The Gelandewagen, better known to the world as the G-Wagen, or colloquially known as the G, introduced with the task of being a mere cross country vehicle, wanting to lock horns with the Japanese and American Legends of the off-road culture, the Land Cruiser and Jeep, which later proved to have the capability of changing the history of the company, is one of the most famous avatars from the German automotive giants Mercedes Benz. To be accurate with the facts, the G Wagon was manufactured by Magna Steyr, the Austrian based automotive manufacturer formerly known by the name, Steyr-Daimler-Puch with their headquarters in Graz Austria. Here is a brief history of the Gelandewagen.
.JPG)
The Gelandewagen, is one of the historical and iconic car from the German giants, Mercedes Daimler Motors. To be more accurate with the words, I should say that the G wagen is sold by Mercedes and manufactured by Magna Steyr. The story starts way back in the early 1970's when the shah of Iraq asked the company to make an off-roader for military purpose. Magna Steyr was all into it and made a beast out of it. The very first model was carved out from wood and then turned into a real life one. Also during the production works, the test mules were tested through worlds most extreme weather conditions of the four different weather conditions. When things were done at the production facility of Graz Austria, the very first example was rolled out of the production line by 1972, with all the masculinity and daredevil look of a military utility vehicle. But the shah of Iran never came back to take the delivery of his military fleet. He passed away and as a result, these cars were sold to the Argentinian Army, who milked every ounce of the car and used it the right way. The very first G had something made it unique at its time and was passed down the generation line, the features which makes a G Wagen what it is, like the boxy design, body-on-frame construction and one of the rarest of its time, fully locking differentials. The military version, as said earlier was gone to the Argentinean army, but Magna Styre had other plans for this car. Apart from discontinuing the model as it is, they just revamped the whole thing and rolled of the production line as the civilian edition, which was in 1979.
Mercedes took this car to the field with zero hopes but for their surprise things worked well and the model was a great success. When the G wagen became a success, they thought about some refinements and a little bit of upgrades from the current model. As a result the first major refreshments came by two years later, in 1981. The '81 model came with an automatic transmission, an air conditioning, and some off-road essentials like the headlamp protection grilles and a cable winch and an auxiliary fuel tank. About an year later they introduced more additions and features to the G wagen. This time they introduced fuel injection, along with more elements of comfort and convenience like auxiliary heating, wider tiers and fender flares. Three years later, in 1985 they added two different locks, the differential locks and central locking system along with tachometers. With all these features and comfort, the G wagen clocked one of the milestones in the journey of production, producing 50-K vehicles. At present, the G wagen still continues effortlessly in production clocking about 43 years of production and still going, turning out to be one of the largest produced vehicles in the history of the company, with the greatest Unimog being the only one to be beaten in front. Within all these years in production, the G had only two generations, the W-460 and W-461.
The W-460, the first generation of the real off-road mules were available with three different options. A two door convertible, a two door wagon and a four door wagon. The first generation were also given the super articulate axle. All the mechanical features were strong and the G of the time gave the confidence to take it anywhere as it passed the 'test of fire' of off-road, which included the harshest conditions, steepest inclines, slippery climbs and almost impossible tracks through the Sochokl mountain which later turned out to be the private testing ground of the G Wagen. The first generation G, the W-460 had its own special editions, and one of them gave the fame to the G itself, which is the Special edition for the Pop of Vatican, John Paul second who came for his maiden visit to Germany. This special edition was a bespoke design, all for the Pop himself. It was painted all white and had a Plastic top box where the pop stood. This incident gave fame for the G wagen in something they were expecting the least, luxury.
The update that was supposed to be second generation, but turned out to be a rather chassis change and addition of luxury, the W-463 was a rather fully revised G wagen with a new chassis number W-463, the second generation gave the G a whole new face, than that of the rough and tough spartan look, a more humbling luxurious look. With all the new high end luxury trims and features added into the package along with much smoother looks around the outside meanwhile on the interior they introduced with a brud wood trim and a leather interior upholstery. By 1994, the model was renamed as the G-Class from the Gelandewagen. As for me after this shook things up and from then on, the proper G wagen DNA went on to die expect for some selective models. Rather than being just a comfy machine, the Gelandewagen had proven himself a monster at the track, going the off beaten track and won the 1983 Paris Dakar rally championship with the pilots Jackiy Ickx and Clande Brasseur piloting this machine all the way up to P-1. Later by the timeline they introduced the beast again under their performance wing in the name AMG G Wagon. This was packed in with the 5.5 Liter twin turbocharged V-8 pumping out 350 hp with a more aggressive trim and packages which included an aggressive side exhaust and more. In 2005, Mercedes AMG rolled out the G-55 AMG with a supercharged V-8 spitting out 469 hp and having the 0-100 in almost 5.5 seconds, being a Porsche enthusiast I think this is 911 of the time.
