This Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC Is Cooler Than Any Car Merc Sells Today

Mercedes has some seriously impressive cars on offer today, both in the luxury and performance categories. But at a certain point, you can't hold a candle to the big-body Benzes of yesteryear. They're simply too cool. They have too much presence on the road, especially when put next to a comparable modern car, like the Mercedes-AMG SL 63.

This car is that point. It's a Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC Koenig. Not only is the car based on one of the best-looking, most menacing coupes Merc ever built, but it's also been fettled by Munich-based tuners, Koenig. And the wheels. Dear Lord, those wheels. We challenge you to find a deeper dish this side of a pizza.

This is one of roughly 100 Merc 560s built by Koenig. In addition to the wheels and crazy body kit, Koenig tuned this SEC giving it somewhere in the ballpark of 400 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque.

Koenig got there by taking the 560 SEC's 5.5-liter V8, supercharging it, adding a new exhaust and manifold, then telling the ECU to put those parts to work. Each car also got upgraded brakes and suspension tuned by Koenig. Customers also got their choice of two body kits, one of which you see here.

Now, the wheels. Out front, the multi-piece Koenig wheels measure 275/35/R18. That's as wide as a Cadillac CT4 V's rear tires. Putting that absurdity aside, the rears measure 335/30/R18. A new Mercedes AMG GT only needs 285s and makes roughly the same power. We guess that's how far tire technology has come. Still, we'd take these wheels on this car over just about anything else.

As for the interior, it's very typical of Mercs of this era. Regrettably, there's no manual transmission, but this is a cruiser and no sports car. There are swathes of blue leather, matching the exterior's Midnight Blue Metallic paint. The best part, by far, is the special Koenig dials with cursive font. Somehow, they work, but we can't explain why.

The best part of all this is that the car is for sale. It's being sold in the Czech Republic, but given this is a 1989 model, it shouldn't be much hassle to import as long as you've got plenty of cash. The "buy now" price is $144,796.95 USD. But for a car like this, with looks like this, and those wheels, we'd happily fork over the cash if we could.