MONSTER SQUAD

The Brabus 800 Adventure XLP lives up to its ancestry

- NICOLAS STECHER

With the world seemingly getting crazier every day, some city folk are running to the hills—both figuratively and literally— boosting the market for truly robust, burly off-road vehicles. Arguably topping the leaderboard runs the Brabus 800 Adventure XLP GWagen—what the elite German aftermarket tuner is dubbing a “supercar with a pickup bed.”

Brabus, famed for its tinkering with the iconic Tristar, starts with the already superb new-generation Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG and gets to work; first stretching out its steel-ladder frame’s wheelbase by 20 inches to fit a steel-and-carbon pickup bed inspired by the insane AMG G63 6x6 [see sidebar]. This elongated chassis allows Brabus to keep the original cabin totally intact, while ultimately making the truck more than two feet (27.1 inches) longer than a stock G 63. With supreme skill Brabus engineers were able to sacrifice zero cabin space or rear legroom while retaining total torsional rigidity.