Swarovski-encrusted Mercedes-Benz SL Makes Our Brains Hurt
You know it’s bad if Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal vehemently denies ownership.
Like dinner conversations with in-laws near the holidays, sometimes things are brought up that you wish would just go away. In this case, it’s the pair of crystal encrusted SL600’s from the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon in the above video from Kuruma JPN. These two roadsters were built/created/inspired by a company called D.A.D in collaboration with another company called Garson.
Swarovski to the Bolts
Completely covered with 300,000 Swarovski crystals, and with fur interiors, these cars definitely received their fair share of attention at the time, and still do, for exactly the same reason. They are outrageous, and so far over the top that we’d have to think any rationally thinking person would never own one.
On the pus side, they seem to have not re-appeared since their showing at the 2013, but in researching these cars a bit more, they did create a bit of interesting controversy in 2014. Business Insider reported in 2014 that billionaire and car collector Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia vehemently denied ownership of at least one of the cars. Rumors such as this would make sense, considering his car collection encompasses well over 300 cars, and with a number of Lamborghinis and Bentleys, Swarovski crystal covered V12 Benz worth $1 t0 $4 million dollars wouldn’t be out of the question. For Al-Waleed, denouncing that rumor ended up being a relatively minor issue, as he was in trouble with the fuzz due to corruption allegations a few year later.
While that car might not be to our taste, we can highlight some of the cars we actually do like. We like blacked-out C63 AMG coupes. We also like G-wagons with the roof chopped off. We like S-class convertibles with subtle, but classy upgrades. And we also like crazy creations like this custom, home-built 6X6 replica. But a crystal covered gold SL600? I think we’ll pass on that one.
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