Brabus CEO Talks Bodo During Our First DriveBrabusIt seems somehow appropriate that our test drive of the Brabus Bodo takes place on the Pebble Beach property on the weekend during which the Northern California golf resort hosts its eponymous classic-car concours. With its dramatically long hood, selfish cabin, and swept-back drop-tail rear, the two-door grand tourer looks like the kind of dramatic, sinister, Streamline Moderne coupe a European coachbuilder would have created for a wealthy Axis-collaborating industrialist in the dark days leading up to WWII.This makes sense, as—like many custom cars of the interwar era—it is a custom rebody, with the underpinnings of a familiar, if exclusive, car laid over with unique bodywork. In this case, the panels are all hand-formed carbon fiber. It's the chassis that is slightly confounding. Brabus, founded in 1977, is best known for creating outre, often questionably tasteful, body and performance add-ons for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. But underneath the menacing skin of the Bodo—the brand's first scratch-built vehicle, named for its founder, Bodo Buschmann—rests a bewinged Aston Martin Vanquish.Brabus"I think in the North American market, people are associating us a lot with Mercedes," says Constantin Bushmann, the founder's son, who became CEO of the company following his father's death in 2018, as he walks me around the long, wide, muscular, arch and arching GT before our drive. "But since 2022 we work with many other brands—Bentley, Land Rover, Porsche, Lamborghini." Brabus considered other platforms, but only the Aston had the proper combination of long wheelbase, rake and curvature to the structural A-pillar and windshield, and, of course, a sonorous and potent twin-turbo 5.2-liter V-12. "Through Aston's collaborations with Mercedes, it also gave us a bit of known territory underneath in some electronic systems that we're familiar with," Bushmann says.AdvertisementAdvertisementUnlike 100 years ago, when manufacturers like Rolls-Royce or Bugatti would sell a bare chassis, which buyers would then take to a coachbuilder of their choice for a body, Brabus acquires complete cars from Gaydon before stripping them clean. "We purchase the finished vehicles," says Bushmann. "Anything else doesn't make sense because with this low-volume product it doesn't make sense to rely on something that hasn't undergone a final full approval testing for regulations and safety."Of course, like any good tuner, it also breathes on the drivetrain, in this case, upgrading Aston's in-house V-12 with, among other things, a custom forced-induction setup—fresh intercooler and turbos, and a pair of Ram-Air intakes—pushing the output to an even 1000 horsepower and 885 pound-feet of torque, funneling it all into an eight-speed torque-converter automatic, and putting it to the pavement solely through a limited-slip rear differential. There, custom-made 335-section-width, 22-inch Pirelli P-Zeros do their best to put the massive power to the ground, allowing a claimed sub-3.0-second rip to 60 mph, and a purported top speed of nearly 225 mph.Toodling along behind seven- or eight-figure classics and exotics on the Pebble grounds, we didn't have a chance to push the car to anything like its limits. After all, this thing is literally as long as a Kia Telluride. But we did get a few openings in which to let it rip and, while its capabilities and build quality are astounding—it's planted like an old-growth redwood—it can also feel quite docile. This led us to question the ideal use case for a car like this.Brabus"People have called it a hyper GT online. We never called it that in the marketing materials. But hyper really refers to the overall appearance, the 1000 horsepower, speed, and so on. However, Gran Turismo also means a sporty car that is still comfortable. That it's a cruiser," Bushmann says. "Personally, I enjoy this very much at the mid-range of all speeds available to me, but then of course, coming from Germany, if you take this to the Autobahn, you can chase any sports car with this."AdvertisementAdvertisementWe also found ourselves wondering about the vehicle's extremely restrained styling, more like one of Gorden Wagener's minimalistically avant-garde Sensual Purity concepts than the kind of straked, spoilered, scooped carbuncularity for which Brabus is best known. The company seems to be flexing a different muscle here. "If you look at our version of the Mercedes-Maybach S-class, the Brabus 850, a lot of customers are doing very, very elegant designs. It is not a very aggressive car," Bushmann says. "This is clearly a sign of where we are right now, what we're thinking about car design, and also where we want to take the brand. But then again, we're talking about a $1 million luxury car. Compared to your average daily driver, it is always a car that's going to stand out."BrabusRegardless of whether there's an aesthetic rationale for scrapping Aston's $450,000 work of automotive art, there seems to be a financial case, as Brabus plans to make 77 of these coupes and 77 more of its recently unveiled convertible iterations, at a starting price of $1.15 million. Expect customization of paint, trim, and materials to add several hundred thousand more dollars to that price. As of our drive, many of the Brabus faithful, as well as some newcoming conquests, have raised their hands to participate in the vanquishing of a Vanquish."We're well on our way to selling out the coupe. The cabriolet was published yesterday, so I can't tell you anything about that, but apart from the fact that reactions were good," Bushmann says. As we drive around the property, the car draws pointing and stares—and cellphone-camera shutter clicks—from literally everyone we pass, many of them visibly mouthing the word "Bodo." Bushmann seems pleased at the attention. "If people would always react to it the way they did to this car, that would mean good things for us."Brabus ➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.Shop New Cars Shop Used CarsYou Might Also LikeGift Guide: Best Ride-On Electric Cars for KidsFuture Cars Worth Waiting For: 2025–2029