Black Series? Who needs one when you’ve got Brabus? Try this on for size: 0-62 in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 231 mph. In a four-seat E-Class convertible.

So, how did the German tuning house manage to convert a boulevard cruiser into a certified bruiser? Well, for starters, they took the V12 from the Mercedes-Benz S600, gave it a whole mess of new moving parts and breathing gear, quad intercoolers, bored it out from 5.5 liters to 6.3 and dropped it into the E-Cab’s engine bay.

The result is 800 metric horsepower (788 by US standards) to make this the most powerful and the fastest four-seat convertible on the market. Of course it’s a rather lofty market, at €478,000 ($680k), but with all that power and attention to detail to go with it, can you really be surprised? Not as surprised as the owner of that Black Series AMG will be when you and three of your best friends go ripping by in the left lane. Check it out in the high-res image gallery and the post-jump press release.

Brabus does bonkers. So when it decided to cook up the latest iteration of its rolling ode to executive connectivity, it went all out – both under the hood and inside the leather-clad cabin – so lets work from the inside out.

The conversion of the rather staid Mercedes-Benz S-Class into the Brabus “iBusiness 2.0″ begins in the boot, with a Mac Mini mounted in a leather-lined tray inside the trunk. The Mac connects up with a 15.2-inch TFT, 16:9 aspect ratio display that mechanically unfolds from the alcantara-coated headliner and can also be used as an auxiliary display for the – not one, but two – iPad 2s mounted in the electronically deployed and adjustable custom tables mounted behind the two front seats. The tables secure both the tablets and a Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and allow the Russian mobster in back to chat with his Swedish princess over Apple’s Facetime video conferencing system.

Naturally, all this tech isn’t any good without solid connectivity, and to that end, Brabus has fitted the S with a WiFi network comprised of UMTS and HDSPA networking to wireless wire everything together. More impressive, the German tuner developed a custom app for the iPads that allows backseat passengers to control every aspect of Mercedes’ COMAND infotainment system. Jeeves will not be pleased…

When it’s time to crank up the tunes, a 64-gig Apple iPod Touch is mounted in the rear center console and sends music to either the standard S-Class sound system or a pair of Sennheiser Noise Gard headphones, which can also be used to plumb in one of a few hundred channels provided by the wireless DVBT television receiver.

And naturally, since this is Brabus, the package wouldn’t be complete without a serious dose of pavement-pummeling power. The Brabus 800 iBusiness 2.0 lives up to its name with 800 horsepower and 1,047 pound-feet of torque pulled from the twin-turbocharged V12, shuttling the S to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and on to an electronically-limited top speed of 219 mph. If you’re less interested in the power and more enthralled by the tech, Brabus is offering the complete iBusiness 2.0 package for any S-Class – from the lowly S 350 to the aforementioned S 65 – but if you take your life on the road seriously, why opt for anything less? Full details in the press blast after the break.

Mercedes-Benz is no stranger to wickedly powerful and insanely fast luxury sedans. After all, its AMG models are among the fastest and most powerful on the market. Leave it to specialty Benz tuner Brabus, then, to take it the extra mile… and then some.

The freshly unveiled Brabus SV12 R Biturbo 800 claims the mantle as both the fastest and most powerful sedan on offer. To get there, the German tuner has tweaked the 5.5-liter V12 from the S600 to 6.3 liters, fitted a new crankshaft, camshafts, cylinder heads, air intake, exhaust, turbochargers, quad interoolers and bigger pistons, and of course, remapped the ECU. The result is a massive 788 horsepower (800 in metric form, hence the name) and 1,047 pound-feet of torque. The twist is so massive, however, that Brabus had to electronically limit it to 811 lb-ft. Don’t worry – performance hasn’t been hindered. 0 to 62 sprints are managed in just 3.9 seconds and its Autobahn-devouring top speed is electronically limited to just 217 miles per hour.

Bigger brakes help keep the beast under control, as well as a new limited-slip differential. A full aero kit and upgraded rolling stock are on hand, as well, completing the “we mean business” look. Check it out for yourself in the gallery below, and hit the jump for Brabus’ official release.

Hands down, one of the few pleasures of driving a hybrid is cruising around in all-electric mode. There’s just something that’s undeniably cool about silently whisking along, but if a new auto safety bill makes its way into law, we can kiss even that one pleasure goodbye. A coalition of automotive manufacturers and advocacy groups for the blind have joined forces to make sure that silent-running vehicles will make more noise in the future. The logic is that the blind and other pedestrians are at risk of being struck by quiet hybrids and EVs. We can’t really argue with that one.

If passed, the bill would have the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration propose regulations for an “alert sound” within a year and a half, and finalize the rules within three years. Drivers would not be able to turn off the noise. So far, there’s no word as to how loud the noise would be or what it will sound like, but the technology already exists to make that sound signature variable – concept cars like the Brabus Smart High Voltage EV shown above can simulate the sound of everything from a buzzing bee to a good ol’ American V8 with hidden speakers inside and outside of the vehicle, with the sound varying according to engine speed. If we absolutely have to be making a racket while we drive on all-electric power, we vote for sounding like George Jetson’s daily commuter, but we’re not exactly crazy about user-selectable EV ‘ringtones,’ lest one’s daily commute become an auditory assalt of Star Wars Tie Fighters and clydesdales.

The Infiniti FX50 S Limited Edition show car gets a set of bespoke 21-inch turbine-design light-alloy wheels in a grey finish, while the front grille, side air inlets in the front fenders and the roof bars are also painted grey.

The luxury SUV’s cabin is upholstered in high-quality leather with contrasting light brown stitching while the carbon-fiber trim in a dark brown finish and the alcantara trim on the headliner and pillars round off the interior upgrades.

And yes, we too are wondering why Brabus / CRD even bothered to call this creation a concept study…