Drake’s Roofless 1999 G500 Costs More Than a New AMG G63
S-KLUB LA converted a pre-US-import 1999 Europa Edition into an open-cabin truck with OVO badging and a $399,999 asking price.
A roofless 1999 Mercedes-Benz G500 surfaced on Drake’s Instagram this week, built by California shop S-KLUB LA and priced at $399,999 before the rapper acquired it. That figure exceeds the base sticker of a brand-new 2026 Mercedes-AMG G63, which starts around $185,000.
S-KLUB LA stripped the truck down to a two-door open cabin, welded a custom steel safari rack over the exposed interior, and sprayed the widebody fenders in desert beige. The shop calls the finished product its G500 Europa Safari Edition. It listed the vehicle publicly for nearly $400,000 prior to Drake posting it under his @champagnepapi handle, though neither the builder nor the rapper confirmed the final transaction price.
The donor chassis predates the G-Class’s official American debut. Mercedes-Benz did not begin importing the G500 to the United States until the 2002 model year, meaning this specific 1999 Europa Edition required federalization paperwork or pre-dated import loopholes to reach California legally. The original W463 platform launched in 1979 as a military-spec utility vehicle, decades before luxury marques began charging six figures for boxy off-roaders.
Factory badges are gone. A gold OVO owl emblem — referencing October’s Very Own, Drake’s record label and apparel company — sits where the Mercedes-Benz star used to be. Tubular roof rails carry custom “ICEMAN” lettering, tying into the rapper’s separate ICEMAN branding efforts.
S-KLUB LA gutted the factory stereo entirely. The shop installed Audison Thesis speakers paired with DSP Forza amplifiers and bolted four 10-inch subwoofers into the reworked cabin. Mechanical specifications remain undisclosed. The builder has not released horsepower numbers, suspension travel data, or engine modification details beyond the standard 5.0-liter V8 that originally shipped with the 1999 G500, rated at 292 horsepower from the factory.
Celebrity G-Wagen commissions typically target late-model AMG variants fitted with forged wheels and tuned exhausts. Shops like Brabus and Mansory routinely invoice between $500,000 and $1 million for fully built modern G63s. S-KLUB LA took the opposite approach, sourcing a 27-year-old European-spec truck and removing most of its body panels rather than adding carbon fiber cladding.
