- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
4.0TT, 8 cyl.
- Engine Power
430kW, 850Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 13.1L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4XD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
5/5 star (2019)
Great Drive: Las Vegas to Los Angeles
It’s hard to think of two cities with nicknames as polar opposite as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
By virtue of their colloquialisms, Sin City and the City of Angels offer either the promise of devilish debauchery or heavenly redemption, yet each is a place where dreams can come true - or are shattered - in an instant.
The attractive elements in both have been immortalised in countless Hollywood blockbusters, but it’s the distance between them - and the journey - where the stars truly shine.
A road trip to - or, in our case, from - Vegas has also been a staple of the silver screen, from films as varied as 1983’s yuppie escape Lost in America, 1988’s Oscar-winning Rain Man, Terry Gilliam’s psychedelic adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and, more recently, The Hangover.
The 460-odd kilometres that separates them can be driven quickly in a four-and-a-half hour dash on the major Interstate highway - the I15 - that links them via Barstow and skirting around the outside of the Mojave National Park.
But that would be a waste, as the desert in Nevada and Southern California is a patchwork of colour and culture with an endless stream of natural and man-made attractions that makes the road trip between Vegas and LA as adventurous as the destinations themselves, especially behind the wheel of something like the all-new Mercedes-AMG G63 four-wheel drive wagon.
This is a car that, despite its size and German heritage, fits into American car culture like a drive-through donut shop. It comes with as many calories too. With a 430kW/850Nm 4.0-litre twin-turbo bonnet under its bonnet, exhaust pipes that exit either side of the car and rolling on massive 21-inch alloys, the G63 is as muscular as any homegrown Mustang or Camaro, yet it is also more capable off the beaten track than a Hummer, just as connected as a Tesla and even more luxurious than any Cadillac.
It’s little wonder then that the G63 has been the best-selling AMG variant in North America for the better part of the last decade - you see them everywhere between Hollywood and Malibu.
Las Vegas to Mojave
But our bronze beast is a rare sight among the gigantic stretch limousines and oversized black SUVs that crowd the Las Vegas Strip all day, ferrying party goers and gamblers from one casino to another - even at 9am when we leave.
Driving from one end of the Strip to the other is like a 15-minute adventure around the world, with themed casinos such as The Venetian (complete with a replica of Venice’s Grand Canal and the Rialto bridge), Paris (with a half-scale Eiffel Tower), New York, New York (that replicates the Big Apple’s skyline) and Luxor (where a life-sized Sphynx guards a glass pyramid like a sentinel).
It doesn’t take long for the glitzy veneer to fade into urban sprawl though, and then disappear completely into the desert that surrounds Las Vegas. But the glamour of the new G63’s opulent cabin remains a constant, with its sumptuous quilted leather seats, banging Burmester audio system, ice-cold climate control and the twin 12.3-inch digital screens that dominate the dashboard.
It’s a comfortable long distance cruiser, effortlessly chewing up miles of six-lane freeway with a surprisingly hushed ambience for such an upright vehicle but one that offers a commanding view of the snake of traffic slithering towards LA ahead of us.
In stark contrast to the massive solar farm nestled into the side of the mountain we drive by just over the California state line, it’s not a very efficient one, gulping down an average of 13 litres of premium unleaded for every 100km - and that’s without even dipping into the full performance potential of its thumping V8.
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Not far into California, we spear off the Interstate 15 and, rather than skirting around it, we head straight into the heart of the Mojave National Park. The 1.6 million acre area is littered with natural monuments, including the Kelso dunes that appear like a sandy beach in the middle of nowhere,culturally historic sites that are significant to native tribes as well as shadows of the wild west when the area was a hive of action during the gold rush in the late 1800’s.
We stop at a lookout not far from the Kelso dunes to marvel at the mystical desert, which is nothing like the monotonous Australian outback. Here, owing to the proximity to the San Andreas Fault, there are mountains and rock formations layered with tectonic colour that, quite literally, have been pushed from deep within the earth. It’s almost as if the landscape is alive and moving.
Trust me, the Californian desert is a beautiful place and well worth exploring.
Mojave to Palm Springs
The lookout also provides a view of the road ahead, a ribbon of grey tarmac that winds it way across the desert floor as if it is was a rattlesnake, which, according to a sign, are common out here.
With no desire to meet a real-life one, we follow the serpentine road through the other side of the majestic Mojave and join a section of the iconic Route 66 that used to cross the country from Chicago to Santa Monica.
It's deserted. There's not a car in sight and the road signs are riddled with bullet holes. It's hardly the automotive vein that carried life from one side of the country to the other.
