For more than 47 years, Brabus has been a premier tuning house to make everything from Smart Fortwos to Maybach 57s meaner, faster, and blacker. But, until now, no vehicle tuned by Brabus could be described as a rolling mansion. Meet the new Brabus Big Boy 1200, a 39-foot motorhome named after a steam locomotive and with a 12.8-liter six making 530 HP. Oh, and it’s finished in paint so dark it’s fit to be Batman’s mobile command center. Sure, why not?
Every day, I scour the Internet for weird or innovative RVs that I’m excited to present to you lovely readers. The world is full of weird and wacky ways to sleep on the road, but I must admit I didn’t see this one coming. But it’s real, and if you have enough money in your bank account, you can buy a black Big Boy that somehow isn’t the largest operational steam locomotive.
Aside from looking like something a comic book villain would sleep in, this Brabus coach is supposed to be a bit of a luxury home on wheels, but adorned with the sorts of leathers, Alcantara, and carbon that you’d expect to see in a Brabus-tuned Mercedes-Benz. Hopefully, I can stop laughing so I can get through this piece!
Brabus has been one of the first names in Mercedes-Benz tuning. Sure, you could buy a Mercedes-AMG, but Brabus takes things to the next level. Remember the patently bonkers Mercedes-AMG G 63 6×6? Oh yeah, that thing was six-wheel-drive with six portal axles and a twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8 making 536 HP. The mad scientists at Brabus one-upped the folks at AMG by making a version pumping out a ridiculous 800 HP.
So, it might seem weird that Brabus would even bother with motorhomes, but the brand has been branching out into really weird territories. You can buy what’s more or less powered surfboards and while you’re reveling at the idea that such is a thing, I have to tell you that of course you can buy a Brabus-branded one for some reason. But if that doesn’t float your boat, you can buy a plethora of actual boats with Brabus tie-ins.
Most recently, Brabus made news for making a 986 HP Mercedes SL shooting brake. Basically, this is the brand you go to when fast just isn’t fast enough and you have a bit more taste than someone shopping at Mansory. Brabus even tunes Rolls-Royces and Porsches in case Mercedes-Benz cars aren’t your jam.
Yet, despite souping up just about any and every Mercedes product, Brabus notes that it hasn’t ever touched a motorhome before. When you put the other Brabus products in context, a motorhome doesn’t sound that crazy. Still, I’m not sure anyone had “Brabus makes a motorhome” on their 2024 Bingo sheet, either.
The Big Boy
Alright, so the non-locomotive Big Boy here started life as a Mercedes-Benz Actros semi-truck.
The Actros line has been in production since 1996 and European luxury motorhome builders sometimes build giant Class A rigs out of them. Some of these even make the Brabus Big Boy 1200 seem tame. Variomobil and Dembell Motorhomes both make Actros-based coaches that are so expensive and so huge that they have one-car garages in them.
Here’s a Dembell, just as an example:
What does Brabus offer to this market? The tuner admits the motorhome’s moniker is borrowed from the iconic Union Pacific steam locomotive of the same name. Like the locomotive, it’s also black on black on black from bow to stern.
The exterior body isn’t at all impressive. The coach stretches 39 feet long, features two slides on each side, and has an entry door with electric steps. Brabus boasts the coach’s carbon grille, carbon wind deflectors, carbon fog light covers, and carbon handles to open the truck’s hood. All of those carbon parts might be impressive if the whole rig didn’t already weigh 56,320 pounds.
Power comes from a Mercedes-Benz OM471 12.8-liter straight-six diesel rated at 530 HP and 1,917 lb-ft of torque. This sounds great until you learn that Brabus didn’t add a single pony to this engine. This is the same engine you can get in a regular Actros and it isn’t even the best engine Mercedes puts in these trucks. That goes to a 15.6-liter diesel engine making 625 HP. So, the Brabus version isn’t even the most powerful, which is sad.
Even sadder is the top speed of 55 mph, which makes this 530 HP beast slower than a Winnebago LeSharo, and those things weren’t known for doing anything with alacrity. Ah, but what about the interior?
Alright, things do get nice in here. Brabus filled the interior with Alcantara, the leather the tuner uses in its cars, and carbon trim in basically every interior space.
Entertainment comes from a 43-inch Smart TV, a Sony PlayStation 5, and a soundbar, plus Starlink for internet connectivity. Everything else is as you’d expect from a motorhome with a price tag over a million dollars. So, there’s luxury carpet, a Paola Lenti, an all-stone rainforest-style shower, a full kitchen, a luxury bathroom, and a big bed to sleep in.
