Category Archives: Tuning

Tuning

Liberty Walk Turns a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Into a $344K Statement

In the collector-car universe, rarity usually means restraint. But every once in a while, a machine shows up that proves excess can be just as bankable. Case in point: a heavily modified 2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 that recently traded hands for a staggering $344,000—despite wearing one of the wildest aftermarket makeovers this side of a Tokyo Auto Salon fever dream.

Values for Murciélagos have been climbing steadily, especially for cars fitted with the coveted gated six-speed manual. This one? Not quite. It’s equipped with the less-loved e-gear automated manual, and yet it still commanded serious money. Originality, it turns out, isn’t the only path to collector relevance—sometimes spectacle works just fine.

Originally delivered new in the United States, the LP640 made its way to Japan in 2012, where it fell into the hands of Liberty Walk, a tuner known for treating subtlety like an optional extra. The result is a Silhouette Works GT Evo body kit that transforms the already outrageous Murciélago into something that looks ready to chase hypercars down the Mulsanne Straight—or audition for a superhero reboot.

The front end alone is enough to stop traffic. A redesigned bumper, additional running lights, custom headlights, and a reshaped hood give the car a vaguely Reventón-inspired face, though with more visual drama. The signature bolt-on wide arches stretch the Murciélago’s stance to comic-book proportions, while sculpted side skirts exaggerate the low-slung silhouette. There’s even a large sunroof—its functionality uncertain, but its visual impact undeniable.

If the front is theatrical, the rear is full-on avant-garde. A custom bumper, aggressive diffuser, towering wing, and bespoke taillights combine into a look that’s equal parts GT racer and rolling art installation. It’s the kind of design that splits opinions instantly—and that’s precisely the point.

Underneath the visual fireworks, the upgrades continue. The car rides on 18- and 19-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires, paired with an Ideal Air Max air suspension setup that allows adjustable ride height and front-axle lift. That means the Murciélago can go from slammed show car to speed-bump survivor at the push of a button—practicality, Liberty Walk style.

Inside, things calm down slightly. The cabin remains largely stock, aside from a digital rearview mirror and a Pioneer head unit. It’s a reminder that beneath the Batmobile aesthetics lies a recognizable LP640, complete with its naturally aspirated V-12 theatrics.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the story isn’t the styling—it’s the price. A modified Murciélago with an automated manual transmission might have been expected to polarize buyers. Instead, someone stepped up and paid supercar money, likely helped by the car’s relatively modest 32,000 kilometers.

The takeaway? In today’s collector market, originality may be king—but bold individuality can still write its own check.

Source: Liberty Walk

Tuning

America Meets the 1000-HP Shooting Brake No One Asked For

Eighteen months after it first stunned the tuning world, the Rocket GTS has finally landed in the U.S.—and it didn’t arrive quietly. Based on the Mercedes-Benz AMG SL 63, this reimagined Shooting Brake now wears a full green carbon-fiber suit and carries a price tag of $1,387,081. Yes, that’s hypercar territory. No, it doesn’t apologize.

The SL has always been the boulevard bruiser in the portfolio of Mercedes-Benz, and in modern AMG form it’s already less silk scarf, more switchblade. But what happens when you hand it to Mercedes-AMG’s wildest aftermarket interpreter and say, “Do your worst”? You get this.

The original show car flaunted exposed carbon like a flexed bicep. This U.S.-bound example goes deeper: an all-carbon body bathed in a translucent emerald hue. In direct sunlight, the weave shimmers beneath the lacquer like reptile skin. Subtle? Not remotely. Spectacular? Absolutely.

The reshaped rear and extended roofline will split dinner conversations straight down the middle. Purists may clutch their roadster credentials, but there’s a strange coherence to it. The SL’s long hood and cab-rearward proportions actually welcome the added roof stretch. The Shooting Brake treatment feels less like a graft and more like an evolution—one drawn by someone who owns several carbon-fiber briefcases.

A Cabin That Refuses to Whisper

If you were hoping the interior might dial things back, abandon that thought immediately.

Nearly every surface—seats, door panels, gearshift tunnel, headliner, even the floor mats—is drenched in matching green leather and Alcantara. The few components spared the hide treatment are finished in green-tinted carbon fiber. It’s less “accent color” and more “monochromatic takeover.”

