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A master of about fifty concentrated and busily examined a dark brown plate half a centimeter thick, marked with white risks, carefully fixed it on the platform and pulled the lever of a rather antediluvian-looking bending machine. Then he verified the obtained bending angle with the pattern and repeated the operation. The cycle of operations was repeated five more times, until this respectable man, whose whole appearance led to the conclusion that we were faced with at least a professor, was not satisfied with the results and carried the strange plate obtained to the rack. What was it? Just one of many hundreds of operations that result in the birth of an armored car Mercedes-Benz Guard.
The road to the Center of Excellence workshop, located near Stuttgart, begins with a small but very impressive demo hall, where the future owners of exclusive Mercedes models are greeted by a couple of "last of the Mohicans" - Maybach. “They are still being sold, so you have a chance to become the owner of this landole,” jokes Marcus Nast accompanying us, who is responsible for marketing and public relations of the Mercedes-Benz Guard division. And he seriously adds: “And now we are going to the place where the best civilian armored vehicles in the world are being created, but leave your cameras here …” The warning turned out to be quite useful - all the way from the office to the building of the assembly shop in the Sindelfingen factory with my colleagues reflexively trying to get a camera, seeing a prototype of a concept hung with black plastic panels passing by, a pre-production prototype of the new S-class camouflaged with paint and light casings. But the torment of the failed “photo spies” is over, and we go in the door of a low and rather modest workshop against the scale of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen.
Western automobile plants almost always differ in silence (if you do not take into account the stamping and welding sections), but the Center of Excellence workshop, in addition to this silence, is also amazingly slow, as if you were not in a modern conveyor production, but in a workshop of a medieval artisan. In part, such a comparison is entirely acceptable - because production is not even small-scale, but truly individual. The details of the future safety capsule cut by the most powerful hydro-milling cutter are adjusted according to the patterns - this is the process we saw at the very beginning of our tour of the plant, and then numbered. Later in the manufacturing process of the safety capsule, even though the unpainted body is taken from the main conveyor, parts from its own set are used for each specific machine.
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The highest standards and technologies do not negate skilled manual labor - the bending section on which the elements of the armored capsule are formed
The technology for creating an armored car here is immediately subordinated to three mutually exclusive tasks. Firstly, it is necessary to create an armored structure that will save the life of a VIP person. No one expects that an armored limousine will be able to withstand a heavy machine gun (however, as the case with the assassination attempt against the President of Georgia showed, a rocket launcher from a grenade launcher may well ricochet from bulletproof glass), but such a machine must, by definition, withstand several precious minutes under fire or by opposing IEDs. Secondly, the weight increased by a couple of tons should not adversely affect the dynamics of the car and sharply worsen handling, turning Mercedes into a clumsy carcass. And thirdly, the car should preserve the appearance of a regular serial limousine or SUV. The last task is perhaps one of the most difficult and very strongly affects the complexity of the other two. It makes it impossible to use military technology of an all-armored body or the use of a frame structure. Instead, a safety capsule is used, which includes the entire passenger compartment. Critical joints, such as joints of doors and pillars, a mirror mount or a fuel tank flap, are covered by an ingenious “labyrinth”, which is formed by overlapping armor panels. The attachment points of all moving parts are also strengthened and booked. In addition to metal, aramid fiber fabric is used - panels of the same in bulletproof vests are made of the same. Special solutions are applied in the suspension and brake system. According to company experts, even with damaged brakes, the Guard family car will remain manageable and will allow the guarded person to be taken out of the fire.
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The body for the future armored car is removed from the conveyor The body for the future armored car is removed from the conveyor Body for the future armored car is removed from the conveyor
In addition to installing armored capsules, glazing is a complex engineering task. It is made of a multi-layer “sandwich”, in which special-grade glass and polycarbonate sheets alternate. How effective this type of protection is is shown to us in a dash in the neighborhood. Glass shooting from each batch is carried out indoors (to test the quality of the reservation as a whole and obtain a certificate, the car is shot at a special training ground). Used cartridges with an exact weight of gunpowder, which are supplied by the same organization that is responsible for the certification of armored vehicles. The first shot at the door leaves a hole in the sheet, the armor naturally holds the bullet, destroying it. A glass shot brings an interesting result. A bullet from a rifle cartridge of caliber 7.62x54R leaves a recess in the glass equal to a five-ruble coin - this is about half the thickness of the glass. Digging a little coin, we find a piece of steel core. Impressive, of course …
4 Matic Hochgurgl 2012
4 Matic Hochgurgl 2012
In addition to the fact that the weight of a door with such glass increases by a good hundred kilos, in order to maintain the function of lowering the windows, it is necessary to install special hydraulic windows. The door opening mechanism itself does not imply any servos. The ease with which the guards open the doors of the presidential limousines is due solely to years of training and the excellent physical shape of the "people in black."
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Marcus Nast demonstrates a test sample of bulletproof glass. Below - special wheels and tires Guard Markus Nast demonstrates a test sample of bulletproof glass. Below - special wheels and tires Guard Markus Nast demonstrates a test sample of bulletproof glass. Below - special wheels and tires Guard
If you do not take into account the armor, the car is assembled almost identically to a conventional production car, with the exception of self-tightening tanks and a special air supply and fire extinguishing system. Special communication equipment is installed in a small separate workshop, more similar to the repair area of a car service. Although installed - this is not quite the right word. Most often, dummies go into business, which are then replaced by customer safety technicians with existing models.
Mercedes themselves consider the production of the Guard line to be one of the most advanced production of this kind in the world and explain this by the fact that in addition to the most complete line of seven models in the world, starting with the E-class and ending with the armored car of the presidents - Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard, the company professes completely a different, even from such experts in their field as BMW and Audi, production philosophy. As Marcus Nast told us: “Unlike competitors, we not only have the largest model range of seven armored models in the class up to VR7-VR9 and VR10, but we also have the perfect balance between mass production on the conveyor belt and manual exclusive work of a special unit. Our people are only engaged in the production of Guard cars. These are not workers who are torn off the conveyor to complete the order. They don’t need to re-learn operations every time, as our competitors who do not have such specialized production have to do. Here, not only equipment is unique, but also the staff - working in the Mercedes-Benz Guard is the dream of every employee on the assembly line.
They dream of coming here, while still studying at a vocational school, and if they leave here, then they will only retire. As a result, we can guarantee customers the highest level of professionalism and, which is very important, absolute confidentiality.” Of course, a question that could not be asked: “How much does the car we saw in the assembly shop look like Putin's S600 Pullman?” “Our customers value privacy and we value their trust,” Herr Marcus declined with a smile, but after a second he added, “Of course, he is different, but this, as you know, is a secret, and not only ours …”
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The same S600 Pullman Guard at the last stage of assembly The same S600 Pullman Guard at the last stage of assembly The same S600 Pullman Guard at the last stage of assembly
