Brabus is known for enhancing the performance of Mercedes-AMG models, but the German tuner decided to take things even further with a bespoke non-street-legal vehicle designed for conquering the desert. The Brabus 900 Crawler will be produced in a limited number of 15 units with an eye-watering price tag of € 891,310 (US$ 945,000) for the pictured example. Starting with the exterior, the Brabus Crawler shares visual elements with the Mercedes G-Class but actual components are limited to the LED lighting units. The bodywork is entirely new, made of high-grade carbon-fibre and based on a bespoke ladder-frame chassis.
The Crawler has no doors or windows,
leaving the interior fully exposed to the elements with a red-painted steel
tube frame for extra safety. In typical Brabus fashion, it comes with wide
fenders, sporty intakes, bonnet scoop, roof-mounted LEDs, boy-racer rear wing,
and side-mounted exhaust pipes finished in matte black. The most eye-catching
feature of the Crawler is the massive ground clearance of 530 mm (20.9 inches)
made possible thanks to portal axles, height-adjustable shock absorbers,
custom-made aluminium struts, and large-diameter wheels. Speaking of which, the
20-inch Brabus Monoblock HD forged rims are shod in heavy-duty Maxxis Razr
off-road tires, including a full-size spare wheel mounted at the back. Brake
discs measure 400 mm at the front and 370 mm at the
back which is the diameter of the wheels on a city car.
Under the bonnet lies a heavily tuned
version of the AMG-sourced engine which has been widely used in the Brabus 900
series. The bigger displacement twin-turbo 4.5-litre V8 engine produces 888 hp and 1,250 Nm of torque, though it is limited to
1,050 Nm in this application. Power is sent to all four wheels
through a nine-speed automatic gearbox, with locking differentials. All this
grunt is enough to propel the high-riding model from 0-100 km/h in
3.4 seconds. On the other hand, unlike Brabus-tuned road-going models, the
Crawler has an electronically limited top speed of 160 km/h due to its
off-road tires – and well, its height.
Inside, there are four individual seats
with carbon-fibre shells upholstered in red Silvertex fabric, a durable
material originating from Brabus Marine sports boats. Despite its spartan
nature, the Crawler comes with a fully digital cockpit borrowed from Mercedes,
and an additional waterproof and temperature-resilient 12-inch GPS navigation
screen mounted on the passenger side. Brabus is offering four free carbon-fibre
helmets and a two-way communication system.
The first Brabus Crawler is already
finished and available for sale. Interestingly, its price tag makes it more
expensive than the US$ 825k Brabus 800 XLP Superblack, and most of Brabus
offerings to date, despite not being street legal. We guess buyers from the
Middle East won’t really care about that, taking the Crawler to the desert with
an equally massive two truck.
