We’ve become pretty familiar with Brabus G-Classes of late, with both the ‘standard’ XL 800 and XLP 800 Adventure truck being shown in recent months. But you know Brabus - they can never have too much of a good thing. So now there’s an XLP 800 6x6 Adventure available, costing more than a million euros. Because of course there is.
As if the XL 800 overhaul isn’t enough on its own (a brief reminder of that in a sec), Brabus now offers it as an XXL pick up. The thing is enormous, fully 153cm longer than the usual flatbed G-Class thanks to Brabus’s extension of the chassis via ‘a steel module with extreme torsional rigidity’. It’s painted red, like so many accents throughout the car (including more than 200 inside), as a reminder of the engineering effort that’s gone in. Unsurprisingly, the load bed here is all new, complete with pre-preg carbon cargo boxes (the mind boggles as to what a 6x6 owner would put in those) as well as soft teak panelling for the floor. There are even ‘aircraft-style tie down rails’ for lashing stuff down and a power retractable step out back, should folk actually want to use this as a pick up. And not just pretending to be a millionaire Mad Max.
Everything that made the XLs so formidable has made it to the six-wheel drive car (new driveshafts were made for that). So the portal axles - all three of them - are here, complete with 47cm of ground clearance and ‘maximum axle articulation’; the suspension, again developed with KW, is adjustable from the interior. The Adventure gets bespoke wheel hubs, plus new control arms and housings for the axles, all billet aluminium and painted red once more. The 22-inch wheels sit on all-terrain tyres and inside bulked up carbon arches; Brabus says the head on view is ‘extremely awe-inspiring thanks to the massive extensions.’ Don’t forget the stadium-spec light bars, too. Should you find somewhere to accommodate 6.2-metres of G-Class pick up, this is going to be an incredible off roader.
Guess what the fuel consumption of a Brabus XLP 800 6x6 Adventure is. Combined, according to WLTP, it’s 11.7mpg. Yowch. CO2 is rated at 420g/km. But then 800hp and six driven wheels, plus however much this ruddy thing weighs, was never going to come without penalty. The Brabus 800 package for the venerable AMG 4.0-litre turbo comprises Bottrop’s own blowers, boosting at 1.6 bar, as well as new injection, boost and ignition maps. If you’re going to use a lot of fuel anyway, might as well use a load more for maximum performance. Alongside 800hp at 6,600rpm, 738lb ft of torque is produced at 3,600rpm. Apparently it’ll reach 62mph in less than six seconds - what a sight to behold that promises to be.
The rest of the Adventure package is as might be expected for a flagship Brabus. What isn’t leather is carbon, the rear doors hinge 90 degrees for ease of access, there are Brabus logos everywhere and a side exit exhaust to rouse the deceased with a ‘full-blooded V8 roar’. No one could accuse the XLP 800 Adventure of being anything but 100 per cent Brabus.
Accordingly, each one will be built to order and customised to the buyer’s request. Maybe they’ll even let customers have a colour other than black, given they’ll be spending at least 1,161,000 euros (or just a smidge over a million) before taxes. Still, a small price to pay for the ultimate G-Class - a plain old Brabus is going to seem very tame by comparison…
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