If you’re not aware of what these giant motorhomes have in them compared to cheaper rigs, I’ll clue you in a little more. This thing has a central vacuum cleaner system, heated floors, a CAN-BUS electrical system, a built-in cellular antenna, and a dishwasher.
If you’re curious, and I know I am, there is a 113-gallon fresh tank, a 71-gallon gray, and a 45-gallon waste tank. The motorhome also has a 103-gallon fuel tank and a 3.5-tonne towing capacity. In terms of technology, there’s an intelligent braking system, a rear axle steer system, and a 360-degree camera system, among smaller other features.
Sort Of Disappointing?
Honestly, I’m not seeing much of a wow factor here. Yeah, the Brabus logos all over the place inside and out are great, but otherwise, this doesn’t really seem very “Brabus” to me. Where’s the stupid amounts of power? Where are the theatrics? This just seems like an everyday luxury European Class A RV, but blacked out and with Brabus stamped everywhere.
Maybe my inner Fancy Mercedes is beginning to shine, but I expected something bombastic to come with the name Big Boy. I don’t know, maybe a garage big enough to store your Brabus-tuned car or something silly like a handling package. Come on, Brabus!
I suppose in the end it doesn’t really matter. The Brabus Big Boy 1200 isn’t really meant for people like me. It’s the kind of coach for someone who has to have everything decked out in Brabus branding. The tuner hasn’t released a price yet, but estimates place the dollar amount at around $1.5 million. Brabus also isn’t talking about production numbers either, but I suspect it’ll build one for every person who lines up.
Still, I can’t stop laughing at this thing. The company that made a near-1,000 HP Mercedes-Benz version of a clown shoe is making an RV and that’s just making me smile. I hope more brands do this. Hey, BMW, how about an MRV?
(Images: Manufacturers)
I’m pretty sure you can get most, if not all, of those things on much cheaper RVs.
And are they serious with a 55 mph speed limit?
The first picture of it on the cliff is cool though.
“but estimates place the dollar amount at around $1.5 million.”
That’s your ‘wow factor’ right there… LOL
Okay, as a non-rich person, I need someone to explain to me where the intersection is between “People who have chauffeurs,” “People with two million clams to spend on a toy,” and, “People who own extreme RVs.”
Like is this intended for the owner to drive? When you’re that rich and you go camping, do you have like a support vehicle with a few of your staff to run into town for beer or absinthe or whatever? Do they follow in their own car and your car gets towed or stowed?
Also, this needs, if nothing else, a launch control.
All hail the Bruh-Bus.
Whats the mpg? Ill take just one of those cylinders, what like 2+ liters per combustion event. Id like to hear that thumper up close.
Kind of like Porsche (or Ferrari) selling an SUV: If they have to build and sell these to be able to keep making killer sports cars, I guess it’s allowable.
This is kid’s stuff compared to what you can get in a luxury RV on this side of the pond. 50′ Prevost coach conversion with a matching 25′ toy-hauler to tug behind it and 700-800hp? How deep are your pockets, kind Sir? And even with 500hp, in the US they can go 80mph+.
And most frighteningly, in some states you can drive this on a regular car license without even an air brake endorsement.
If I remember correctly a new Prevost coach costs over 1 million USD. That is before any conversion has been started.
You remember correctly. You can easily drop $3-4M on a Prevost-based motorhome.
“…a Paola Lenti…”
A Paola Lenti what?
A rug? A chair? A table?
That’s like saying “I got a West Elm yesterday.”
Oh, yes. The BraBUS
Yawn. Get back to me when they use a design from Luigi Colani.
In a just world, stupid shit like a ~$2,000,000 murdered-out RV with a bunch of badges slapped on would not exist as there would be no market. Fuck these people and their stupid vehicles.
It seems incredible that they could pile 57K lbs on 3 axles. The rear tandems would be rated at 34K lbs and the front (H-20) loading would require “super singles”. The picture seems more like standard issue 10.50X24 truck tires, rated at 12K for the pair.
I saw a video about this on the ‘Gram, and the funniest thing was how they were listing things and comparing them to cars. “360 HP. 80 km/h”. That’s not what’s relevant here. And people were disappointed in the comments too. Do you want to go faster in your house on wheels? This is why you don’t compare trucks to racecars.
