Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 4×4²

The G 63 AMG 4×4² is the most extreme version of a vehicle whose basic architecture has stayed recognisable since 1979: a ladder frame, permanent four-wheel drive, a low-range transfer case and three lockable differentials. Mercedes-AMG builds it on the current G-Class and then raises the whole vehicle on portal axles, widens the track and covers the extra width with carbon-fibre wheel-arch flares. The drivetrain is the familiar AMG package — the hand-assembled 4.0-litre V8 biturbo rated at 585 PS, driving through the nine-speed AMG Speedshift multi-clutch automatic — so the differences from a standard G 63 are almost entirely in the chassis.

That matters because the 4×4² is not a lifted G-Class. Raising a vehicle with spacers or longer springs moves the body away from the axles and costs suspension travel; portal axles solve the same problem from the other direction, and the result is a G-Class that gains genuine clearance and wading depth without giving up axle articulation.

What portal axles actually change

In a portal axle the wheel hub does not sit on the axle centreline. A small gear set at each end of the axle drops the hub below the shaft, so the differential housing and the half-shafts ride much higher above the ground than the wheel centres would normally allow. Ground clearance therefore comes from the axle design itself rather than from lifting the body, the centre of gravity rises far less than the clearance figure suggests, and the gear reduction at the hub takes torque load off the half-shafts. The trade-offs are weight, extra rotating mass and a very tall step into the cabin, which is why the design stays confined to military vehicles, trucks and this one road-legal AMG.

In the Batman Garage collection the 4×4² is the counterweight to the low cars: the same Affalterbach V8 story told through suspension geometry rather than aerodynamics. Its more conventional relatives, and the tuner alternatives, appear in our comparison of the Brabus 800 Cabrio and the AMG G 63 Cabriolet, while the sharpest end of the same engineering department is catalogued in every Mercedes-AMG Black Series model and parked a few pages away as the AMG GT Black Series. The upright, slab-sided shape has also made the G-Class a film regular, which is the territory covered in the movie cars section.