't yet buy from Mercedes.
Or at least it will be very soon, because at the moment it's the back half and the front half of an S500L with a 40in gap in the middle.
Most people would be happy with the half car an S-Class Mercedes is, but for some even a whole one isn't car enough. Trouble is, Mercedes just doesn't make them any bigger yet, although it announced a 20 ft 4 in S600 Pullman at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
When the first ones are delivered around September, they will be and-built to special order only and come with compulsory armour plating, according to Mercedes UK. There is no price list, but Mercedes UK suggests typical prices between £160,000 and £180,000 depending on equipment levels. However, there are no plans for a right-hand-drive UK version. "We don't really see a market for them in this country," said Mercedes-Benz UK spokesman.
But Jam Fakouri, head of limousine and chauffeur-driven hire company Dennis Carter Ltd, disagrees. That's one of the reasons he is creating a super-stretched six-door S500L (which shares the body-shell of the S600L) as the first of 50 coach-built limousines for his own company's use and discerning customers. They won't be armour plated, but Mr Fakouri says: "We can produce them in left- or right-hand drive, longer than the Mercedes version, cheaper and available sooner."
He already claim five customer orders for the £100,000-plus from the Middle East and the UK. His hope is that his bespoke six-passenger limousine will recreate something of the style of the gargantuan S600 Pullmans of the Sixties and Seventies, favoured by popes, presidents and pop-stars.
"Our limousine will be an inch longer than the Mercedes version and will be available in four- or six-door versions," says Iranian-born Mr Fakouri, whose London-based company runs over 70 limousines ferrying VIPs, business men, diplomats and foreign royalty in discreet smoked-glass privacy. What's more his longer limo will be a snip at 100,000 to 110,000.
"We run 18 stretch 500s at the moment, but the newest is 1991 and for us that means they're at the end of their useful life," he says. "There was simply no alternative but to create the cars ourselves on the new S-Class."
"It's a very competitive business, some of our clients are very keen to be driven in the latest model, even though no one knows who's inside. If the chairman of one bank is driven in a new S-Class limousine, others will demand the same treatment. If we're the first and only ones who can do this, it will give us an edge."
Earlier this month, after eight months of preparation, Dennis Carter subsidiary
company Conversion 2000 in west London mounted a £72,000 V8-engined S500L on a
special jig, which supports the bodyshell in eight places. Limousine coach-building specialists
David Broughton, 31, and Rick Hall, 30, have been brought in to create the 20ft 5in limo.
Before the sparks started to fly as the Mercedes was literally sawn to two, the S500L
had been stripped. prop shaft and exhaust removed, fuel lines disconnected and miles of
wiring taken out. The interior was also braced with frames at the rear and in the middle.
"There's so mush stress built in at the factory that when you cut the car it would relieve itself
of the stress and become weaker unless you build frames to keep it there," explains David
Broughton. "But in some ways Mercedes have done the hard part for us by building such a
good car in the first place,"
Then it's simply a matter of putting it back together, unraveling an estimated 26 miles of wiring, replacing the electronic brains, reconnecting the pneumatically operated central-locking, crafting a complete new roof section, extending the floors and sills, forming sturdy box sections for the inner sills and top counter rail, building new doors and custom glass.
Mr Fakouri, whose recreation revolves around his collection of 30 diminutive bubble
cars and micro cars says: "The paramount consideration are complete safety, comfort and
reliability. Another is producing the parts and spares Mercedes don't make. If one of our
limousines is dented in London traffic, we can't turn up at an embassy like that." Conversion
2000 are consequently creating moulds for a limited production run for four- and six-door
models of the limousine, along with replacement glass and trim items.
The first new S-Class limousine is due off the Conversion 2000 production line nine to ten weeks after work began. There after they plan eight-week build time for each one.
And if you're wondering why Mr Fakouri is basing his lavish limousine in the five-litre V8 S500 rather than the V12-engined 6-litre S600, he explains: "The body shape is the same and we want the better economy so that the car begins to pay for itself sooner."
But why not a Rolls-Royce version? "There isn't the demand among out customers," he explains. "They would be embarrassed by the extravagance of a Rolls-Royce and the way it draws attention to itself. A Mercedes is far more discreet." Even a 20-foot one!
Some of our Other Stretched Vehicles