Also, about modifying the engine, I know a little about big rig engines, and they are incredibly complex. I don’t know about this exact engine, but there are engines that already have two stage turboes, so I don’t know what more you could do. Again, not this engine, but Scania trucks don’t have an EGR system, and to meet emission requirements without that they are tuned to absolute perfection.
Not to mention parts. I don’t know where you would service a regular Brabus car, but I don’t think that most Mercedes truck shops would be very happy to work on a boosted truck with expensive custom engine bits.
I think I’m just most disappointed that Brabus didn’t even find a way to get the hottest stock engine in there. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. But still, it’s funny that it’s not even the most powerful stock Actors.
Your Brabus-bus shouldn’t be beaten off the line by Hans delivering to Lidl…and yet.
I get that, and it would have been more interesting for sure. I’ll look into it, but it could possibly be that Mercedes doesn’t offer the strongest engine in that cab- and chassis configuration. Maybe it’s only available in their tractor units. I could be wrong, but that would be a legitimate reason. (I checked on their configurator, you can put whatever engine you want in there.)
If not, then yeah, they could have, because I’m sure that the target audience for this would be interested in more power.
However, I don’t think it would have made a difference on the roads. A lot of countries in Europe have a 90 km/h limit for trucks (which may or may not be broken sometimes), and because of this the trucks have built in speed limiters. You could remove them on older ones I think, illegally of course, but I’ll bet that they made it more difficult since then.
This means that the Brabus probably could do more than 90, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people make them faster, but a limiter may even be a requirement for selling it.
And anyway, driving a truck is so different from driving a car. In Europe at least, trucks have to drive in the right lane, and on long straight highways there are lines of trucks doing the limit, so to get around them you would need to do an interesting overtake.
Looks like what Batman would tool around in when he takes his two weeks off every year.
It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.
This bus goes to 11 (mph)
Trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 3.5 tons or more are limited to 90km/h (55.9mph) or less on highways in most of Europe. Commercial trucks also have speed governors, as well as anything from mechanical tachographs (decades ago) to digital tachographs nowadays, which are available for the police to check during road stops.
Even on mechanical tachographs (decades and decades ago), pretty much every move of the driver was tracked on a printout – top speed included. It’s just a chart, and every peak above the top speed sticks on the printout like a sore thumb.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5538ddc0ed915d15d800001e/tacho_chart.jpg
So that 55mph speed limiter might be just the OEM speed governor that came on the truck. RVs in Europe are divided in under 3.5 tons and 3.5 to 7.5 tons, above 7.5 tons (which this one falls under) it probably just counts as a truck.
And if by any miracle it is titled as a bus – the speed limits will be close, except in Czech republic where buses on highways are limited to 130km/h.
I don’t understand why these expensive RV’s don’t come with incinerator toilets. No mess dumping and no stinky odors while you go down the road.
It’s been done, and written about here!
https://www.theautopian.com/back-in-the-1970s-an-rv-supplier-wanted-you-to-burn-your-poop-in-your-campers-exhaust-as-you-went-down-the-highway/
Two totally different things. The poop exhaust steamer has always fascinated me though!
Brabus: Here is our most ridiculous vehicle yet!
Mercedes (Streeter): Meh, could be more ridiculous…
So it’s a Big Black Coach. The internet had me thinking the acronym meant something else. Huh.
British Broadcasting Corporation?
The all black interior seems depressing.
This reminds me of overpriced nonsense like the Lamborghini-branded laptops, where I can’t see why anyone would overpay for what is essentially a sticker package on an otherwise dull, utilitarian device that others do not only better but cheaper. I don’t know who this is for, but I imagine whoever buys it will be someone I would struggle to relate to.
Who actually buys and uses these things?!
Hotblack Desiato, the frontman for Disaster Area. Gonna use it for a sundive.
Rich nihilists.
companies that lease to touring musicians?
Not enough room for groupies.
Clarence thomas the Supreme court justice. Although how he was able to get the money for his is … questionable…..
That has some Goliath vibes going for it.
Any wrecked trans-ams nearby?
So it only goes 55 mph. So what. You’re already in a Brabus RV!
Needs more Vantablack.
This was my thought. For an estimated $1.5M, it could be so much more black.
A darker black than Vantablack was invented, and it’s not licensed for artistic use by one jerk.
I still like that a pinkest pink was developed and licensed to be used by everyone except one certain jerk
Needs a Vantablack door for people to walk into like this guy who fell in a Vantablack hole
A Tourist Fell Into This Ultra-Black Artwork That Looks Like a Cartoon Hole