The supercharged AMG flagship of the G-Class, in black.

This is a 2011 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG — the hand-built, supercharged top of the W463 G-Class range and the last of its kind before the twin-turbo G63 and G65 took over. Under the upright hood sits AMG’s 5.5-litre supercharged V8 (the M113 “Kompressor”), assembled in Affalterbach under the one-man-one-engine principle and rated at 500 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. It drives all four wheels through a five-speed automatic and a permanent four-wheel-drive system with a low range and three fully locking differentials — front, centre and rear. Despite weighing well over 5,000 lb, it runs 0–60 mph in roughly 5.3 seconds, accompanied by the unmistakable bark of its side-exit exhausts.

The G-Class itself dates to the late 1970s, conceived as a military and expedition vehicle and developed with Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz, Austria, where every example is still hand-assembled. Its body-on-frame ladder construction, solid axles and near-vertical, slab-sided silhouette have changed remarkably little in more than four decades — which is exactly the point. The G55 AMG layers genuine off-road hardware with leather-lined luxury and supercar pace, a combination almost nothing else has ever matched. Finished in black over a dark cabin and riding on AMG wheels — and upgraded with a Brembo Gran Turismo big-brake kit, slotted rotors and red calipers front and rear — this example is pictured high in the Eastern Sierra. It has also worn the Team Medical / Medi-Vac livery of the 2015 Gumball 3000, the seven-day, 3,000-mile rally that ran from Stockholm to Las Vegas.