The Star Early Edition

Fancy a G-Class buggy with 662kW?

- JASON WOOSEY jason.woosey@inl.co.za

IF YOU have a stack of cash, a nearby desert and the burning desire to be a Dakar Rally driver, you might want to check out the new Brabus 900 Crawler.

As you can see, this is no ordinary Mercedes-AMG G-Class, and it’s also not street legal for that matter. Designed as an “uncompromi­sing fun car for use far off paved roads”, the Brabus 900 Crawler boasts a highstreng­th tubular frame and four-seater exposed-carbon body.

But what really does the hard work is its heavy-duty off-road chassis. Thanks to portal axles, this off-roading supercar boasts a ground clearance of 530mm. The German tuner also developed special height-adjustable struts, which provide up to 160mm of spring travel.

The Brabus 900 Crawler rolls on 20-inch Brabus Monoblock forged wheels with off-road tyres.

To exploit this impressive chassis to its fullest, the tuner has installed its Brabus 900 Rocket twin-turbo V8, which is a bored-out version of AMG’s familiar eight-cylinder powerhouse, now displacing 4.5 litres.

Featuring forged pistons with an 84mm diameter, a special billet crankshaft with a stroke of 100mm and two bespoke Brabus turbocharg­ers that produce a maximum boost of 1.4 bar, the 900 Rocket engine produces a wholesome 662kW at 6 200rpm and 1 250Nm from 2 900rpm, although the latter has been electronic­ally limited to 1 050Nm. According to Brabus, the 900 Crawler will dart from 0 – 100km/h in just 3.4 seconds.

Stocks for this vehicle are limited, though, with Brabus limiting production to just 15 units, priced at €749 000 (about R12.6 million) excluding taxes and import duties.

We’ll have ours in, er …, carbon.

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NEW MODEL

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