Perusing through the technical details gets you some insane facts, such as a naturally aspirated 6.0-liter V8 in a front-midship position, an insane 450-liter (118.88 gallons) fuel capacity, and a body that is made almost entirely from fibreglass, Kevlar and aluminum. In other words, it\u2019s a Mercedes-Benz G-Class that was purpose-built for endurance desert rallying, and the full story behind it is so incredible it would probably deserve its own Netflix documentary.<\/p>\n
No racing story would be complete without the name of a driver, and that name is Clay Regazzoni. The Swiss driver was known as one of the greatest Formula 1 characters of the 1970s, when he raced for Ferrari, Williams, BRM, Shadow, and Ensign. He only managed to win 5 times during an F1 career that spanned 132 race starts, but he definitely made his mark in the series. You can get a small sense of how he was in Ron Howard\u2019s Rush movie, where his character was Niki Lauda\u2019s team mate at Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Sadly, his Formula 1 career was cut short in 1980, when he suffered a devastating accident at the Long Beach Grand Prix that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He would never walk again after a brake failure sent his Ensign F1 car into another broken down car and then into a concrete barrier. Like Alex Zanardi, another racing legend<\/a> that refused to give up<\/a> after a similar tragedy, this accident didn\u2019t mark the end of Regazzoni\u2019s racing career.<\/p>\n After numerous surgeries and a period of rehabilitation, he developed hand controls that allowed him to drive again, and eventually won back his racing license and became one of the first disabled drivers to continue to participate in high-level motorsport events. Endurance racing on the track and in rally raids became his go-to racing series, as he competed in the Sebring 12 Hours and the Paris-Dakar rally.<\/p>\n It was at Dakar where Regazzoni made use of this bizarre-looking G-Class, which had been created in the late 1980s by AMG, back when the Affalterbach company was still an independent tuner, not yet under the Mercedes-Benz umbrella. Officially called the Mercedes-Benz G 600 TE, it was originally one of two such monsters created specifically to compete in the gruelling Paris-Dakar rally and other such similar events. It is believed that it\u2019s the only surviving example.<\/p>\n From the Military-Developed G-Class Off-Roader to the Mighty G 600 TETechnically speaking, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class was one of the most obvious choices for the Paris-Dakar Rally, especially since a factory backed 280 GE had already won the punishing desert rally in 1983, at the hands of legendary racing driver Jackie Ickx, with French actor Claude Brasseur as co-driver. Initially developed for military use, the off-roader came with a rugged four-wheel-drive system, a ladder frame chassis and a reputation of going over just about every type of terrain.<\/p>\n Even so, whether we\u2019re talking about a regular G-Class or the 1983 Dakar-winning model, neither has many things in common with what AMG created in the form of the G 600 TE. Yes, the basic architecture and the ladder frame chassis were kept pretty much standard, but just about everything else was either modified or replaced with new parts destined to help the car manage endurance rally conditions.<\/p>\n Photo: Mechatronik<\/p>\n AMG first took a 5.5-liter M117 V8 from the S-Class W126 and enlarged its displacement to 6.0 liters.Along with other modifications, this resulted in 331 PS (326 HP) and 520 Nm (384 lb-ft) of torque and just a tiny bit more fuel thirst at high rpm. Before transplanting it to the Dakar G-Wagen, AMG\u2019s engineers first modified the frame and the model\u2019s firewall so that the engine would sit as far back as possible, thus improving the weight distribution to better handle jumping over sand dunes.<\/p>\n The ladder frame chassis, gearbox and differentials were reinforced to handle the grueling endurance rally conditions as well, while the exterior steel bodywork was replaced by a mixture of fiberglass, Kevlar and aluminum. Last, but certainly not least, the car\u2019s original 100-liter fuel tank was augmented by two more, and in the end the G 600 TE could carry no less than 450 liters (118.88 gallons) of gasoline. As with other rally raid racing cars, a longer range because of the few and time-consuming refueling opportunities was part of the racing strategy.<\/p>\n This was not the end of the visual transformation, as the somewhat normal-looking 1989 appearance of the car at Dakar at the hands of Regazzoni was a one-time deal. For the 1991 and 1992 events, the G 600 TE\u2019s silhouette\u2019s became the thingamajig you see in the adjacent pictures, which looks almost nothing like a G-Class.<\/p>\n The Bauhaus-style squared body was completely replaced with a bespoke shell comprising several 1980s Mercedes-Benz design motifs and parts, including the S-Class W126 that had been its engine\u2019s donor, and the station wagon version of the W124. The objective hadn\u2019t been to create a better-looking car, thankfully, but to improve its aerodynamics, as there were very few square body parts remaining after the alteration, and even the windshield was a lot more raked.