Not far down the road, we stumble into Roy’s Motel and Cafe for a slice of mid-century Americana. What was once a bustling stopover on the ‘Main Street of America” is now a silent ghost of a bygone era, with our bronze G63 standing alone in its forecourt under the neon sign.
The G-wagen could, from the outside, also be considered a relic within an automotive landscape that time forgot, as this is only the second all-new model in its 40-year history and retains much of the original’s boxy, rugged character - including rifle-bolt locks and heavy ‘man’ doors that need to be slammed shut.
But, with Roy’s in the rear view mirror, it feels every bit as contemporary to drive as a modern family SUV, masking its body on frame underpinnings with light but positive steering and adaptive air suspension that keeps it top-heavy cabin in check through the corners and irons out most road irregularities around town while a comprehensive suite of active safety systems provides an unparalleled safety net.
Plus, as we take a detour off the beaten path for a bit of dirt road and sand dune driving just outside of the Joshua Tree National Park, the G63 - the only production vehicle with three differential locks - will easily go further than most will ever dare venture. It's three cars in one; a genuine muscle car, a luxurious limousine and a go-anywhere four-wheel drive.
Anyway, Trump’s government shutdown prevents us from entering the national park, but I’ve been there before and you can easily spend a day - or more - exploring its amazing landscape, especially if you’re into rock climbing, hiking or nature photography. Even if you’re not interested in any of these activities, make sure you stay past sunset (on a night with no moon, if you can) to witness a sky so full of stars you’ll never forget.
You can easily break-up the road trip here too and spend a night in a retro Rat Pack-style hotel in the ultra chic oasis that is Palm Springs, or closer to Joshua Tree in the hip-meets-hicksville town of Twentynine Palms where you can rent an Airstream trailer owned by the lead singer of the B-52s or a room at the Harmony Hotel where U2 stayed while recording their Joshua Tree album. Or how about a Nepalese yurt. Or a Native American Indian teepee. There is so much cool stuff hiding in the desert. It's like a treasure hunt.
Palm Springs to Santa Monica
But we soldier on, flying through a valley filled with wind farms to join the Interstate 10 for the final leg into Los Angeles.
It’s an easy 200km dash on one of the busiest highways in the USA, where the traffic density increases and speeds reduce in equal proportion to the urban sprawl of greater LA as it builds through the San Bernadino Valley.
And then we stop… and crawl… and stop… and crawl… as rush hour erupts around us while passing downtown LA. The G63 provides a commanding view of the colourful array of machinery that makes up the pallet of Californian car culture; from the eco-warrior in a Toyota Prius; the hillbilly in his ginormous ‘dualie’ pick-up truck; the down-of-his-luck wannabe actor in the beat-up Chevrolet Cruze; a cashed-up executives in a dark-tinted Bentley; a boy racer revving his heavily-modified BMW M5; and the cool dude hanging his tattooed sleeve on the window sill while cruising in his mint 1970’s Mercedes SL roadster. Oh, and then there's the daredevils on super bikes that lane split through the traffic as if they have a death wish.
The log jam eventually clears up on the other side of downtown for the final run on the Santa Monica Freeway just as the sun disappears behind the palm trees and creates an iconic west coast sunset that blankets the hazy sky in gorgeous tones of warm orange then fiery red.
We make it the Santa Monica Pier - what was the end of Route 66 - as the last light fades on the horizon. The G63’s glorious burbling sound track is drowned out by a busker playing a makeshift drum kit from plastic containers that is oddly syncopated with the rhythmic screams of those on the roller coaster and the jingling of carnival games to create a cacophony of music like no other place on earth.
With the bronze G-wagen twinkling under the neon lights of what is officially called Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, it doesn’t feel like we’re that far away from the chintzy glitz of Las Vegas at all. But the distance between us proves otherwise.
If anything, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are amazing, mystical, magical cities where you can do almost anything. However, it’s the space between them - and the journey - that has more substance. If you’re ever going to take the road trip from LA to Vegas, take the time.
Great Drive: Las Vegas to Los Angeles (via Mojave and Joshua Tree)
Distance: 643km
Ideal Car: Anything cool, from the cliched convertible Ford Mustang to the gangsta-chic AMG G63
Places to stop: Mojave National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Roy’s Cafe and Motel
Places to stay: Anywhere in Palm Springs, or a yurt/teepee in Twentynine Palms
Places to eat: Three Sisters Cafe in Twentynine Palms for something healthy, In-N-Out Burger at Cabazon for a quick and dirty burger
Places to shop: Desert Hills outlet mall just outside of Palm Springs.
2019 Mercedes-AMG G63 Price and Specifications
Price: $247,700 (plus on-roads)
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Power: 430kW at 6000rpm
Torque: 850Nm at 2500-3500rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic, 4WD
Fuel use: 13.1/100km