An environment friendly engineer in Texas has decided to make his Mercedes SL 600 green and clean for some odd reason. Honestly, he should just buy an electric car, but his name is Bernie Towns, and he has turned his 2007 SL600 Mercedes into a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled sports car. He hopes that it will be able to break the record for the fastest natural gas car around. Bernie has partnered with the Chicago tuning company Speedriven, who have pushed 800 bhp and more than 1,000 ft-lbs of torque out of the Mercedes SL. Breaking the record will difficult, since the title is currently held by the Hohenester Audi A4 that was able to reach 364.6 km/h in 2009 with 700 bhp.
Speedriven and Bernie Towns hope that with a new aero kit fitted on the Mercedes SL 600, it will be able to top speeds of 386 km/h or 240 mph. Next month, the tuners will install a new turbo system on the car, and finish the natural gas conversion. Town plans to debut the modified Mercedes at the Texas Mile event in March, and hopes to break the speed record at that time in his CNG car. “I admit it. I’m a horsepower addict. I love speed, I love power, and I love my Mercedes-Benz,” says Towns.