The craftsmanship, predictably, is impeccable. The audacity, unmistakable. It feels like the inside of a concept car that somehow escaped the auto-show turntable and started asking for premium fuel.

Four Digits, Two Turbos, One Thousand Reasons

Of course, a seven-figure tuner special needs more than dramatic tailoring. Under the hood sits an upgraded 4.5-liter twin-turbo V8 paired with the same plug-in hybrid system used in the SL 63 E Performance. The combined output? A clean, round 1,000 horsepower and 1,620 Nm of torque.

Performance claims read like a physics glitch:

  • 0–100 km/h (62 mph): 2.6 seconds
  • 0–200 km/h (124 mph): 9.5 seconds
  • 0–300 km/h (186 mph): 23.6 seconds
  • Top speed: 317 km/h (197 mph), electronically limited

For context, those numbers place it squarely in modern hypercar company—while offering a cargo area large enough for a weekend’s worth of designer luggage.

The Million-Dollar Question

Spending nearly $1.4 million on a modified SL sounds extravagant, even in today’s inflated performance market. But exclusivity is the point. This isn’t just an SL turned up to eleven; it’s a redefinition of what that platform can be. It’s equal parts grand tourer, muscle car, and rolling design experiment.

The Rocket GTS doesn’t try to blend in. It doesn’t even try to convince you. It simply arrives—green, loud, and unapologetically expensive—and dares you to look away.

You won’t.

Source: Brabus

Tuning

The Red Pig Snorts Again—Now With Four-Digit Horsepower

Some legends never die. They just come back louder, angrier, and with turbochargers.

More than fifty years after Mercedes-Benz and the newly born AMG shocked the racing world with a massive V-8 sedan, the infamous “Rote Sau”—the Red Pig—has been reborn. This time, though, it’s not storming Spa-Francorchamps in factory colors. It’s tearing up California backroads with more than 1,000 horsepower and a carbon-fiber suit.

The original Red Pig was a rolling middle finger to conventional race-car thinking. Based on the stately Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.8, it used a thundering 6.8-liter V-8 to haul a luxury sedan to second overall at the Spa 24 Hours in 1971—an audacious debut that helped put AMG on the global performance map. The real car vanished after the race, sold off to Matra and lost to history, but its legend never faded.

Now it has a modern-day heir.

Instead of resurrecting a fragile museum piece, the builders at S-Klub took a far more radical approach: start with a fourth-generation Mercedes-AMG C63 and wrap it in a hand-built carbon-fiber interpretation of the old 300 SEL. It’s a restomod in the most literal sense—vintage looks, contemporary firepower.

And that firepower is absurd.

The C63’s twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 already makes about 510 horsepower in stock S-spec. That wasn’t nearly enough. S-Klub bolted on larger turbochargers, revised the downpipes, and reprogrammed the transmission. The result? A staggering 1,014 horsepower—more than double what the original Red Pig ever dreamed of—while shedding roughly 45 kilograms compared with a factory C63.

In other words, this thing doesn’t just honor history. It tries to rewrite it.

The mechanical madness is matched by the visuals. The wide arches, bright red paint, and cartoonishly aggressive stance mirror the 1971 racer, while details like the blacked-out grille, exposed chassis elements, and LED lighting drag the look firmly into 2025. There’s a full roll cage inside, KW V3 coilovers at the corners, and 18-inch VIP Moduler wheels filling out those bulging fenders. Even the AMG One-inspired steering wheel feels like a wink from the future.

Yet somehow, it all works. This Red Pig doesn’t look like a cosplay car. It looks like what AMG might build if it had no lawyers, no accountants, and absolutely no chill.

S-Klub’s Ed claims it’s the best-driving car they’ve ever built, and that’s saying something for a shop that lives and breathes Stuttgart. With factory brakes, much of the original C63 interior intact, and modern electronics keeping things just barely civilized, this is a race car you can drive to the track, obliterate lap times, and cruise home afterward.

The original Red Pig was outrageous because it wasn’t supposed to work. This one is outrageous because it works too well.

It may not be for sale—but if this is what homage looks like in the age of four-digit horsepower, the legend of the Red Pig has never been more alive.

Source: S-Klub