Given Drake’s noted love for the G-Wagon, it makes perfect sense that Champagne Papi chose a custom vehicle from Brabus, the German aftermarket tuner with a penchant for upgrading Mercedes’ mighty 4×4 in style. shape and strength.
What may come as a surprise is that Drake didn’t actually buy one of Brabus’s many variations of the G-Wagon, instead opting for the brand’s limited edition buggy.
The Brabus Crawler is completely original, although its dimensions and body lines are certainly reminiscent of the Mercedes G63. According to Robb Report, Tony Bet, Drake’s longtime friend, and manager of the Driving Emotions Motorcar luxury car dealership in the “Rich Flex” rapper’s hometown of Toronto, revealed the sale on Instagram.
“@champagnepapi is not joking. This is his custom-built Brabus Crawler 900HP! Thank you for this opportunity,” Bet captioned the carousel of photos, one of which featured a sign reading “Specially crafted for Aubrey Drake Graham.”
Like the optimized supercars and G-Wagons from the German tuner’s 900 series, the 900 Crawler is equipped with a twin-turbo AMG V8 engine, the capacity of which Brabus increased from 4.0 to 4.5 liters to reaching a capacity of 900 horsepower, enough to reach 62 horsepower. mph in 3.4 seconds. Torque and top speed are limited to 774 pound-feet and 100 mph for good reasons related to its pure off-road range.
The 900 Crawler rides on a custom tube frame and boasts a towering 20.8 inches of ground clearance, surpassing the G-Wagon’s (9.3 inches), Ford Bronco’s (11.6 inches) and Jeep Wrangler’s (10.8 inches) two-fold or more. That height is achieved via portal axles connected above the forged gunmetal wheels’ center point.
Thanks largely to the oversized powerplant, the 900 Crawler is a heavyweight dune buggy that tips the scales at 4,550 pounds without gas in the tank. But that’s not for a lack of weight-saving measures—it has no windshield or doors, and the scooped hood, roof, fenders, side skirts, and spoiler are all made out of carbon fiber.
Priced at nearly $1 million each, Brabus said it will only build 15 Crawlers through 2024…one of them now sits in Drake’s garage.