Carlsson C25 Royale. No Cheese

Carlsson, that most ribald of tuning firms, showed up at the Geneva Salon earlier this year with a new version of its C25 supercar dubbed the Royale. Based on the Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG, the heavily customised coupe with the fixed rooftop will be built in a limited run of 25 cars. Carlsson state that six examples have already been sold and will be delivered to the customers later this year. Why so long? Well, each C25 Royale takes six months from order to delivery.

Compared to the  SL65 AMG, the C25 Royale is 180 kg lighter, thanks to the extensive use of carbon fibre. This contributes to a lower centre of gravity, which in addition to the lighter weight, improves the already impressive (if tail-happy) handling.

Other weight-saving measures include the fitting of a full ceramic brake system, which is 50% lighter than on the SL65 AMG base car. The German sports car also features a C-Tronic Suspension system developed by Carlsson, which detects road conditions and driving style and acts accordingly. For instance, on bad roads, the car can be raised to offer better ride comfort.

At the heart of the C25 Royale is the usual (for an AMG) biturbo V12-engine, tuned to deliver 753bhp and 973 lbft of torque, which is electronically limited to 'only' 848 lbft, no doubt in an effort to stop roads being stripped of taramc from all of those errant C25 Royales tearing across Europe. These impressive figures allow the C25 Royale to go from 0-62 mph in 3.7 seconds and reach a top speed of 219 mph.

The custom exterior styling is matched to a bespoke interior with Carlsson offering buyers a variety of choices in features and materials.

After all that candy red, a silver one. Better colour for it in my opinion.

Would one find a space in the Amazo Virtual garage? Providing I get the spec and colour right, yeah.

Just let me kick the Mansory SLR to the kerb - its so last year dahling.

- Amazosan