Brabus is bringing back three-spoke wheels with this modified 740bhp Merc SL63

We weren’t the biggest fans of the Mercedes-AMG SL63 when we drove it earlier this year, but Brabus is doing its best to get us back on board. Mostly via a set of glorious three-spoke wheels attached to this '750 Bodo Buschmann Edition 1 of 2'.

Brabus is calling these the ‘Monoblock II evo Platinum Edition wheels’, which is basically a long-winded way of saying they hark back to the Brabus Monoblock II design of the late 1980s. Only now you can have them in 21-inch form up front and 22-inches at the rear. We are not against the three-spoke comeback.

The rest of this modified SL is predictably bonkers, and it gets its name because it’s a tribute to Bodo Buschmann – the man who founded Brabus in 1977. He rather liked the R129 SL, and German magazine Auto Bild snapped an iconic picture of him driving a Brabus 7.3S without a bonnet in the 90s, hence the recreation here…

Not quite as cool as the R129, is it? Quicker though. The old-timer may have used a monster 7.3-litre twin-turbo V12, but it could only muster 574bhp and 571lb ft of torque. Brabus’s new turbos and ECU for the SL63’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 up its power to a terrifying 740bhp and torque to 664lb ft. That means 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 196mph. 

The BB Edition also gets a new stainless steel exhaust system so that you can hear all about those engine upgrades, and there are the usual Brabus carbon fibre exterior addendums. Sports suspension drops the ride height by 25mm, while pretty much everything on the inside and out comes in a shade of black – just as Buschmann would have wanted. 

We’re told 25 of these special editions will be built, with each one getting a badge that bears the signature of Bodo Buschmann. And as you might have guessed, it won’t be cheap. The price for a complete car is €336,500 (around £287,000) before any tax. That’s a whole lot of money for an SL, but heck, look at those wheels.