There’s just something about G-Wagen news that I can’t get enough of. From electric variants to Suzukis made to look like G-Wagens, I will consume and regurgitate anything G-Wagen related.
Imagine my delight when I spied this Mercedes-Benz G500 festooned with tank-style tracks in place of its wheels and tires. This kind of modification isn’t new, people have been doing it for decades. Heck, I even saw a Jeep Wrangler JLU with tracks at SEMA this fall.
But there is something extraordinarily delightful about a G-Wagen getting the track treatment, isn’t there? It’s especially compelling when you learn the price tag that the owner was presented with by the custom firm, Delta 4×4, who performed the transformation.
According to the math done by the boys at Motor1 who originally reported this story, the track setup cost $52,655. The homogenization and inspections required to register the truck in Switzerland, the truck’s home country, cost an additional $52,655.
Then further upgrades, including suspension, bumper, brush bar, wheels (yes, it has wheels for the summer months), and roof rack set the buyer back yet another $52,655. All told, the modifications cost just shy of $160,000 — and that’s before the price of the G500 itself was taken into account.
The G500 likely cost the owner $140,000 just to start. So you, my friends, are looking at a $300,000 tracked G500. And I’d much rather have this than, say, a Rolls-Royce Wraith for the same price. Wouldn’t you?
Now I don’t usually condone track conversions on trucks. Take that aforementioned JLU, for example. I think it’s rather dumb. Nevertheless, there’s something about a G-Wagen that makes an utterly ridiculous conversion seem sensible.