On New Year’s Eve 1879 Carl Benz fired up his stationary one-cylinder, two-stroke engine for the first time. Seven years later, patent number 73435 was granted for the three-wheeled ‘Motorwagen automobile’, model no. 1. Flash forward 135 years later to the day, and I find myself behind the wheel of the Mercedes Benz company’s latest flagship model – the W223 S-Class.
Since its inception, Mercedes Benz has been synonymous with automotive excellence and continuous innovation – and as the old saying goes: ‘the more things change, the more things stay the same’.
As the world’s best-selling luxury sedan, motoring enthusiasts tend to pay close attention to the release of S-Class models. This could be because the Stuttgart-based carmaker tends to pack every update with the latest technological features that set the course of innovation for years to come, but mainly because they very rarely deliver anything other than excellence.
Originally called the ‘Sonderklass’ (or ‘Special class’), the S- Class abbreviation came about in 1972 with the W116 model, when the reputation of the luxurious, long wheelbase model began to make it a firm favourite with royalty and the well-to-do.
While annual technological tweaks may seem incremental in today’s models, sweeping upgrades to flagship models often come with standard-setting innovations that aim to future-proof cars for the next decade.
In terms of the Mercedes Benz W223 S-Class, some of the features include better manoeuvrability with its turning circle reduced by up to 1.9 metres thanks to rear-axle steering; an intuitive voice-activated MBUX system that supports 27 languages when you say the words “Hey Mercedes”; an advanced ‘4D’ surround sound system; 10 different massage programmes including a Hot Stone massage, and ambient lighting to make driving as pleasurable as possible.
The digital headlights are not mere lights anymore, as each includes 1.3 million micro mirrors that turn them into projectors. Apart from near-perfect illumination they can recognise road signs and pedestrians and project the former on to the road and aim a spotlight to the latter as a warning.
In terms of safety, no surprise that the company that invented the Airbag should come up with the Pre-Safe Impulse Side option, which offers added protection against a side impact thanks to the series of radars constantly monitoring around the S-Class which also analyse the drive and adjust the suspension 1000 times per second.
And Mercedes haven’t forgotten about the environment either, more than 98kg of components made from resource-conserving materials and about 120 components contain recyclates.
The paradigm breaking Mecedes-Benz W223 S-Class is currently offered in S450 and S500 both come standard as 4Matic with 3. Litre inline 6 cylinder engines producing 367 and 435 bhp respectively.
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