Never let it be said that the Germans don’t have a sense of humour. Because Mercedes-Benz has whisked us near the picturesque peak of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain, to reveal a car that is destined for a life as an apex predator in the urban jungle. The irony doesn’t end there, though, because the car itself is a rolling act of lunacy.
The G63 AMG is one of the most nonsensical machines on the road that has somehow evolved from a simple military concept to become supercar expensive, insanely fast, ridiculously heavy and a status symbol like no other.
Lest we forget, the G-Class started life as a military vehicle, the Gelandewagen, or ‘cross country car’ in English. Apparently it was suggested to Mercedes by the Shah of Iran and was first offered for the road in 1979. But even then it was seen as a real off-roader, barely concealed military hardware for the masses. It was the German Land Rover Defender. Then AMG changed all that.
Because in the late 1990s, about the same time it dropped the G-Wagen name in exchange for G-Class, Mercedes’ in-house tuning arm produced what was by some considerable margin the most insane vehicle on the road. The G55 AMG was a total mismatch of chassis and engine, a near nonsense, and it proved a total, runaway success. Rappers, pop stars, footballers, everybody wanted one.
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