SHADOW DANCER

In its first foray into the marine sector, German performance specialist Brabus gave the wellproven Axopar range of boats the Brabus treatment, delivering performance and styling upgrades reminiscent of those bestowed on the Brabus G-Class Mercedes.

During the last 43 years Brabus has grown to become the world’s largest independent auto tuner, specialising in Mercedes-Benz and its variants. These include Maybach and AMG, which it turns into supercars before they roll out of their Ruhr Valley factory. Other customers for the Brabus vroom treatment include Rover and Diamler Smart Cars, plus a special Brabus division building electric vehicles. Brabus also constructs its own custom supercars.

So, like Ferrari, Lexus and other car specialists, Brabus brought a marine division into their group in 2017. The synergies with the Finnish performance brand Axopar are easy to see. Having been introduced to the early Australian Axopar 28 and 37 models in 2017, I was impressed by their understated power and precision. Brabus must have seen the same.

It helped, of course, that Constantin Buschmann, CEO of Brabus, adopted his family’s