The Mercedes-Benz G-Class, also known as the G-Wagen, is one of the toughest vehicles money can buy. The angular 4×4 has been in continuous production for over four decades and remains one of the German marque’s most popular vehicles – even though most buyers these days are buying it for its intimidating street presence rather than its off-road performance.
Traditionally, the G-Wagen came with a variety of relatively small-displacement petrol and diesel engines (such as the legendary M102 inline-four) designed for grunt and reliability rather than pure straight-line performance. These days, most G-Wagens you’ll see on the road today are packing petrol V8s. The popular Mercedes-AMG G 63 variant’s 4.0L twin-turbo V8 is even capable of hurtling the over two-tonne monster from 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds.
But these are refined, fussy, European engines. If you’re a true-blue Aussie, what you really want is a fat, snarling donk in your 4×4 – and one crazy bastard in Victoria has done just that. We’ve written a lot about cool G-Wagens available Down Under here at DMARGE, but this 1983 300GD example might just be the most balls-to-the-wall boxy boy on the planet.
From the outside, it looks like just a regular four-door G-Class – albeit with a tasteful steel bull-bar and some tough-looking steelies clad in thick Hankook rubber, instead of the normal rapper-spec diamond-cut alloys you see on most of these cars. But it’s what’s inside that counts – both under the hood and in the cabin.
Let’s cut to the chase: this G-Wagen has had the LS1 5.7L V8 and gearbox from a WH Holden Statesman swapped into it. That alone is pretty bonkers but it doesn’t stop there. Not only does it have the engine and gearbox from a ‘Stato’, but it also has the dash cluster, gear shifter and even the keys from it, too.
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Other Frankensteined items in the car’s interior include the steering wheel, which comes from a later-generation WK Statesman / VY Commodore, and the leather seats, which appear to be from a Mazda 3 (weird, but whatever). The LS1 also has Corvette intake covers on it, as well as a big ol’ dirty pod filter intake for maximum obnoxiousness.
What’s really cool is that the Stato automatic 4-speed is mated to the original Mercedes 4WD system, which remains fully functional. The quality of the conversion looks top-notch, and the car’s even got a Queensland engineering certificate. Mad.
Foreign car companies often make a big song and dance of tuning their vehicles for Australian conditions, but we reckon if Mercedes really wanted to tap the burgeoning 4×4 market, they’d pull their fingers out, get on the phone with General Motors, and start putting filthy LS donks in G-Wagens. They’d sell like hotcakes – but we reckon they’re just afraid of the sheer, unadulterated bogan energy that would unleash.
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Luckily, this magnificent creation can be yours, as it’s currently up for auction on grays.com. There’s just over a day on the auction and at the time of publishing, the highest bid is only $23,400 – good luck finding a decent V8 sedan or off-road rig for any less.
It’s an absolute steal, but remember: with great bogan power comes great bogan responsibility.