S680 Guard Turns S-Class Into Armored BeastMercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz)American presidents since 2001 have been driven around in The Beast, an armored truck styled to look like a Cadillac sedan. The third-generation model, which features exterior styling cues derived from the Cadillac CT6 sedan and has a 6.6-liter Chevy Duramax V-8 turbodiesel under the hood, went into service in 2018. Designed and engineered by General Motors to strict U.S. Secret Service specifications, The Beast is a fortress on wheels, right down to its 120-volt electrified door handles and tear gas launchers. Government sources refuse to confirm the full extent of its protective capabilities, but you can be sure that when the shooting starts, there are few safer rides on the planet.The Beast is also an expensive piece of kit, reportedly costing U.S. taxpayers $1.5 million each (the Secret Service has 10 to 12 of them in the fleet at any given time). Now, there are many other heads of state around the world with concerns for their personal safety, not to mention assorted oligarchs and plutocrats for whom $1.5 million, barely a downpayment on a Bugatti Tourbillon, looks like excellent value for money. But they can't buy one; the world's most protective vehicle is not for sale. They can, however, now buy the next best thing. Meet the Mercedes-Benz S680 Guard.Mercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz)Mercedes' Secretive Armor BusinessThe S680 Guard is the latest in a long line of factory-built armored vehicles from Mercedes-Benz that dates to 1928. The business took off in the 1960s after the German government asked the company to build an armored version of the imperious 600 limousine, and by the 1970s Mercedes was selling S-Class models with armor plating and other protective systems designed and engineered in-house for heads of state, diplomats, and government officials, among others, around the world. It's a business Mercedes doesn't shout about—it won't reveal how much the S680 Guard costs, or who buys it. But it must be profitable, with its own dedicated section on the Mercedes-Benz website that's just a menu click on from the company's vehicle personalization landing page.AdvertisementAdvertisementLike all Guard models built since 2016, the new S680 Guard, part of the face-lifted 2027 Mercedes-Benz S-Class lineup, is rated at VR10 on the official German VPAM scale. That's the highest civilian ballistic protection rating available (the overall scale goes to VR14) and means, among other things, the S680 Guard's armor will stop multiple armor-piercing, tungsten-carbide, hardcore rounds such as the 7.62x54R fired from a Dragunov sniper rifle.VR10 is roughly equivalent to the NIJ Level IV rating, the highest available for armor plating in the U.S. But NIJ Level IV means just the armor plate itself is only rated to stop a single .30-06 M2 armor-piercing round. The S680 Guard's VR10 rating, however, applies to the entire vehicle: The testing includes rounds fired not just at body panels but also glass, structural gaps, and overlapping joints from all angles.Mercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz)Built to Survive More Than BulletsBut the S680 Guard won't just protect you from bullets. That VR10 rating means it can also withstand anti-personnel mines or two hand grenades simultaneously detonated under the floor, as well as side and overhead blasts equivalent to 33 pounds of TNT from improvised explosive devices located just 6 feet away. That explains why each door, which has hydraulically actuated window lifts and needs electric motors to open and close them, weighs 550 pounds. The S680 Guard is the only OEM armored car with a VR10 rating; BMW's Protection versions of the 7 Series and electric-powered i7 are VR9 rated.At the core of the S680 Guard's protective hardware—which includes armored elements made of special steel and overlapping materials integrated into the bodywork cavities, 3.9-inch-thick glass all around, fire extinguisher and emergency fresh-air systems, a panic alarm, and external communication capability—is a special passenger cell made from carbon fiber and Kevlar that sits inside the body structure. The deep integration of the S680 Guard's protective capabilities within the aluminum envelope of a regular S-Class sedan is made possible because all the development work on a new Guard model is done in tandem with the development of a new S-Class. In other words, the S680 Guard's protective capabilities are engineered into the vehicle from the beginning, not added after the regular car is designed.Mercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz)The Art of Staying InvisibleYou can't drive The Beast down the road without attracting attention, though the 40 to 50 other vehicles, including a decoy Beast or two, accompanying it in a typical presidential motorcade means it's never operating under deep cover, anyway. But you could drive the S680 Guard almost anywhere without it raising an eyebrow. From the outside, with its galaxy of stars on the 20 percent bigger, four-bar grille, plus star motif daytime running lights and taillights, the S680 Guard is just another 2027 S-Class. That is, until you check out the curiously high-sidewall tires.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe S680 Guard is fitted with Michelin Primacy tires, but the size code reads 255-720 R 490 AC. That means they are PAX System tires, special high-performance run-flats that lock onto a semi-rigid internal support ring around the rim that allows the S680 Guard to be driven almost 20 miles at up to 50 mph without any air in the tires and without them coming off the rim. Too expensive for regular vehicles, the PAX System technology, which requires unique wheels—the G680 Guard wheels are 19.3-inch items—was last used on the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII and the Bugatti Veyron before becoming specialized armored-limousine hardware.With a load rating of 2,832 pounds and an H speed rating, the tires tell you something else about the S680 Guard: It's heavy, and it's fast. At 9,215 pounds, the S680 Guard weighs 550 pounds more than a triple-motor GMC Hummer EV SUV, but it has an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph, the same as any other S-Class sold in the U.S. And while its 0–60-mph acceleration time of 8.3 seconds is decidedly lethargic in the context of the base, six-cylinder S500, which scoots to 60 in about half the time, the S680 Guard can sprint out of trouble like a sports car compared to The Beast, which reportedly weighs between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds and takes about 15 seconds to saunter to its 60-mph top speed.Mercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz)V-12 Power for the GetawayThe S680 Guard's performance comes from a powertrain that is familiar yet unique. Under the hood is a 612-hp, 612-lb-ft version of the silky-smooth, hand-built M275 6.0-liter twin-turbo V-12 normally reserved for the Maybach S680, making the Guard the only contemporary S-Class model available with a 12-cylinder engine. Beyond that, it's also the first Guard Mercedes with all-wheel drive, the specially tuned 4Matic system delivering a front-to-rear torque split of 31/69 percent. Mercedes also upgrades the air suspension, brakes, and axles to handle an S-Class that weighs almost twice as much as the recently refreshed S580 4Matic sedan.Luxury Spec, Security IncludedMost S680 Guards will be painted low-key diplomatic black, but the car can be ordered in almost any of the standard S-Class colors, as well as many of the special Manufaktur shades. Similarly, the interior can be decked out in any of the S-Class color and trim combinations and can be configured as a four-seater with the Executive Rear Seat package. One popular S-Class feature you can't order, for obvious reasons, is a panoramic roof. Among the extras unique to the S680 Guard is a dedicated driver training program that teaches advanced evasion and escape techniques, and a squad of specialist technicians—"Flying Doctors" in Mercedes-Benz Guard-speak—who can help service and maintain Guard cars anywhere in the world.AdvertisementAdvertisementNo, you won't ride quite as securely protected as the President of the United States. But the Mercedes-Benz S680 Guard is an armored limo that flies under the radar and can get you out of trouble in a hurry when needed. Call it The Baby Beast.Photo credit: Mercedes BenzPhoto credit: Mercedes BenzPhoto credit: Mercedes Benz
