Possibly of use for some of our readers.
From Road & Track, May 6:
Want a non-Maybach S-Class with more than eight cylinders? It might finally be time for you to buy an armored car.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is still a standard-bearer for full-sized luxury, but the V-12 that once sat at the top of the range is no longer available under the hood of either conventional or AMG-branded models. Most buyers who want a V-12 will have to spring for the Maybach S, which preserved the engine in part because American owners love it. A few very special customers will get the same engine another way, though: Mercedes-Benz also builds armored S-Classes, and the latest car in the S-Class Guard line still packs a V-12.
Mercedes-Benz Guard representative Saša Zejnić tells Road & Track that the V-12 was selected because the car is designed for "different use cases," most importantly "guaranteeing the highest protection level and also making the car move from A to B without any kind of [complication.]"
The V-12 in the Guard produces 603 hp and 612 lb-ft of torque. That may be well under the 791 hp produced by the plug-in hybrid S63 E-Performance, but the armored S gets to a healthy number without the added weight and complexity that comes in a plug-in hybrid. Given that the S-Class Guard roughly weighs more than 9500 pounds, the savings could be enough to keep the car from the dubi0us honor of a fifth digit in Imperial measurements.
Cutting out the battery also cuts out a potential point of failure in case of the sort of emergency that requires an armored limousine in the first place....
....MUCH MORE, including armored alternatives
As noted in 2014's "Jim Grant is (still) bullish on Russia, gold and private equity":
He's gone from serious analyst to...I don't know what. Gold's going lower and Russia is Russia, where people with an actual understanding of the place travel in armored Mercedes limos and have a hidey-hole in London.
