Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a marvelous weekend (or for those of you in the Midwest, I hope you had a marvelous time shoveling and building snowmen).

To kick things off this morning, our good friends over at Autoblog.nl tipped us off to confirmation of a new S-Class variant that up until now hasn't been announced - a variant that likely won't be taking a trip to the U.S. anytime soon.  The variant is the S280, and if our assumption that the luxury sedan will share the same powerplant as the one found on the E280, the new S will feature a 231 hp 3.0 liter V6 outputting 300 Nm of torque (at 2,500-5,000 rpm). As for how that compares to the single petrol V6-powered S-Class currently available in the S lineup, the S350 - the 3.5 liter model boasts a power output of 272 horsepower and torque of 350 Nm (at 2,400-5,000 rpm), an increase of roughly 40 horsepower and 50 Nm of torque.

While there's still been no official confirmation from Mercedes detailing the S280, we shouldn't have much longer to wait until the model's officially unveiled.

In the meantime, you can head over to Autoblog.nl for some additional pics.

Enjoy.

[UPDATE:  Andre from CWWCarDesign alerted us to the fact that in Greece, unbeknownst to us, a Mercedes S280 variant has been available for the past six months.  If you're interested, you can check out the full specs at the Mercedes-Benz Greece website.  Thanks for the heads up Andre.]