Extreme off-roading with a fashion icon where seeing is believing

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If you're a fan of off-roading, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class Experience Center should be on your radar. Located in Graz, Austria, it's a 100,000 square meter playground dedicated to the squarest of luxury SUVs, the iconic Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

The location itself is a former Austrian military airbase, converted to challenge the vehicle's capabilities. There is a road course constructed from old airstrips, a water crossing and a wooded area with deep ruts and side slopes. There are also dizzying man-made obstacles, including one called Iron Schoeckl, a metal monolith named after a mountain just north of Graz.

It happens to be on this mountain that Mercedes engineers give final approval to each new G-Class model. If the vehicle passes all tests, a badge with the phrase Schoeckl Proved is affixed. But if the Schoeckl proves too ambitious a challenge, it returns to the factory for some adjustments. Since 1979, the G-Class has been built at the nearby Magna Steyr factory, so the journey from the mountain to the drawing board is easy.

The Experience Center is a celebration of all things G. Opened in 2020, at an inopportune time due to the pandemic, it is now shifting up a gear or down a gear, as the case may be. For G-Class buyers from Germany and Austria, this is a delivery center where drivers can test drive their new vehicles before taking them home. For everyone else out there, it's a place where you can send the manufacturer's small fleet of recent Gs over the nearest obstacle and probably live to tell the tale.

Over the past decade, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class has gone from off-road workhorse to fashion icon. You're now much more likely to see a G in Beverly Hills than on the side of a mountain. But the same engineering that was behind the first G for the civilian market is still present in the latest version, which just arrived this year.

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Building a ladder frame? Check. Four-wheel drive system? Check. Three locking differentials? Check, check and check. These are the tools with which visitors confront the various obstacles offered by the Experience Center.

Our experience was only with the gasoline version, but we can assume that the center will soon offer electric versions.

The first is a gigantic mound of earth with different routes leading to a flat top. Most remain covered in earth; another is littered with jagged rocks. All differ in their inclination rate. Before tackling each of these vehicles, the G-Class instructor rifle gives expert advice: how many of the three differentials to lock, which gear to select and whether or not the automatic descent control system is necessary.

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At first glance, each route seems impossible: the angles too steep, the traction too limited, the rocks too rocky. But seeing is believing. Once you're familiar with what the G-Class can do, you'll be encouraged to tackle even more daunting obstacles. You know, that slope you just negotiated? This time you put the G in reverse. Here, you rely on the vehicle's multiple onboard cameras to make sure you don't veer off the edge.

There is also a wooded section which shows other attractions. When the path through the trees leads to a large berm, the instructor prompts you to steer the vehicle halfway up the obstacle. This maneuver proves that the Mercedes can handle extreme roll angle without tipping sideways.

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According to the instruments, we hit a 38% (20 degree) tilt on the berm, which was extreme enough to put my arm through the side window and approach the ground. The G-Class is capable of leaning up to 40% before you need to call the repair shop.

To demonstrate one last trick, we head to the Iron Schoeckl, a ramp with a 100% incline, or 45 degrees. For this challenge, I was asked to change seats with the instructor, an indication of the daunting nature of the task. If a visitor were to deviate from his route, the descent would be very long.

For the instructor, however, this is not a problem. He expertly pilots the G-Class up the ramp, sections of metal creaking and complaining along the way. This is another moment where seeing is believing. It's almost like we've fallen off the edge of a cliff, but are still hanging in mid-air. Of course, if my seat belt hadn't been on, I would have gone through the windshield like a crash test dummy.

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The engineering behind the Mercedes-Benz G-Class is so profoundly extreme that it would be impossible to approach its limits in everyday scenarios. In this way, it's a shame that most people who drive the thing have no idea of ​​its true capabilities. With the G-Class, form meets function and fashion.

The writer was a guest of the automaker. The content was not subject to approval.