The Brabus Rocket 1000 is the German tuner’s first car with 1,000 horsepower

Brabus has finally done it. It has breached the 1,000 horsepower mark on a production car for the very first time with this new Rocket 1000 “1 of 25” – a limited edition and really rather wide take on the hybridised AMG GT 63 S E Performance.

Although, once we convert that figure to actual bhp, this Rocket 1000 is actually only sending 986bhp to all four of its wheels. Booo, back to the drawing board with you Brabus.

Still, 986bhp. Brabus has left the E Performance’s 201bhp electric motor and 6.1kWh battery well alone too, so all of the extra grunt over the standard 831bhp car comes from changes to the twin-turbo V8.

For starters the engine grows from 4.0-litres to 4.5-litres, and we’re told that there’s a new custom crankshaft, new pistons, new high-performance turbochargers and a new stainless steel exhaust system.

There’s an all-new ECU too, and Brabus has actually had to limit the torque to 774lb ft in order to protect the drivetrain. If that was left unchecked it would generate 1,342lb ft. Jeepers. Apparently 0-62mph now takes 2.6 seconds while top speed is limited to 196mph.

As the name suggests, just 25 examples of the modded Merc will be built and all will get the giant carbon fibre widebody that adds 6.7cm to the width of the GT 4dr. They’ll also get lots of carbon and quilted leather inside, plus new suspension that can drop the ride height by up to 20mm from standard.

There’s no word on price just yet, but we can’t imagine that the most powerful Brabus ever is going to come cheap.