Brabus G800 Widestar

The G-Class has barely changed shape since 1979. Flat panels, exposed door hinges, a spare wheel bolted to the tailgate, indicators standing proud on top of the wings. Brabus widens all of it - carbon arches, a deeper front end, wheels pushed out to the corners - and the 800 in the name is the horsepower figure the tuned twin-turbo V8 is quoted at.

This is the only film in the set shot outdoors. Everything else was made on the showroom floor under light I could control; this one was made in the desert at sunset, where you control nothing and the light leaves on its own schedule. That trade is worth making for exactly this kind of car. A low sun rakes across flat bodywork and every hard edge on a G-Class picks up its own line of light, which is something a fixed ceiling rig can't do for you.

Slab-sided cars also read at a distance in a way supercars don't. There are no compound curves smearing the horizon across the paint - you get tone, edge, tone. Out in open sand nothing else is in frame either, so the widebody silhouette carries the whole shot and it can be held far longer than it could indoors.