Mercedes-Benz launched the armoured variant of its S-class, the S 600 Guard, in India on Thursday at
Rs 8.9 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi). Mercedes has called its latest heavily armoured offering ‘one of the safest luxury spots on earth’.

The other ‘spots’ competing with the S 600 Guard are the BMW 7 Series High Security and the Audi's A8 L Security that also offer high levels of protection along with the luxury quotient. While the S 600 Guard, or a Pullman version of it, is the car favoured by the President of India, the BMW 7 Series High Security has been transporting India’s Prime Ministers since 2003.

So let’s pit the three fortresses against each other and see how they stack up, shall we?

Under the hood

While both the S 600 Guard and BMW 760Li High Security have massive V12’s under its hood, the Audi A8 L Security is powered by a 6.0litre W12 engine that also powers the Bentleys. The engine in the
7 series is slightly more powerful than the S-class and much powerful than the A8 Security. Although both the BMW and Merc armored cars have the 6.0L V12 engine, at 544bhp, the BMW makes 14bhp power more that the S 600 and a significant 44bhp higher than the Audi A8.

Audi is also offering the A8 L with a 4.0 liter V8 engine delivering 435bhp of power and 61kgm.
However, the S 600 scores higher in the torque category as it generates 84.63kgm, 8kgm more than the BMW and almost 20kgm more than the Audi. So the real competitors in this power output space are just the 760Li and the S600.

While the power advantage that BMW 7 Series has may not seem huge, it is definitely significant. It is  the extra 8kgm of torque that makes the difference. Armoured cars such as these are incredibly heavy due to a ballistic-resistant exterior, and in that case, more torque is always better.