CLSsy Last Ride: Binz Shows Latest Benz Hearse

Here in America, going out in style has built a healthy livery business for automakers like Cadillac and Lincoln. For decades, coachbuilders have bought these luxury liners in order to convert them into hearses for their customer’s final drives.

In Europe, the story’s much the same, though coffin-carriers built from automakers like Mercedes-Benz are understandably more commonplace than a DeVille or Town Car-based hearse. European hearses in America remain a rarity, which is why we couldn’t resist showing you coachbuilder Binz’s new CLS-inspired hearse.

The six-door funeral vehicle is actually based on the company’s E-Class extended-chassis lineup, albeit with a CLS-aping nose. Binz’s conversion includes bespoke composite fenders, as well as a reworked AirMATIC suspension that takes into account the hearse’s increased length and heft.

Of course, if you’re more into the overtaking business than you are the undertaking business, Binz will be happy to sell you a CLS-schnozzed limousine instead, though you’ll miss out on the quirky Pope Mobile roofline.

(Click through to the jump for Binz’s official press release)

Binz Unveils Coupé de Grace

Its not enough these days to operate the best engineered cars in the world. They have to look good too. Nowhere is this truer than in the exalted world of the top class European coachbuilders, where luxury saloons are hand-crafted into the 6-door limousines that waft government ministers, top executives, and their entourages from A to B. To cater for this growing awareness of style, Binz now brings a flavour of the Mercedes-Benz CLS coupe model to its own E-Class extended-chassis range.

This new ‘face’ of Binz is so-far only to be made available as an extra cost option on its existing E-Class limousine and hearse line-up. Kevin Smith, sales director of the company explains the thinking behind the : “It really comes down to the saying that your fleet is your best marketing asset, and that means having something that is instantly recognisable. In a sense the E-Class has been the victim of its own success. We are not the only coachbuilder using this platform as a base, and operators are increasingly seeing in the Mercedes-Benz brand a quick way of lifting their businesses onto a different plane.

“Though we can boast a myriad of technical innovations and full manufacturer engineering approval, these are all features that in the main only become apparent to the passenger once they have ridden in a Binz vehicle. So by offering our customers this CLS styling option, they now have yet another way of differentiating their service from that of the competition”.

Far from being a simple cosmetic makeover, Binz had to surmount a number of technical challenges when developing this option. Entirely new wings were required, manufactured not from steel - or even aluminium, the traditional coachbuilder’s medium - but from advanced composites. Care also needed to be taken to preserve the base E-Class collision performance characteristics, as well as ensuring that the curves that are so much of the CLS appeal, were to blend seamlessly into the E-Class’ flanks.

Underneath the skin, the CLS version of Binz’s 6-door limousine retains the magic carpet ride of the company’s ’standard’ model, with AirMATIC suspension and active ride technology recalibrated in concert with Mercedes-Benz to take into account the vehicle’s increases in wheelbase and kerbweight.