Maybach Exelero: the 200mph supercoupé built to test a tyre

From behind the wheel, which includes a stalk for the cruise control, so much is ordinary Maybach that only the length of the bonnet is a reminder that you are in something different. Until you start it, that is.

The Maybach Exelero’s neat doorhandles

After quite a long crank on the starter motor for a modern powerplant, the 6-litre, twin-turbocharged V12 roars into life with a deep grumble that brings to mind the aero-engined Specials of the pre-war era – fittingly so, given that a couple of those machines did indeed use gigantic Maybach engines intended for aviation use.

Any sense that this a simple rebody of a Maybach 57 is dashed as the motor rocks the car at idle, and the bespoke trim parts used to stitch together the factory components suddenly make themselves known, gently rattling and buzzing in the vibrations.

The gear selector is, once again, standard Maybach and completely simple to use.

The Maybach Exelero’s cabin is relatively conventional for a 200mph one-off

As you set off, the throttle response feels a little lethargic – could this car drive like a limo, complete with chauffeur-friendly gentle take-off? Not really.

It’s more of a prolonged dead zone at the top of the pedal’s travel, and beyond it the engine responds alarmingly rapidly. 

With what feels like far less inertia than the standard motor, the massive V12 spins up terrifyingly quickly, and the relative lack of silencing on the exhausts means the rising revs are accompanied by racing-car-like roars that turn to shrieks at its higher reaches.

It’s virtually impossible to drive this car in a manner that won’t upset your neighbours – or indeed anyone in the vicinity – but then not much about the Exelero suggests subtlety.

The Maybach Exelero has four-point seatbelts, plus helmets ready and waiting on the parcel shelf

Push deeper into the throttle and, as the engine blares and the long bonnet grabs at the horizon, I’m reminded of the warning that this concept car remains on its original tyres, now more than 20 years old.

This, the power, the noise, the unnervingly dead-feeling steering and the irreplaceable nature of the Exelero make for an intimidating recipe, yet in truth it’s childsplay to drive. 

The suspension is a lowered 57 air-sprung set-up, so perfectly comfortable, while vision is good all round, going some way to compensating for its huge size.

It doesn’t take long before you’re confident enough to see what this Maybach can do – although on public roads the opportunity to deploy its full power lasts only a few seconds at a time.

The Maybach Exelero’s exhaust exits are discreet, but the noise they emit is anything but

Nonetheless, a deep well of low-down torque makes the Exelero’s immense flexibility and linear nature obvious, with the behemoth dispatching the 0-60mph dash in just 4.4 secs.

Cornering such a long car quickly takes some adjustment, but as something to point and shoot between tight bends, with the V12 caterwauling all the way, it’s a staggering experience of overwhelming power and noise.

The fuel pump never stops whining in your ear, while the rear air suspension makes occasional ‘pssh’ sounds to add to the aural drama.

To understand the Exelero, you must first get to grips with the glorious weirdness of its origin story.

The Maybach Exelero’s vast performance can only be deployed in brief bursts

In 2005, tyre manufacturer Fulda decided that it needed a high-speed test-bed for its new ‘Carat Exelero’ rubber.

The firm had already commissioned a one-off, highly tuned Porsche 911, the 1997 Gemballa 993 Extremo, to publicise a previous tyre, as well as a series of high-performance truck builds, so the next logical step was, of course, this Wagnerian villain’s steroidal chariot.

It was a nod to the Maybach SW 38 Stromlinie, a streamliner built in 1938 to show off the high-speed tyres Fulda had developed for Germany’s new autobahnen.

The trigger for the Exelero came when, upon diving into the archives for Fulda’s centenary celebrations in 2000, the firm’s execs rediscovered the old streamliner – and the idea to build another started.

The Maybach Exelero’s embossed headlight lens

As the Carat Exelero was moving into new, larger sizes, with higher ratings for both speed and weight, the idea of a high-performance Maybach made perfect sense.

With the German luxury marque only recently revived in 2002, parent Mercedes-Benz had no hesitation in collaborating with Fulda to create the car for its own publicity.

The styling of the coupé was put out to nearby Pforzheim technical college’s design department, where Fredrik Burchhardt’s conceptual idea rose to the top.

Taking inspiration from the original streamliner, Burchhardt’s body most closely resembled the original car in its grille, while two-tone paintwork was intended to hark back to the 1930s, too.