<\/p>\n Clay Regazzoni: The Racing Driver Who Forgot He Was a ParaplegicBorn in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, Gianclaudio Giuseppe \u201cClay\u201d Regazzoni had a pretty convoluted but formidable career in Formula 1, competing in an era when the sport still had its fair share of gruesome crashes and even deaths. From 1970 to 1980, Clay competed in 132 F1 races for various teams, winning five of them and even missing the 1974 championship title by just three points to Emerson Fittipaldi<\/p>\n During that Formula 1 racing decade, he competed for teams like Ferrari<\/a>, where he was team mate with Niki Lauda, BRM, Ensign, Shadow and Williams, for whom he scored his final Grand Prix victory at Silverstone, in 1979. It was March 30, 1980, when everything changed and his F1 dream came to an abrupt stop.<\/p>\n Photo: Mechatronik<\/p>\n During the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach, Regazzoni\u2019s Ensign single-seater suffered a brake failure on the 51st lap, which rendered it out of control at over 150 kph (155 mph). Clay first hit Ricardo Zunino’s retired Brabham, which was parked on an escape road, and then a concrete barrier at high speed, causing him severe spinal injuries and rendering him as a paraplegic.<\/p>\n While his F1 dream was over forever, Regazzoni\u2019s competitive nature didn\u2019t keep him out of motorsport for long. Following a period of rehabilitation and several surgeries, he developed an array of hand-control systems that allowed him to drive again. He got his racing licence back and gradually returned to motorsport in specially adapted vehicles, gradually moving toward endurance racing and rally raids.<\/p>\n Apart from being one of the first paraplegics to compete in high-level racing, Clay Regazzoni was also among the first to dedicate his life and activities to help disabled people get equal opportunities in life and society in general. This journey eventually brought him to the bizarre G 600 TE AMG, in which he competed in several times, albeit sadly without securing victory.<\/p>\n The oddly modified G-Class competed in the Paris-Dakar four times beginning with 1989, with its final appearance being at the 1992 edition of the race. The model was also raced at the 1991 Rally of the Pharaohs and the 1993 Baja Espana. Despite not delivering its famous driver a well-deserved victory in any of the races it participated in, the car was eventually bought by Regazzoni, becoming part of his private collection until his death, in 2006, when the family sold it.<\/p>\n There Is Still Life After DakarAs mentioned before, the Mercedes-Benz G 600 TE AMG was built specifically to battle the gruelling Dakar rally. The car\u2019s first known appearance happened at the 1989 edition of the event, back when it was still called the Paris-Dakar Rally. Despite being heavily modified with lightweight composite bodywork and having a different profile because of the engine being pushed back into the passenger area, the model still kept the general look of a square G-Class.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it was not a lucky debut, as the car had to be retired following an accident that left it stranded in the desert. The following year, for its second entry in the Paris-Dakar Rally, AMG<\/a> decided to completely replace the boxy body shell with a more aerodynamic custom one, but without breaking the back.Taking parts from various Mercedes-Benz models and fitting them on the modified G-Wagen chassis was obviously not the work of a designer, which is why it has the looks of a baby that only its mother would love.<\/p>\n Photo: Mechatronik<\/p>\n As mentioned, the idea was to make the car slightly more aerodynamic and thus more stable at high speeds, not prettier. The new body wasn\u2019t a lucky charm either, as Regazzoni again failed to be among the rally finishers because of a mechanical breakdown. That didn\u2019t deter him to take the bizarre-looking G-Class prototype to compete in the event two more times, each one of the being unsuccessful for various reasons.<\/p>\n The 1991 entry came to the earliest end of the bunch, as a mechanical defect that didn\u2019t allow the car to start in time happened right in the harbor of Marseille, where cars were preparing to cross into Africa. The fourth and final Paris-Dakar race for the Regazzoni\/G 600 TE AMG duo happened in 1992, when Clay unfortunately flipped and rolled over the Mercedes prototype during one of the African stages, rendering it unusual. Thankfully, neither Regazzoni nor his co-driver sustained any serious injuries, and the car was repaired afterward.<\/p>\n The Swiss driver also raced the G 600 TE AMG in the 1991 Rally of the Pharaohs, and the 1993 Baja Espana, eventually driving it in several other competitions. It remained in his private collection and was even driven in Argentina during the following decades. 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