LuxuryCarMagazine En Luxury Car Review and News
After teasing us with some super, super vague images earlier this month, Mercedes has more fully stripped the wraps off of their upcoming S-Class Cabriolet, to be revealed in Frankfurt later this month. It represents the third body-style in the S-Class line-up after the Sedan and Coupe. 4th, if you include the long-wheelbase sedan.
It’s not the first time the S-Class moniker has been attached to a drop-top; 1971 saw the last time the Three-Pointed Star emblem adorned the hood of a beheaded S-Class.
Perhaps of biggest note with the new car, is that Mercedes has eschewed the folding hard-top seen on the SL- and SLK-Class models in favour of a lighter fabric top. It could be a nod to Rolls Royce, who has always maintained that a soft top is the best way to keep a car’s prestige level high, as the British manufacturer has done with their Phantom Drophead Coupe.
So, while the Bentley Continental GT convertible may be the first thing we think of when we consider the S-Class Cab, perhaps the Rolls should be considered, too. It does, however, mean the car rises a little higher off the ground due to the complexity of the roof mechanism, but Mercedes does claim the top retracts and deploys in less than 20 seconds, and it can be done at speeds up to 60 km/h. Further, in order to keep the luxury vibe alive, we could be seeing one of the most advanced roofing mechanisms seen from an auto manufacturer.
Other fancy ‘vert tech includes Benz’s patented AIRSCARF tech (heat vents emerge from below the headrest, to warm your collar during top-down blasts from Geneva to Paris) as well as AIRCAP which debuted on the E-Class cab a few years back. Essentially, the top of the windshield can be extended with a deployable wing, forcing air further away from the rear passengers.
Right now, “base” models are going to have to make do with a 449 horsepower V8 (come on, Mercedes; you couldn’t get it to 450?), with top-spec S63 AMG models netting 577 hp. Expect to see a S65 AMG down the road, packing an impressive 621 hp and likely over 730 lb.-ft. of torque.
