Fascination Brabus crawler
desert rocket
Brabus crawler
© press-inform – the press office
Greetings from Mad Max. The monstrous Brabus Crawler looks like a vehicle from the end-time saga, but it is an exclusive off-roader, of which only 15 will be built at a price of around 900,000 euros. We got behind the wheel of the 900 hp Hyper Buggy and are thrilled.
Awesome, awesome, Brabus crawler. The Bottrop-based Mercedes tuners have outdone themselves with this crazy vehicle. We are at the controls of the Bottrop desert rocket. The V8 Biturbo Hammer from the Brabus Rocket rumbles aggressively in front of us. An extreme G-Class, but compared to the crawler (German: caterpillar) a Sunday driver sedan. windshields? None! The crawler is not street legal, but has 662 kW / 900 hp under the hood. Fire-free! We boldly step on the gas pedal and the 2,065-kilogram vehicle storms off, despite its mighty studded tires, as if there were no tomorrow. No wonder with a brute maximum torque of 1,250 Newton meters. So that the nine-speed gearbox doesn’t blow up in the driver’s ears, the electronics drop the torque anchor at 1,050 Nm.
This does little to detract from the merciless propulsion. Especially since we snap the gears with the help of the large carbon shift paddles anyway. 100 km/h is reached after 3.4 seconds. The forced-breathing trumpets unabashedly roar their lust for performance, sucking in the air while the bypass valves snort voluptuously. The crankshaft, milled from a solid block, whirls faster and faster and the needles of the speedometer and the rev counter strive clockwise upwards in unison and it pushes our jaws backwards. Violent. That’s how a downhill skier must feel on the legendary Kitzbüheler Streif when it’s a breakneck dash downhill. But we don’t stand on two boards, we sit in carbon shells that hold us securely when things are going so brutally.
The Bottrop Mercedes artists gave themselves a present of this off-road hyper car for their 45th birthday. And that’s rich “It’s the most extreme Brabus we’ve ever built,” says Head of Development Jörn Gander. The best from the fine tuning company is only good enough for the vehicle. The chassis or the tubular space frame made of high-strength steel is an in-house development.
The extreme Brabus 800 Adventure XLP was the inspiration for the chassis. Portal axles are used when the crawler doesn’t want to stretch their wheels in the mighty dunes. With this design, the engine, gearbox, differentials and drive shafts are moved upwards, which entails a whole range of special designs. So the Bottrop technicians developed wheel carriers with an integrated offset gear to compensate for the difference in height to the drive train. So that the components can withstand tough use, they are specially milled from high-strength aluminum.
The Bottrop engineers put a lot of development work into the front axle. Equipped in this way, the Über-Kraxler has a ground clearance of 53 centimetres. The stilts are supplemented by special shock absorbers that are adjustable in damping and height and offer up to 160 millimeters of spring travel. So the crawler is prepared for any terrain.
The interior is spartan, but anything but coarse. The visible carbon, the quilted upholstery and the red shimmering elements ensure this. We find it cool that the number of switches has been reduced to a minimum. If off-road monsters, then consistently. The infotainment monitors and the steering wheel reveal the relationship to the current G-Class. In addition, the Brabus Crawler has GPS off-road navigation with its own screen, as known from desert rallies. A modern intercom system is installed so that the commands of the passenger also reach the pilot.
There is room for four people in the desert rocket. Leather does not suit such an uncompromising off-road tool. That’s why the seats are covered with the particularly hard-wearing Silvertex material. Bright red and quilted in typical Brabus style. So much Bottrop must be then. The price? Almost 900,000 euros. However, only five units per year will be sold for the next 36 months, and then it will be over. You can hardly climb through the desert in a more exclusive way.