Car Feature>> Rj De Vera’s Mercedes Cls

Before every new Speedhunters theme starts at the beginning of the month, I always try to find some exclusives cars to feature. One of the cars I wanted to do was the Mercedes CLS owned and driven by RJ De Vera. I remember reading about RJ in a Belgium magazine called Opgezet, which featured his deep candy apple red NSX. The next month, the same magazine featured his mother’s car, a turbocharged Honda Odyssey.

So for this Luxury and Exotic month, I knew I had to feature his latest design, this Mercedes CLS. In the end it was a hard getting in touch with RJ because he was moving to a new location. I already had given up hope featuring this car this month, but then just when I was just settling down on a terrace with some friends this afternoon, Rod called and said he got an email with all the pictures from RJ. So after finishing my dinner I rushed home and started writing before the month ends and we start with our new AWD theme.

The base car is a Mercedes CLS 550 which has been turned into this head turner by using carefully selected parts. I’ll start in the rear with the rear diffuser lip and the 3-piece wing that are part of the entire Brabus bodykit.

The idea was to make a car that would stand out and have an integrated, cohesive feeling. At the start of the build RJ had already pictured the car in his head. He says “In the beginning I was set on giving the car a theme that combined South Beach chic and my love for BAPE (a popular limited edition fashion line from Japan) purple camo. I had most of the outside of the car already set.

But things in your head don’t always look good in real life, so together with Platinum Motorsport they came up with this black and white theme.

The chrome window trims and roof trim were all painted black, but it didn’t stop there. Even the Brabus exhaust has been ceramic coated in matte black

Another major component of the Brabus body kit is the Rocket version front bumper. To continue the black and white theme, Platinum Motorsport gave the roof a super gloss black finish. Other parts that were painted black are the Asma front grill, logos and the hood trims. The headlights were also taken apart to paint the housing black.

The fenders are made by Asma and feature these huge gills. One of the most important thing about this car had to be the wheels, that’s all because RJ not only uses this car as his daily driver but also uses it as a promotional tool for his brand of RO-JA wheels.

RJ used a set of RO-JA Formula 77 wheels, they measure 20×9 in the front and 20×11 in the rear with a satin black finish and titanium rivets.

Behind the wheels we see a set of custom yellow painted Brembo brakes. The set consists of 8 pot calipers in the front and 6 pot calipers in the rear.

I noticed that a lot of the cars parks and garages in America are always empty, how come?

This bespoke interior has been made by Platinum Motorsports featuring a lot of alcantara and custom stitching. Just look at the diamond stitches on the seats. It gives the interior a real luxury feel and look.

The dashboard has also been treated with the alcantara and leather… it’s all in the details.

The seats in the back are not forgotten, gotta keep your passengers happy right?

Ah I made it, my final contribution to this month’s luxury and exotic theme. I also wanted to thank RJ de Vera for the pictures that he took. Cheers RJ!

-Jeroen Willemsen

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1

Damn, some might say saving the best for last. RJ makes some awesome cars. Thanks Willemsen for an awesome car feature.

2

beautiful piece. it would be really hard though, if he had a Black Edition, wow wide body =). But no doubt Rj has a sexy Benz right there. And ahhhhh!!! AWD month yay!!

4

wow. amazing car. Havent seem much of his work in magazine for sometime. but he always seems to come up with amazing looking automobiles.

5

Other than the ugly wheels, this car is one of my favorite Mercs!!



RJ: Update your wheel designs with concave faces and ditch the convex look. :^)

6

Isn't his car really a CLS 320, Oh wait my bad CLS 500. Sorry RJ

7

Damn, that guy can really do some nice cars... Love his wheel designs too.

8

No offence, but he just went through two catalogs, the one from Brabus and then grab some stuff from ASMA.. how hard is that? Obviously, we have expensive car with expensive parts on it, but for a guy that has some money i don't think that is hard at all.

Appart from the interior and the roof there is nothing different from the ordinary, and those are not pioneer stuff either...

So it is just another Mercedes with some Brabus and ASMA parts... oh, and Brembo brakes...'cuz he didn't want to go AMG

9

if the car was exactly the way it is now, except in flat black (like the grille), it would be the most amazing car ever made

10

I think the car looks nice and simple..he hasn't really put a foot wrong..and i love the interior trim!



the mix of the brabus bullet front bumper and asma front quarter panels looks good.



but the rims...looks good from far...but up close..far from good..lucky its in matte black..

11

I am not a CLS fan but I do totally dig RJs car.

12

Oh the things I would do for that car...

13

This car is weak other then the beautiful interior that Platinum Motorsports did, got alot of respect for those guys but RJ got to step up his game sorry but I just want more from a top builder.

14

beautiful car and i wish i can drive it at once......... very much lovely.

15

Wow. It's been a while since a personal car has been featured. Thanks for the comments everyone whether you loved or hated it. It's always entertaining to see what people think of a ones modified car. It's all relative really. Anyhow, just some notes from me. It is a 550. Initially I was going to make the car all Brabus with the rocket engine but Brabus won't sell just the engine. You have to buy the whole car from them that way and a Rocket is crazy expensive!!! Might as well buy a 599 for that kind of money. Looked into the 6.3L upgrade but then it just didn't make sense so it stayed as a 550. It was never meant to be a show car really. I just used the excuse of promoting RO-JA and my website to modify it because I couldn't leave the daily driver stock though I did want more than just a white car with black wheels and a black grill. I did primarily just get all Brabus stuff. I think they make awesome product and most people don't really do the whole package. Usually they just get the bumper or the exhaust but I really wanted a Brabus Benz but I wanted to add my own little touches but not so much that it looked like a trailer queen. So I added the ASMA stuff along with the yellow Brembos. Of course Platinum did amazing work especially with the full interior and all the black trim. I did design the wheel for the project. I too feel it turned out a bit too concave but that was the forging available and I didn't want to sacrifice not having a deep center bowl so I ended up with spokes that were more concave than I would have wanted. In any case, I do love the car. The LA roads have not been kind so it's not as clean as it once was...

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