2005 - 2013 Mercedes-Benz S600 Guard by TOPCAR
TOPCAR has popped back into the TopSpeed offices, straight
out of Russia, with an all-new bespoke vehicle. Last time we caught up
with our Russian custom car friends they were getting their Panamera Stingray 9/25 ready for the 2012 Moscow
International Automobile Salon. Now they have delivered us a little more
comfort and loads of safety with their Guard upgrade kit for the 2005
through 2013 Mercedes-Benz S600.
TOPCAR began
by stripping this S600 down and adding in bullet-proof glass and
paneling to keep its occupants safe. While the armoring is cool and
likely costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, we are interested mostly
in what the armor is protecting. No, not the occupants, we are talking
about that gorgeous interior!
The entire interior
covering has been removed and replaced from headliner to floor – yeah,
we said the floor too – with an elegant blend of lozenge-textured
crocodile, Nappa, and Alcantara leather. Sure, using crocodile leather
isn’t the most PETA-friendly thing in the world, but when you have the
roughly $100K that TOPCAR put into the interior, you can tell PETA to go
save a squirrel. Plus, we’re pretty sure their presence in Russia is
nearly non-existent.
The crocodile leather wraps up
the seats, doors, dashboard, and floor. Gracing the luggage compartment
is diamond-quilted Nappa leather, making a comfortable ride for your
golf clubs or whatever else you like to stick in your trunk. With our
contact at TOPCAR volunteering that sometimes the term “crazy Russian”
is justified, we will leave the other trunk-dwelling objects to your
imagination.
You also get a huge amount of custom
Karelian birch wood trim to set off all of this beautifully crafted
leather. To wrap up the package, TOPCAR replaced all of the Benz’s lowly chrome trim with gold-covered pieces. I
mean, you can never rock crocodile leather with chrome trim after Labor
Day, right?
“Wow” just about sums up this car. When
it comes to tiptoeing the line between fantastically gorgeous and
horrendously overdone, TOPCAR toed that line with the expertise we
expected. Awesome job!
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