There are fast convertibles, and then there’s the BRABUS BODO. The one-off convertible that makes everyone turn their heads.
A 1,000-hp open-top car capable of 360 km/h sounds like the sort of thing created simply because somebody wanted to win a numbers contest. Spend a little more time with BODO, though, and the horsepower starts to feel like only half the story.
This is a personal car for BRABUS.
The name comes from company founder Bodo Buschmann, who established BRABUS back in 1977. His son Constantin now runs the business, and the idea behind this car apparently goes back almost two decades, when father and son first discussed building their own ultimate grand tourer.
That explains the 77-car production run. It also explains why the number keeps appearing in places where you wouldn’t normally expect to find it.
Even the fabric roof carries an inverted “77” motif woven into its black and gray material. It’s a tiny detail compared with everything else going on here, but arguably tells you more about the car than another carbon-fiber wing would.
Not that BRABUS forgot about performance.
The 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 develops 1,000 PS, or 986 hp, with torque reaching 1,200 Nm. Apparently even that was too much: BRABUS electronically limits the torque figure. And 0 to 100 km/h takes just three seconds.
The more amusing number is 360 km/h. That’s around 224 mph, from a four-seat convertible with a fabric roof. Finding somewhere sensible to test it might prove considerably harder than reaching the speed itself.
BODO isn’t simply an Aston Martin wearing an especially expensive body kit, either. BRABUS has created a new pre-preg carbon-fiber body for the car.
The Silk Stone example shown by the company rides on 22-inch forged Monoblock Z-GT wheels. There’s a lot of tire underneath it as well, particularly at the rear, where the Pirelli P Zeros measure 335 mm wide.
Carbon-ceramic brakes are hardly surprising at this point. Neither is adaptive suspension. A lift system for both axles, however, is a useful reminder that somebody might actually want to drive this thing away from perfectly smooth roads.
And that’s where BODO gets interesting.
BRABUS could easily have built another hardcore machine and chased Nürburgring times. Instead, it kept four seats, a folding roof and an interior designed for covering serious distances. There’s even matching leather luggage.
It’s extravagant, undoubtedly. It’s also strangely old-school.
A huge V12 sits in front of the driver, the roof comes down and the car is intended to cross countries at speeds that would make an airline nervous. In an age when thousand-horsepower EVs no longer seem particularly shocking, there’s something wonderfully unnecessary about the whole idea.
Would a standard Aston Martin Vanquish be more than enough for almost anyone? Of course.
But BODO isn’t trying to solve a problem faced by normal Vanquish buyers. It’s BRABUS building the car its founder and his son talked about creating years ago.
The 1,000 hp gets the headline. The 77 examples, the woven roof pattern and the family story are what give the car a reason to exist.
And frankly, that’s considerably more interesting than another ECU tune and a set of oversized wheels.
