Opinions regarding the value of hybrid-drivetrain vehicles tend to vary here at Autofiends. My esteemed colleague Loverman has defended them by stating “I’d rather have a planet than drive,” while I tend to go out of my way to slow way down in front of every Prius I can find on the highway before dropping a couple of gears and then zipping away, just so their owners have to suffer through watching their little economy monitors turn red as they resume their standard five-miles-per-hour-below-the-speed-limit-in-the-left-lane behavior. Still, like or loathe them, hybrids are here to stay.

Our friends at RENNtech are no strangers to making all sorts of Mercedes-Benzes significantly quicker, with their $1.2 million SLR 722 spec racer being perhaps the most outrageous example of their philosophy. Just forty-five days before SEMA, the Benz boys dropped a GLK Hybrid at their front door and told ‘em to spruce it up a bit. Perhaps they expected that RENNtech would tune the engine a bit, maybe put some extra carbon fiber in it; you know, the usual auto-show tuner quickie. After all, how exciting can a hybrid compact SUV get?

If our source at RENNtech can be believed, the answer to that question is “disturbingly so.” In just under a month and a half, the baby Benz truck has been ripped apart and reassembled as a much meaner machine. Horsepower? It’s up to over 350, about what you would get from four Prius engines. The suspension, brakes, interior, exhaust, driveline have all received The Full RENNtech Monty. It’s a few inches lower, of course, but it’s also nearly a foot wider thanks to a widebody kit. It should make quite an impression at SEMA, and while RENNtech’s not willing to spoil the surprise ahead of time, they were happy to send over a “teaser shot” that we’ve enhanced as much as possible. So take our word for it: the photo may look like an amateur shot of the Loch Ness Monster, but it’s actually a high-powered wide-body diesel hybrid GLK. Which is only slightly less improbable. We’ve been promised better photos when SEMA opens, so stay tuned!