Interior luxury and comfort

The extended ambience lighting in the S-Class offers 64 different colours with individual settings to suit one's mood. The Energizing comfort control in the S-Class links various comfort systems in the vehicle together including fragrance, seats (heater, ventilation, massage), the wall heating as well as lighting and music. The vehicle can even speak with its Linguatronic voice control system to control the interior comfort functions.

Magic Body Control

The Magic Body Control is a new suspension system comprising Active Body Control, Road Surface Scan and the curve inclination function. The Road Surface Scan will scan up to 15 metres in front of the vehicle to detect an image of the road contours ahead. Using the information extrapolated from the stereo camera, the control unit will constantly calculate the best strategy to overcome uneven road surface in order to deliver a very smooth ride even over bumps.

 In Active Body Control, the four suspension struts are fitted with hydraulic cylinders (so-called plungers) in order to adjust the force in each strut individually. This means that the system can almost completely compensate for lifting, rolling and pitching movements of the body.

In-line six-cylinder engine

The new Mercedes-Benz S 500 is equipped with the new 2999CC in-line six cylinder engine, which generates an impressive output of 435 hp and 520 Nm. Over a short period, the Integrated Starter Generator makes a further 250 Nm of torque and 16 kW of output available. Compared to its predecessor with a V8 engine, CO2 emissions have reduced by around 22 per cent. In short, this new engine delivers the performance of an eight-cylinder with significantly lower consumption.

V8 biturbo with cylinder shutoff

The new biturbo is among the world's most economical V8 petrol engines, and consumes up to six percent less fuel than its predecessor. This is achieved by deactivating four cylinders of the new V8 under partial load. The turbochargers positioned in the V of the cylinder banks is another special feature. The AMG 4.0-litre V8 biturbo engine with cylinder deactivation replaces the previous 5.5-litre V8 biturbo. Despite a lower displacement, the new engine generates 612 hp for Mercedes-AMG S 63 4MATIC.

(Related: 5 Minutes With Martin Berry, Singapore's Newest Ferrari Challenge Asia-Pacific Driver)