Mercedes Benz originally did not consider selling the G outside Europe, which makes sense to say that it was imported to USA, and changed the spec accordingly for the American Standards and set into the American markets by a Mexican registered importer, Europa. This went on to sell like hot cakes and within a small period of time when the G-500 was introduced in 1998, and it was an unexpected success story which attributed Europa the status of "Small Volume Manufacturer" and got the rights of exclusive importer and distributor of the company Mercedes Benz. But eventually Mercedes threw them out of the business by acquiring the sales rights through a purchase and in 2001 they officially entered the United States Market. Along with the G-Class, they began selling the proper line-up of the company. Also this G went on to be popular among the people of united states as the US Marian Course ordered a fleet of 157 Gelandewagen fast attack vehicles, and this was specifically for the primary use of the G, as a military workhorse, for the war of Iraq and Afghanistan. The G-Wagen holds the record for the longest years in production model of Mercedes Daimler AG after their masterpiece, the Unimog.
That is all about how the Beast was made. Within the long time of 43 years in production, there have been quiet a bit of special editions and one-off derivations of the Gelandewagen. Lets talk more about this unique piece of artworks. Some remarkable special editions of the Gelandewagen are 500 GE, G-500 Classic Edition, Grand Edition, G-Class Cabriolet Final Edition 200, G-500 4X4^2, Maybach 650 Landaulet, and some of the AMG editions like the G-63 AMG, G-65 AMG, and the G-63 AMG 6X6.
500 GEThe 500 GE was the first ever limited edition Gelandewagen produced in the history of the company. This one was called a limited edition because this one featured in it for the very first time, the iconic Mercedes V-8 for the Gelandewagen, which later in the time turned out to be a menacing combination. This was a 5 door Long Wheel Base G with the V-8 under the hood that have been on production for the one year time between 1993 and 94.
G 500 Classic Special EditionThe G 500 Classic Special Edition was one of the Luxurious and equipped Gelandewagen specially made in the year 1999 for marking the 20th anniversary of the Gelandewagen. And this contained some of the iconic Mercedes features like the V-8 from the G-500, with the Almandinschwarz Metallic 182 paint job and unique 18 inch alloy wheels as the shoe. The Classic special edition payed homage to the original Gelandewagen, and that was pretty clear from the way that car was built, drawing inspiration from the original G. Being more accurate with words, the G-500 Classic Special edition was technically modern but was made to look classic with the classic appearance and approach.
Grand EditionThe Grand edition for the Mercedes G wagen is a special edition for the states which was shipped to as a result of the decision to call of production in the US. All these was happening by the year 2006. On the outside, the Grand edition was coated with one of the exclusive premium finish of the time, the Allnite Grey Mango Metallic finish. This finish was adorned in contrast, with the brushed aluminum trim stripes with "Grande Edition" lettering. Interior was made special and luxurious with matte silk wood trim throughout the dashboard and central console. Designo Exclusive leather upholstery and door sills enhanced with illuminated "Grande Edition" Lettering.
G Class Cabriolet Final EditionAs soon as Mercedes planned to draw back the production of their G wagen two door Cabriolet model, they introduced the G Class Cabriolet Final Edition, the last of its kind model as a tribute for the outgoing model. Of the 200 units produced, all of them were sold out before the model was out of the covers in the event premiered in the 2013 Frankfurt motor show. Specially crafted exterior design with beige coated soft top and tonneau, chrome plated grille, five spoke light alloys made luxurious in titanium grey and with a Finale Edition Badge on the B pillar. Inside the Final Edition Mercedes gave designo leather seats with black trim and satin finished light brown wood trim along with AMG Steering Wheel.
G 500 4x4^2The G 500 4x4^2 was a derivative form, built as a continuation of the G-63 AMG 6x6 formula. This was a long wheel base 5 door station wagen built on top of a shortened chassis of a G 63 AMG 6X6. This came packed under the hood with a 4.0 liter Bi-turbo V-8 engine which had a juicy 416 horsepower. This along with the Humvee off-road specifications gave the G an overall character of a rough and tough SUV along with Also this was comparatively shorter in length but taller in height. This in turn increased the ride height and gave more ground clearance with wider track than a regular G.
Mercedes Maybach 650 LandauletThe Maybach 650 Landaulet was the very first sports Utility Vehicle under the Maybach badge of Mercedes. Announced officially in the 2017 motor show, the Maybach 650 Landaulet can be figured as a combination of other G models merged together, in the very best way possible. This Landaulet is having the extended chassis and raised suspension from G-500 4x4^2. The rear end was teared off from the W 463 Cabriolet with folding fabric roof and fixed in to the Landaulet. Meanwhile the rear passenger doors were collected from the Extended Wheelbase 2001. The Face of the Landaulet was taken from an AMG G 65 and to add more luxury they just added more chrome to the recipe. Adding the juice to the veins is from a twin turbo V-12 sourced out from the AMG G 65 which churns out 621 horses at full beans.
Further more there are AMG performance models like the G 63 AMG, G 65 AMG, G 63 AMG 6X6 and more performance models form the performance wing of Mercedes, the Mercedes AMG. The 6x6 was one of the bespoke builds from the Mercedes, built after taking inspiration from the Aussie Army specific build, a 6x6 Mercedes Gelandewagen, which was an absolute mammoth.
Gelandewagen, originally was born as a tough-build, the master of mud and go-anywhere cross country vehicle. It is pretty accurate and disappointing at the same time to hear that the G is largely misused just as a status vehicle doing the neighborhood runs to the grocery store and downtown, rather than giving it a mud bath and taking it off the beaten track.
.JPG)
