The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is considered a status symbol in Russia up to a point where people may get into trouble if they resemble a Gelandewagen owner and do not actually own one. While this urban myth may be debatable, one thing that is true in Russia is the fact that it has a good number of this military-style luxury off-road vehicle from Mercedes-Benz.
Due to this, it would not be surprising to see a standard G-Class going up against and AMG-enhanced model in the well-known Russian snow, as shown of a report from autoevolution.com. The obstacle posed by the snow only underlined the challenges both G-Class models had to face.
While the competition did not appear to be even, the organizers ensure the standard model of the G-Class was able to keep up with the twin-turbo version.
The three locking differentials of the two Mercedes-Benz G-Class models allowed them to make minced meat out of the extreme conditions in the competition. These two Russian Gelandewagens also feature the bulbar delete option, which may have been considered as a compulsory feature for all G-Class models entering the Russian market instead of a simple option.
It should be noted that the owner of the standard model of the G-Class used snow chains on the vehicle to give it a fighting chance against the AMG-enhanced model. On the other hand, the G63 owner appeared confident enough on his luxury SUV that he did not use such an enhancement on his tires and simply relied on rubber in dealing with the snow.
Taking into account the volume of snow that Russia receives each year, this competition between the two Mercedes-Benz G-Class models may be just a ploy to clean up an entire area without having to use any special equipment.