Unassuming W140 S600 Benz Howls Like a Banshee on Streets of Japan
Thanks to a $12,000 exhaust system, YouTuber’s W140 now sounds more like a Mercedes-AMG Formula One car.
The third-gen S-Class was given the nickname of “Shabah” (the Arabic word for “ghost”) by many a customer in the Middle East market. Looking upon an example proves they weren’t wrong. After all, it’s an unassuming luxury car capable of moving executives and politicos without drawing too much attention to itself and the occupants inside. Even with the 6.0-, 7.0-, and 7.3-liter V12s under the hood (the smallest powering the Pagani Zonda), the W140 S-Class didn’t show off its power with a ton of sound, not when it can simply pull away in a hurry to the next meeting.
For YouTuber Gordon Cheng (a.k.a. effspot), though, he wanted his W140 S-Class to be more of a banshee than a ghost. Thus, he shipped his quiet Mercedes off to Japan for a new $12,000 exhaust system to give the stately sedan the ability to sound like a Mercedes-AMG Formula One car.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, four and a half to five months in the making… taking delivery of the S600, the Mercedes W140 S600 with the V12,” said Cheng. “Check out the exhaust. From the looks of it, it looks completely stock, super, super lowkey, stealth exhaust tip.”
The navy blue S-Class is equipped with a dual-mode exhaust that allows Cheng to go silent or loud with a push of a button on the remote. It may look tame, but as will soon be demonstrated, the exhaust gives the Nineties Mercedes the ability to troll everyone.
“This is the first customer S600 with the Brilliant Exhaust,” Cheng said. “We’re just gonna hop in, take it for a little test drive. Let’s see what it sounds like.”
Before anything could happen, though, Cheng had to take his S-Class to a gas station to fill up the tank. What he didn’t know, though was that it would cost him around $90 to bring the needle up to just over halfway to full, as the station charges by the liter, and his big car has a 100-liter (26-gallon) fuel tank. And to think we have it bad with prices in the United States.
Once over that astounding development, though, Cheng found that he did get his money’s worth from the new exhaust. As soon as the S-Class accelerated from a U-turn, it howled like never before, leaving Cheng howling with laughter from the insanity.
“You can’t even tell that it’s a modified exhaust,” said Cheng while parked outside a random restaurant. “It looks completely stock. [Technical Garage] Sasaki is a mad genius for arranging all this, and building the S600 project car. We’re gonna go around the corner on the main road, get a couple of accelerations, and see what happens.”
What happens is the S-Class sounding insane while pulling away, especially when it makes a U-turn and passes a couple of supercars waiting to cross the intersection. Everyone is laughing mad from the Brilliant Exhaust setup, knowing that they can now troll everyone they come across with just a push of the button.
“We’re gonna roll down all the windows here,” said Cheng later that evening. “Here we go. We’re putting it in second, rolled down my window all the way down. Here we go.”
As soon as possible, the S-Class accelerated down the tunnel, its ear-piercing howl echoing off the walls, followed by laughter from those inside the luxury sedan. Every tunnel they come upon, the driver drops it down into second to bring the revs to 3,000 rpm, then lets all hang out.
“Five months in the making, ladies and gentlemen, and so much money into this project,” said Cheng. “Is it worth it? We’re going to find out when we go into the tunnels on Monday.”
We’d say it’s worth it, if only to catch every supercar owner off-guard as Cheng and his crew pull away from a stop, the V12 howling like never before, all from a car as business class as the S-Class.
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