It’s Got a V12: Mercedes-AMG S65
Diplomacy with a Detonation Cord
There are fast cars. There are luxury cars. And then there’s the 2015 Mercedes-AMG S65. A stately, thousand-pound chandelier of a sedan that just happens to come factory-equipped with a 6.0-liter biturbo V12. You don’t drive an S65 so much as you issue decrees from it.
At 621 horsepower and a face-melting 738 lb-ft of torque, this thing doesn’t hustle. It obliterates timelines. Zero to sixty in under 4 seconds might not raise eyebrows in a coupe, but in something with rear-seat massagers, night vision, and enough chrome to impress at a lowrider meet in Echo Park? That’s black magic on 20-inch wheels.
The S65 was AMG’s answer to a very specific question: What if your boss’s boss wanted to drag race his Gulfstream to Van Nuys? And while most of us will never sign a lease with a second comma, spotting one of these on the 405 is still a thrill. It’s a luxury sledgehammer wrapped in silk.
The W222 S65 was the last V12 S-Class sedan AMG ever made. Today’s AMG flagships are fast, yes—but they hum. The S65 growled.