Sometimes you just have to build it yourself. Jürgen Eberle, a design engineer at Mercedes-Benz and his team created a mean-looking rock crawler: the E-Class All-Terrain 4×4².
Before you bust out your checkbook, you should know that it’s only a one-shot and currently not for sale — yet. Eberle tells Autocar the extreme E-Class crawler was inspired by the G500 4×4². He says he wanted to see if a similar vehicle could be made using the G500’s portal axles grafted in place of the All-Terrain’s multi-link set-up.
It took several months to build the E-Class All-Terrain, which has more than double the ride height. The fender flares are made of carbon fiber and ground clearance is now nearly 16 inches. It rolls on 20-inch, off-road-oriented wheels and the overall track is now 8 inches wider.
“The idea excited me right from the start and initial test drives of the All-Terrain 4×4² at the new testing and technology center in Immendingen are demonstrating promising off-road characteristics,” Michael Kelz, E-Class chief engineer, tells the publication.
“Thanks to the suspension lift with portal axles, the All-Terrain 4×4² is able to cope with even the nastiest rocky and stony runs – it’s a really skillful scrambler.”
It looks like the perfect weekend getaway vehicle too. Let’s hope Mercedes-Benz green lights a limited run for production.
Source: Mercedes-Benz, Autocar
The post One-off Mercedes E-Class All-Terrain 4×4² is a Serious Off-Road Wagon appeared first on Motor Trend.
from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2tHjp0w
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