German Tuners Set New World Speed Records

335i Coupe Photos

It's no normal 335i, it's one boasting four more cylinders and running on a different fuel. (Photo: AC Schnitzer)

It may be bigger, heavier and outlandish, but the Brabus-tuned Maybach 57S was even faster than the V10 BMW. (Photo: Brabus)

Yup, that's fast. 205.2 mph, if you were wondering. (Photo: Brabus)

It’s hard to believe, but world speed records in the automotive world are dropping like flies. Two of the more interesting records were broken just this month, one achieved in a more conventional way than the other. Both of the records involve German cars, and both occurred at the Nardo high-speed circuit in Italy during a high-speed comparison test by German auto magazine Autobild.

First up is BMW tuner AC Schnitzer, which of all things, unveiled a special version of BMW’s 335i Coupe. As fantastic as the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter straight six is, thanks to its linear power and torque delivery, it pales in comparison to the 5.0-liter V10 engine found in something like the M5 or M6. Perhaps this is why AC Schnitzer decided to install an M-built V10 under the hood of its GP3.10 record breaker. The German tuner converted the engine to run on LPG, otherwise known as natural gas, and in the process bumped output up to 553 horsepower. This is good enough to give the car a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 4.5 seconds and an outright top speed of 197.7 mph, which was independently observed by Continental AG. This makes the GP3.10 the world’s fastest LPG-powered vehicle. As of right now, AC Schnitzer has no plans to put this vehicle into production, but says that the conversion from straight gasoline to a car that can run on both LPG and gasoline (at different times) isn’t terribly hard to do.

The piece de resistance, however, is a world record that belongs to (of all companies) Maybach. Rather, the record belongs to the most prominent Maybach tuner out there, Brabus. The Bottrop, Germany based company essentially took a 57 S sedan and ran it through the same process it used for its Rocket high-performance CLS sedan. Importantly, the engine was boosted in displacement to 6.3 liters, while the boost on the twin turbochargers was cranked way up. To go with it, almost everything in the engine was strengthened or upgraded, from the pistons to the cooling system to the driveshafts that needed to convey all the power from the front of the car to its rear driving wheels. Peak output surged from 550 horsepower to an utterly ridiculous 730 horsepower!

Modern 12-cylinder luxury sedans like the Audi A8 W12, BMW 760i and Mercedes-Benz S600 are fast, but the Brabus Maybach is something else altogether. Whereas those cars – and the standard Maybach for that matter – are limited to 155 mph, there’s no such barrier for the Brabus car. That means the burly engine will pull strongly until it runs out of steam at 205.2 mph, making it officially the world’s fastest limousine. Pointless? Perhaps, but we can’t help wonder what’s next. Perhaps they’ll do the extended wheelbase “62” version and achieve even better results …