The 789bhp, 1000Nm Brabus 800 Adventure XLP Is Ready For The Apocalypse

Along with all the new metal from major manufacturers, the Geneva hosts debuts for plenty of fresh products from tuning housing too. And Brabus might just have the aftermarket star of the motor show in 2020 (UPDATE: it won’t, as the Geneva Motor Show has now been cancelled).

It’s called the 800 Adventure XLP, and it has something you can’t have on the Mercedes G-Class upon which it’s based: a pick-up body. To go with the G63 6x6-inspired rear load bed, the XLP also has a raised ride height giving 490mm of ground clearance, and beefy portal axles.

The AMG G63 is used as a starting point (of course), although apparently not content with the 4.0-litre V8’s 577bhp output, Brabus fitted new turbochargers and fiddled with the engine management. The result of the work is 789bhp and 738lb ft of torque, or if you’d prefer, 1000Nm.

The 0-62mph figure is still three tenths slower than the standard G63 at 4.8 seconds, but that’s not too shabby at all consider the 800 tips the scales at around three tonnes. The top speed is limited to 130mph, owing to the vehicle’s high centre of gravity and chunky H-rated all-terrain tyres.

It’s not just the portal axles that add all that beef to the 800’s weight figure. To accommodate the truck bed while retaining the rear seats, Brabus had to lengthen and reinforce the G-Class’ ladder frame, increasing the wheelbase by 500mm.

If all that doesn’t seem ridiculous enough, there will be plenty of options to choose from, including a carbonfibre light bar (essential, we’d say) and a roof rack which will be handy for carrying anything you might need in a post-apocalyptic world.

The version Brabus is bringing to Geneva even has a landing pad in the back for a ‘Wingcopter’ drone, which is designed to deliver “urgently needed relief supplies and special equipment in remote regions and in rough terrain,” Brabus says. It’s capable of doing this up to 75 miles away, and with a top speed of 150mph, it’s also faster than the 800 XLP.

Building something like this is never going to be cheap, so it should come as no surprise that the fully-loaded 800XLP First Edition is €666,386. However, for more, erm, frugal customers, the base version is a bargain at just €389,831.