Brabus, the European tuner most famous for hotting up Mercedes-Benz cars but not just Mercedes, is honoring its late co-founder Bodo Buschmann with a “High-Performance Gran Turismo Coupe” that promises to be incredibly powerful (to the tune of 1,000 horses), eyeball-flatteningly quick (three seconds to 62mph), absurdly luxurious, and made entirely of carbon fiber.
The only thing it isn’t, is a Mercedes.
Nope, no three-pointed star on this hood; the Brabus Bodo is instead based on an Aston Martin Vanquish. Now, if you’re thinking (as I was) “Ah yes, makes sense, Aston Martin uses Mercedes engines,” that’s true – for the V8 models, but not the Vanquish. It gets its own Aston Martin-developed 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12.
Brabus’ press materials don’t mention any changes to the engine’s internals, but it’s easy to spot the carbon fiber bits dressing up the engine bay. Carbon is the theme throughout the Bodo, and not merely as a cosmetic choice – the coachbuilt two-door body is actually made from the stuff. It’s mostly covered by paint (“Piano Black,” says Brabus), but some areas (such as the delicately detailed taillights below) are left clear-coated to show off the weave.
As befitting a “Masterpiece Supercar,” the Bodo is lavishly appointed inside with leather, carbon fiber, and “high-gloss Brabus ‘Shadow Gray’ accents.” The seats are stitched with what Brabus calls its shell design, but what I would call fish scales – very cool-looking fish scales.
As a 2+2, there are functional rear seats, though they appear more kid-sized than adult-accommodating. Bodo owners will likely just be tossing their cashmere sweaters or leather-patch-elbowed sportcoats back there, anyway.
The Bodo rolls out on 21-inch wheels developed specifically for the car and wears unique tires as well. Brabus says the Monoblock Z-GT “Shadow Edition” 20-spoke wheels are custom forged and machined, and Continental supplies SportContact 7 Force tires “developed and produced specifically for the Bodo” to fit the 275/35 front and 325/30 rear wheels. Behind the wheels, you’ll find 410 and 360 mm carbon-ceramic rotors squeezed by six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers
The front-end treatment features fine grille slats that go well with the thin-spoke wheels, prominent “Ram-Air” ducts in the cheeks, and “aerodynamically optimized” intakes straddling the grille to direct airflow to the radiators and brakes. It’s all very aggressive and heavy-breathing, but there is a 1000-horsepower V12 that needs plenty of air behind those intakes, after all.
Active aerodynamics are another Bodo feature, in the form of an electrically-deployed two-stage rear spoiler. Brabus says the wing extends automatically and self-adjusts as you drive to ensure stability and balance. Stomp the brakes sufficiently hard above 87mph, and the wing will stand vertical to function as an air brake. For the record, if you put me in a Bodo, I am absolutely taking it to 90mph and standing on the binders to see that wing do its thing.
As for what’s going on under the Bodo, Brabus worked with KW to outfit the car with an electronically-controlled, coilover-supported double-wishbone front suspension and multilink rear end. Wet, GT, Sport, and Sport Plus drive modes tailor the suspension for slippery conditions (“Wet”) and ramp up stiffness from comfortably soft (GT) to track-day firm (Sport Plus). The system also has an axle-lift mode, so the Bodo’s carbon splitter doesn’t become a speedbump scraper.
[Ed Note: Brabus did a nice job disguising/enhancing the full carbon fiber Aston Martin Vanquish chassis underneath the new panels. You can see here that the engine bays are similar:
And the dash, center console, and steering wheel share a similar shape, as one might imagine for two cars sharing an architecture.
As for the bodies? They’re amazingly different:
This is what Brabus does. They build a unique identity upon a great chassis, to the point where sometimes it’s not obvious what that chassis is on first glance. -DT].
The drive modes also alter power delivery, the eight-speed auto’s shift points, and the electronically-controlled exhaust’s settings. GT mode offers “refined V12 sound and harmonious power delivery,” the Sport modes open up valves in the exhaust for “more pronounced” sound, and the settings in between bridge the extremes. And if you don’t find any of the modes to be exactly to your liking, no problem: all the parameters can be adjusted individually to set a custom mode.
Naturally, all the modern safety stuff expected of an ultra-premium car is here as well, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping and lane-change assist, blind-spot monitoring, automatic traffic sign recognition, and an electronic traction control system. Would you expect any less for a million Euros?
“What about the Autopian connection?” Ah yes, I nearly forgot. The Aston Martin Vanquish that became the donor car for Bodo development was sold to Brabus by none other than Autopian co-founder Beau Boeckmann’s Galpin Aston Martin! Beau only discovered this after the fact, but still: cool story.
Top graphic image: Aston Martin
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