Brabus’s 1,000-PS, $1M Shooting Brake conversion is its coolest so far

Brabus isn’t a tuning company name associated with restraint in particular, but its latest creation – the Rocket GTS – might just be the wildest of all time. It is a Shooting Brake with supercar amounts of power and torque based on the Mercedes-AMG SL-Class chassis.

The car boasts a completely unique exterior design seemingly inspired by the likes of the BMW Z3 M. The latter was known as “Clown Shoe” back in its glory days, but is now regarded as a rare and collection-worthy design. The bodywork is made from prepreg carbon bakes in an autoclave oven for rigidity. Following a series of rigorous wind tunnel tests, Brabus holds that the stability of the car remains “outstanding” even above 300 km/h (186 mph).

Power comes from a stock twin-turbo V8 stroked out to 4.5 liters of volume and tuned to Stage 3 spec. Assisted by a standard electric motor, the engine hits the wheels with 1,000 PS (986 hp / 735 kW) and 1,620 Nm (1,195 lb-ft). The company admits that it had considered letting the torque go as high as 1,820 Nm (1,342 lb-ft), but it put too much strain on the nine-speed automatic.

Even “handicapped” like this, the Rocket GTS needs 2.6 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph), 9.5 seconds to double this acceleration, and 23.6 to triple it.

Right now, the car is up for grabs at Brabus for an eye-watering €945,762. The German tuner doesn’t reveal how many it plans to build, but calls it a “limited edition” instead of “one-off”, so more may be coming.