Monster SUVs are exploding

energy crisis? climate change? Terms that are hardly found in the dictionaries of many automakers and customers. SUVs are exploding like never before, according to figures from the Auto-Schweiz importers association, ten of the 20 best-selling cars in 2022 are so-called sports all-terrain vehicles. Exactly one model, Tesla’s Model Y, is a pure electric vehicle that is locally emission-free. The rest of the vehicles still rely on good old gasoline and diesel fuels.

Whether it’s premium manufacturers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes, or sports car and luxury automakers like Bentley, Lamborghini or Porsche – they’re all bringing bigger, heavier and more powerful SUVs to market than ever before. The power spectrum of the top models has already exceeded the insane 600 hp limit.

More cubic capacity…

However, for some customers with large wallets and an unbridled thirst for appreciation, this still doesn’t seem like enough. That’s where the myriad of tuners and refinements come into play that take monster SUVs into higher realms, not just in terms of looks but performance as well. We recently reported on the new 900 GLS Maybach from German tuner Brabus at this point. It was based on a Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4Matic, which was already lean, adorning the luxury giant with tons of chrome and giving the original V8 biturbo engine a bit of extra steam. Motto: Displacement can only be changed by even more displacement.

… more power

Inflated to 4.5 liters, the mega engine delivers an incredible 900 hp and 1050 Nm of torque, so the 2.8-tonne giant (the original Mini once weighed about 600 kilos) accelerates to 100 km/h in 4.2 seconds. And even if you’d never find the luxury cruise ship on a racetrack, top speeds of up to 320 km/h are possible, according to the manufacturer. If the accelerator pedal of the super SUV is properly depressed, the standard consumption of 11.9 liters per 100 kilometers should not be difficult.

SUVs are turning into supercars

The southern German company Abt, which specializes in converting vehicles from Volkswagen brands Audi, Cupra, Seat, Skoda and VW, now offers a similarly powerful device. Abt took Audi’s fattest SUV, the RS Q8, on its chest and made it bigger again. Here too the belief was: more is more. More with the RS Q8 “Signature Edition” means that behind the little car-devouring monster grille, specially developed turbochargers and intercoolers, as well as an independent control unit, provide a performance leap from the previous 600 hp to 800 hp. The torque of the four-liter V8 engine has also been significantly increased, from 800 Nm to 1000 Nm. Beneath that, no tuner seems to do this anymore.

The tuned Audi runs to the 100 mark much faster than the aforementioned Brabus: 3.2 seconds is in the datasheet, the top is reached at 315 km/h – the elephant races that make the difference. Abt doesn’t disclose on its website how much the powered RS Q8 actually weighs – but it should definitely weigh more than the original 2.4t.

“Sometimes more than 20 liters per 100 kilometers”

The German auto media portal’s driving report assures that the sound is “a little more aggressive than the original model, its handling sensational”. Abt-Audi leaves no room for doubt as to who is at the top of the food chain: “Biologists call it the top predator”. But the fighter in SUV form is also extremely voracious when it comes to fuel consumption: “With a particular driving style, sometimes more than 20 liters of fuel are injected into the combustion chambers every 100 kilometers.” But if you take it slower, you can get by with 12 liters. This is reassuring.

However, before environmental organizations call for a violent storm in the production halls of noble tuners, it should be noted the following addition: Abt will offer the Mega-Q8 in a small series limited to only 96 pieces – all copies are already sold out. Unit price: over 300,000 francs. With the 900 GLS Maybach, which is still much more expensive with at least 500,000 francs, Brabus does not specify a limit on the planned quantities. However, since the tuner from the Ruhr region is a one-off production, the production has to be kept within narrow limits. These monstrous SUVs alone certainly won’t trigger climate collapse.