Brabus 900 Crawler Is A $1M Dune-Bashing Buggy That Looks Like An AMG G63 But Isn’t

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 (equal to around $945,000 at current rates) 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.

See Also: Brabus Turns Mercedes-AMG G63 Into A Rocket With 888-hp And 0-62 In 3.7sec

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 (15.7 inches) at the front and 370 mm (14.6 inches) 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 (662 kW / 900 PS) and 1,250 Nm (922 lb-ft) of torque, though it is limited to 1,050 Nm (774 lb-ft) 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 (0-62 mph) 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 (99 mph) 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 $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.