Project Geländewagen | Mercedes-Benz and Virgil Abloh Deconstruct and Reimagine the G-Class for the Track

Mercedes-Benz and Virgil Abloh have partnered up to reimagine one of the most iconic vehicles of the past few decades, the G-Class. The Chief Creative Director and Founder of Off-White and Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton is known to strip items down to their core and rebuild them to derive new meaning and purpose. With Project Geländewagen, he worked closely with Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz Chief Design Officer, to create a G-Wagen that does just that. This creation pulls away from the off-road heritage upon which the G was built and instead makes an on-track thrill ride.

With the G-Class effectively turned into a race car, we see a complete redefinition of luxury from refined and flawless to something raw and natural. All the extra design elements on the body have been stripped, including the indicators, outside mirrors and the bumper bar. Project Geländewagen is wider and lower than a more conventional G-Class and features an exaggeration of the tyres and spare wheel. The paintwork deliberately looks unfinished with the body being partially sanded by hand to achieve the effect.

Inside is a complete race-inspired cockpit with elements coming over from motorsports, including the F1-inspired seats and steering wheel. The interior shell is white while the roll cage comes in light blue to garner much of our attention. Other interior accent finishes in light blue can be seen on the seat belts, the center stack where the fire extinguisher sits. On the outside, the side-exit exhaust tips can be seen in baby blue as well. Where the new G-Wagen has a beautiful digital screen housing the entire instrument cluster, Abloh and Wagener decided to remove the dashboard altogether, giving us a clean, reduce version that turns back the clock and celebrates an analogue speedometer and fuel gauge.

See more of Project Geländewagen in the gallery and look for a replica of the design piece to be auctioned as part of Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated, with all proceeds going to a charity that supports international creative communities. Advanced bidding will begin on September 14th, 2020. Learn more on Mercedes-Benz.com.