The Ares X-Raid Is The Coachbuilt G-Wagen The Middle-East Will Love

Remember Dany Bahar? The former Lotus boss has gone public with his new tuning and customisation house, Ares Design, – and this is its first product.

The Ares X-Raid is based on a Mercedes G-Wagen, specifically the Mercedes-AMG G63, but it comes clothed in a bespoke carbonfibre bodyshell. That helps save a tonne of weight. Well, 200kg, anyway.

Unlike other tuning houses, Ares Design sees itself as a coachbuilder more like the traditional outfits that would supply you with a body for your luxury chassis. Its factory is based in, of all places, Modena. Yeah, that Modena.

With 750bhp to call on courtesy of tweaks to the G63’s 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8, the faux-sporty SUV can hit 155mph without too much fuss, so it really is pretty nippy in a straight line. Elsewhere, as you’d expect, it’s a mountain of custom parts, plush natural leather and general excess. Just the way a G-Wagen is meant to be in 2018.