Jon Olsson’s Mercedes-Benz G500 4x4² convertible

JON OLSSON, a Swedish-born professional skier and YouTube vlogger, is most famous – to us, at least – for his insane car collection.

His numerous garages have housed a couple of Lamborghinis (Huracan and Murcielago LP640), a modified Audi RS6 and an 570kW Rolls Royce Wraith. But the vehicle we’re most interested in this G500 4x4², and no, it’s not the portal axles, sublime V8 bi-turbo arrangement or 1000mm wading depth that caught our eye… it’s the lack of a roof which lured us in.

5

Why cut the roof off a perfectly fine G500? Well, according to Jon, “because it couldn’t fit in the parking garages in Monaco”.

The now permanent open-air “beach cruiser” is decked out with a teak wood-style finish that wouldn’t look out of place on a yacht drifting in Port Hercules, Monaco, and that’s because it was manufactured by a specialist boat shop.

Perhaps the Benz’s neatest feature – other than the intense engine, which we’ll get to in a sec – is the Akrapovic exhaust system, which can have its sound modulated via an iPhone app (head to 4:30 to hear it purr).

5

That engine, Benz’s 4.0-litre V8, has been seriously tweaked to boost performance, with power upped from 310kW to an insane 580kW (780hp).

It’s a crazy build and Jon’s best rig yet. Watch the video above.