It Appears There’s a New Title-Holder for Fastest Street-Legal SUV

We called the stock Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S a land missile. Then Brabus got hold of it.

The Brabus 900 Rocket Edition based on the Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 S 4MATIC Coupe driving down the road. Brabus says it's the fastest street-legal SUV in the world.
Brabus took a coupe that's actually an SUV and supposedly made it the fastest in the world.
Brabus

When our automotive editor Benjamin Hunting reviewed the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe, we learned a couple things. Despite the name, it really is an SUV. And despite the wishy-washy nomenclature, once you’re actually in the driver’s seat, the purpose becomes clear: it’s a multi-ton land missile “for a very special class of extroverts.” 

In other words, while you may expect the title to go to more recognizable names, like the Bentley Bentayga or the Lamborghini Urus, apparently a tuned version of the GLE 63 S Coupe has claimed the title as the world’s fastest street-legal SUV. That’s according to Brabus, the notoriously extra German tuner behind the new model called the 900 Rocket Edition.

Nicknamed the Brabus Rocket Ship, the even-higher-powered Mercedes-AMG Coupe made its debut this week at the Monaco Yacht Show. Where better to unveil a $450,000 manifestation of recklessness in vehicular form than the annual superyacht convention? 

When we say reckless, we’ve got the specs to back it up. The car it’s based on already puts out 603 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque, which as we noted puts it near the top of its class; the Brabus version, however, gets 900 horsepower and 774 lb-ft of torque, the latter of which has been limited. In practice, that leads to a 0 to 62 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph, which also has been limited via an electronic speed limiter. 

The SUV joins a number of other models under the Rocket banner at Brabus, including a G-Wagen and a legitimate four-door coupe. All of these are limited-edition builds, though, and the new GLE 63 S Coupe is no different, capped at just 25 examples.

So we’ll leave you with two choices if you want an SUV that’s fast enough to satisfy your inner Dominic Toretto: you can get reportedly the fastest one in the world that you can still legally drive to Whole Foods from Brabus for just under half a million, or you could go straight to Mercedes-AMG and get the original for a paltry-by-comparison $116,000. Trust us, that one will give you all the speed you need.

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