Mercedes-Benz C112
(Germany via Italy)
Price: $395,000 (maybe).
Birthday: 1994
How to say it: “LOOFT-wah-fawiss beck!”
The original idea was to slap some side-marker lights on a handful of Peter Sauber’s all conquering Group C silver bullets and-faster than you can shout achtung! – you’ve got the baddest ride of an F40. Hold on. Jochen Neerpasch now says that Sauber’s C9s do not gracefully lend themselves to street application. Thus, a Stuttgart-designed chassis and body – which ironically, will be initially fabricated by Fratelli Stola in Italy, are in the offing. Moreover, instead of Sauber’s turbocharged V-8’s, the C112’s will rely on 500-hp iterations of the 6.0-liter V-12 slated for duty in M-B’s upcoming S-class dreadnoughts. A 0-to-62-mph time of 4.2 seconds is targeted. Assembly of C112s may be entrusted to either AMG or the specialty builder Isdera.No matter who wins the contract, Mercedes will insist that the exotic car be engineered to the same high standards as it’s production models and that it adhere assiduously to safety and emissions edicts worldwide.