{"id":1920048,"date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1920048"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:00:00","slug":"the-s680-guard-is-a-stylish-v12-engined-luxury-armoured-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1920048","title":{"rendered":"The S680 Guard is a stylish, V12-engined luxury armoured Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Are you a high-ranking politician? Head of state? Someone capable of annoying people so badly they turn homicidal? Well, Mercedes has just released the car for you, and it\u2019s called the S680 GUARD. It’s basically a stylish tank.<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, it\u2019s based on the latest-generation of S-Class<\/a>, a car that\u2019s been used by the great and good since 1972 (and the W116-generation), the newest in a long line of \u00fcber-protected, factory-specced \u2018special protection\u2019 vehicles from Merc. But this one is top-line; it gets the highest rating for civilian occupant protection possible, called \u2018VR10\u2019. Basically, if you want a vehicle more robust, you\u2019ll have to join the army.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And it looks\u2026 pretty much like a normal S-Class. Sort of. The idea here is that people who require this stuff probably don\u2019t want to draw extra attention to themselves, so the Guard just looks like a long-wheelbase S-Class. The windows look a little odd – they have larger framing on the inside – and the tyres and wheels look weirdly bulky, but tap on the aluminium skin – like a regular S – and it sounds like a normal car.<\/p>\n

Rap a knuckle on the glass or tyres though, and it\u2019s like tapping thick marble. Things are not as they first appear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Very basically, the car is designed to incorporate a safety cell that\u2019s impregnable to anything short of heavy ordnance. Handguns? A .44 Magnum or .357 will barely graze the internal armour – though it\u2019ll leave a hole that needs buffing out on the exterior skin. A 7.62×39 calibre – something like an Kalashnikov AK-47 – leaves a small mark.<\/p>\n

Everything else? Shrugged off, albeit scarring the sacrificial bodywork. And that goes all the way up to something like a Russian Dragunov sniper rifle (7.62x54R rounds, calibre fans) using a steel-jacketed, hardened steel core round with an incendiary head. That\u2019s the VR10 certification, which means you\u2019ve annoyed some really naughty people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And don\u2019t think you can just shoot the edges of the doors or the seams of bodywork, because the armour is overlapped to prevent it. More aggressive attacks? The S680 will stand up to IEDs (improvised explosive devices) with several kgs of explodey-stuff inside them, even if you lob it at the roof.<\/p>\n

So how does it do it? Well, the glass is layered, inches thick and lapped into the frames of the doors. It still shatters if you shoot it, but will absorb the impact of a projectile and spit molten glass back towards the shooter. That\u2019s ballistics for you. Behind the normal aluminium panels are sets of \u2018mazed\u2019 steel armour, webs of exotic materials like Aramid woven underneath.<\/p>\n

The doors weigh 250kg. Each. But they open like normal doors thanks to powered actuators, and yes, there\u2019s anti-trap. If you got your hand caught in one without it, you\u2019d lose the ability to type very quickly. Want to try and smoke someone out? The car can store hundreds of litres of fresh air; if it detects gas, it simply shuts all the intakes and overpressures the interior for the vital moments it would take to get away.<\/p>\n

There are in-built fire extinguishers. And it\u2019s got sirens and mobile comms\/radios and external speakers for communicating with the outside while you shelter in safety. There\u2019s a big red button inside the cupholders that will essentially turn this thing into a mobile panic room. They didn\u2019t let us press that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Of course, these things are not unstoppable. If you drive into a lake, you\u2019d still drown. If you were shot at by an actual tank, you\u2019d still be well-dressed pat\u00e9. But the idea for a car like this is not to stand and fight, but to survive long enough to run away. Hence the Michelin PAX runflat tyres, which can be driven on for 30km even if they\u2019ve been shot to bits – there\u2019s a solid rubber ring mounted inside, with steel rods that effectively beadlock the tyre on the rim. S-Class ride quality goes in the bin in favour of tactical retreat.<\/p>\n

Probably a point at which a 4.4-tonne kerbweight and 4Matic all-wheel drive becomes an advantage if you have to get all medieval and just bulldoze another vehicle out of the way. Which also explains why a car with a 600bhp, 6.0-litre V12 \u2018only\u2019 manages 0-62mph in eight and half seconds. Stately relative progress these days, but with reason.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s almost as interesting is how they certificate the S680 Guard, because it\u2019s not about offensive capability at all – it\u2019s about making sure the soft and squishy humans inside stay the right amount of soft and squishy. So the certification to protection level VR10 is carried out by the Beschussamt Ulm (\u2018proof house\u2019) in accordance with the test guidelines of the Association of Test Laboratories for Attack-Resistant Materials and Constructions (VPAM). They use what they call \u2018biofidel\u2019 crash-test dummies – but these ones have 42 bones, skin and twelve soft tissue analogues and internal organs.<\/p>\n

During testing, the S680 was shot at, blown up and abused, and then actual medical doctors assessed the dummies to see what impact the violence had on the \u2018people\u2019 inside. Apparently after all the processes were completed, the S680 got the maximum score; the humans would have walked away – albeit with a likely case of tinnitus and light PTSD. It is rumoured that someone may have spilled their champagne from the rear fridge. The car looked ragged by the end of the test procedures, but the safety cell kept everyone alive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth pointing out here that you can\u2019t just buy one of these things from a dealer; there are background checks to see if you really need one, plus a price that no one is willing to talk about – it\u2019s POA, with extra levels on the \u2018A\u2019. But it comes with a Mercedes warranty and a \u2018flying doctor\u2019 service if you need an actual oil change or squeaky bushing taken care of.<\/p>\n

The best bit about the Guard is probably that it\u2019s not aggressive at all to look at. Slip it out of a motorcade (and probably remove the front wing-mounted flag carriers, if you\u2019re committing to stealth), and it just looks like a new S-Class. There are all the new improvements to the interior, all the multimedia functions, all the usual lovely wood and leather. It might be a bit of a shame that we need these things at all, but if you\u2019re going to go for full security, you might as well do it in style.<\/p>\n

Price: <\/strong>On Application\/Subject to approval
Engine: <\/strong>6.0-litre V12 biturbo
Power:<\/strong> 612hp (604bhp), 612lb ft
Performance: <\/strong>0-62mph in 8.3 seconds, 130mph
Transmission: <\/strong>9-speed auto, 4Matic AWD 31\/69 torque split F\/R
Weight:<\/strong> circa 4,400kg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you a high-ranking politician? Head of state? Someone capable of annoying people so badly they turn homicidal? Well, Mercedes has just released the car for you, and it\u2019s called the S680 GUARD. It’s basically a stylish tank. As the name suggests, it\u2019s based on the latest-generation of S-Class, a car that\u2019s been used by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1920048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1920048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1920048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1920048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1920048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}