There's 630HP and 738lb ft of torque available from those 12 cylinders, thanks to a little help from twin turbochargers, while the German marque proudly proclaims that the saloon comes as standard with “the world’s first suspension with eyes”. (If you need to be convinced of the benefits of such a system, check out the Mercedes ‘chicken advert’.) Of course, there’s a price to be paid for all that performance in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions but, at 23.7mpg Combined and 279g/km, it’s less than you might think. In fact, to put it in Mercedes’ own (rather verbose) words, the S 65 AMG is “the world’s most fuel-efficient V12 high-performance saloon in terms of power and torque”.

Photos: Mercedes-Benz