MERC’S MAGLEV

In its flagship two-door, Mercedes-benz has unleashed a machine that corners like a tilting train and boasts Swarovski crystals in its headlights. Adam Hay-nicholls cruises in the car that’s on every oligarch’s wish list—the S-class Coupé

ercedes-benz knows a thing or two about groundbreaking technology and sparkly features, and it has outdone itself with the 2015 S-class Coupé. But the new model isn’t merely a branch of Radio Shack covered in bling, as perhaps it might look on paper; the marque has produced a svelte GT that has the pace and grace to compete with the Bentley Continental.

It wasn’t always this way with Benz’s flagship coupé. In its previous guise, the CL, the two-door limo looked and felt ungainly. Yes, it was comfortable and clever, but where was the sex appeal? Nowhere to be seen, along with its residual value. As soon as you drove the CL off the forecourt you’d said sayonara to 25 per cent of its sticker price.

With badging now switched to the more straightforward S-class Coupé, the car—i tested the S500—is an altogether different proposition. For a start, the design hasn’t been phoned in this time. It has considerably more road presence than the luxury saloon from which it was spawned. Just look at those elliptical curves sculpted into its flanks; the last time I saw that much muscle it was being slapped with a doping charge.

At the front, those low-level nostrils look like they could hoover the tar off a highway, the three-pointed star looks like the barrel of a decommissioned pistol, and those long