DARTZ Black Alligator: 1,001 Diamonds, Up to 1,600 bhp and a Tiger

Most prototypes wear camouflage. The first Black Alligator wore gold.

At a glance

Revealed	August 2017, as a gold development prototype
Base	Mercedes-AMG GLS 63, 5.5-litre V8
Power	Factory, 850, 1,100 or 1,600 bhp
Body	Carbon-covered Kevlar panels over a steel cage
Finish	1,001 black diamonds lacquered over the bodywork
Length	5.4 m
Planned	Fifty cars

A gold prototype, 2017

In August 2017 DARTZ showed Top Gear its new development prototype. It was gold, not in black-and-white camouflage, as a homage to the car Leo built for Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator. It sat on the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63 and its 5.5-litre V8, and it came with a promise: if Mercedes changed the GLS 63, DARTZ would simply use whatever came next.

Four power levels were offered. The factory output; 850 bhp, with a new ECU calibration, high-flow exhaust, race spark plugs, a performance turbo and a reinforced transmission; 1,100 bhp, with intercooler upgrades; and a range-topping 1,600 bhp, with an enlarged engine.

1,001 diamonds

The panels are carbon-covered Kevlar, and into their lacquer went 1,001 black diamonds, melted into dust. Armour is an option. Without it, the car is still Kevlar with a steel cage inside, which DARTZ told Top Gear makes it “safer than regular”. A fast-access boot opens without taking space from the cabin, which DARTZ described as “practically limo”.

The Black Alligator is the short version of a longer car. At 5.4 m it is already longer than the standard GLS; the Black Shark was planned at 5.9 m, in only five cars.

Old-school opulence inside

While other carmakers compete over whose screen is bigger, the Black Alligator keeps real buttons, analogue gauges, natural wood, natural gold and natural leather. Buttons cut from precious metals recall the days when cars smelled of petrol, oil and real banknotes.

MMXX: the first GBOL car

DARTZ calls the Black Alligator MMXX the first civilian car it built with GBOL, a technology it had used only in military work. With GBOL, DARTZ says, an armoured Alligator weighs about the same as the donor car, which with an extra 100, 200 or 300 horsepower lets its owner leave the line of fire. Its glass is sapphire glass made in Bohemia, which DARTZ says protects as well at half the thickness.

The details follow the same logic. There are no door mirrors: cameras sit in small wing-like fairings, because once a bullet hits a window it is hard to see through it. Electrochromic windows can turn fully opaque in an attack. Door handles stay mechanical, so that no hacker can open them, and are placed where not everyone knows. The rear door is armoured too, with a small fast-opening trunk and a bar. There are armoured side trunks, and Tetelbaum biometric safes for guns, money and cigars that the owner can monitor from a phone. There are eight exhaust pipes, one for every cylinder.

DARTZ later added a drone pad to the Black Alligator’s roof, the start of its Drone Protection Standard.

Black Tiger, 2022

For the 2022 Year of the Tiger, DARTZ built the Black Alligator MMXX Black Tiger Lunar Year Edition. Designer Alexander Isaev redrew the body: boxy volumes, thick pillars, angular arches and armoured windows. It is not painted, DARTZ says, but drawn by its artist A. C’machoff in Aladeen Orange and Tiger Black, like a tiger before it jumps. Inside, Metaxas & Sins headphones are standard and a reel-to-reel tape deck is an option. The first was delivered to a client in China in 2022.

Why Alligator

The Black Alligator belongs to DARTZ’s helicopter series of names, with the Black Shark and the Black Stallion. It is a nod to Igor Sikorsky, the father of the helicopter, who began as an engineer at the Russo-Baltic works DARTZ descends from. The wings on its bonnet say the same thing, and, as DARTZ admits, they are useless but stylish.