Not all of the Maybach Exelero’s controls work

It was hardly a retro design, however, with a sweeping roofline and dramatic boat tail.

The five-spoke alloys bore a similarity to those of the contemporary Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, but they were designed to allow the easy attachment of aerodynamic covers for high-speed runs.

Torinese concept car and prototype builder Stola created the body from aluminium and carbonfibre, making use of a standard 57 saloon taken off the Maybach production line but with the A-pillar pulled back and an extra bulkhead added. 

Fulda targeted 350kph – 217mph – for the car, to prove the high-speed rating of the Exelero tyres, which required more power than even the 543bhp of the twin-turbo 5.5-litre V12 from a showroom Maybach.

The Maybach Exelero’s five-spoke alloy wheels wore covers for speed runs

With capacity increased to 5980cc and extra boost thrown into the mix, the Exelero would offer just shy of 700bhp and 752lb ft of torque.

Following an unveiling in Berlin, Fulda’s headline act with the Exelero was a high-speed run at Nardò in May 2005.

German touring car racing ace Klaus Ludwig was strapped in behind the wheel, and he duly exceeded the official target speed, with a verified 351.45kph (218mph), after which he remarked on how stable the car was and that it felt as if it could go faster.

Sadly, Fulda had no interest in pushing it any further – clearly the press releases had been pre-written and 350kph was the headline figure the company was looking for.

This Maybach’s mirror stalk aids aero efficiency

Once the Exelero had achieved its raison d’être, it did the expected publicity rounds at motor shows, and Maybach loaned the car out eagerly. 

It appeared in a car chase in German TV show Alarm für Cobra 11 in 2006, and in the same year it was the star of the video for Jay-Z’s single Lost One.

With its 23in wheels and black paintwork, it could not have been a better fit for a rap video – and indeed it was pretty much the sole prop.

The New York artist does drive the car, but its bellowing exhaust is, predictably, muted to allow the music to be audible.

As a noted enthusiast of Mercedes-Benz and Maybach in particular, it’s surprising Jay-Z didn’t purchase the Exelero, although even he might have been put off by the Maybach’s valuation.

The Maybach Exelero’s twin-turbo, 6-litre V12 makes 700bhp – and powered Klaus Ludwig to 218mph at Nardò in 2005

Less than two years later it was reported that fellow American rapper Birdman purchased the unique car for $8million, but the sale was never finalised.

Instead, the Exelero stayed in the possession of a private European owner until mega-collector Friedhelm Loh added it to his extensive garage.

Something of a Mercedes-Benz fanatic himself, with his museum collection including an aluminium-bodied 300SL and a CLK GTR, Loh recognised the Maybach as a unique product of mid-2000s DaimlerChrysler-era excesses.

It was in preparation for our visit that the Exelero was started and driven for the first time in several years.

Astoundingly, it only shows a warning to check the airbag and a service indicator.

The Maybach Exelero has a dramatic boat tail

Its air-conditioning system doesn’t work: without a compressor in the engine bay, it appears it only carried over the controls for the Maybach’s heating set-up, not its internals.

It gets a bit hot inside as a result, but the electric windows – wired in by Italian coachbuilders, remember – still work perfectly.

There are further quirks, too. The rear panel has some storage space behind it, but I’m told this pop-out piece isn’t to be touched due to it being over-enthusiastic in its operation, and it already bears a scar from where it has previously been dropped.

Like many items on the car, any damage here is repair-only: there are no replacements.

The Maybach Exelero’s fuel-filler cap came from compatriot Audi

 In a strange move of robbing parts from an arch rival, however, one piece for which that isn’t true is the Exelero’s fuel cap, which is straight off an Audi TT.

There were nearly more Exeleros, of a sort: Stola revealed a subtly restyled version that removed the Maybach details and added a full-length glass roof to create the Stola Phalcon in 2007.

Ambitiously, the firm, which was among the best and most storied builders of one-off bodies but not known for selling cars on the open market, announced it would make 25 of these cars.

Despite adding a dose of sense by planning to use a more ‘normal’ version of the Mercedes V12, Stola built only the prototype.

The Maybach Exelero’s stacked rear lights

The Exelero’s real legacy would be its role in heralding Maybach’s new individualisation programme.

By showing what the group could do when presented with a blank cheque, it was made obvious to wealthy buyers of 57s and 62s just how far it could go in creating a client’s perfect car, and the new high-performance, 6-litre V12 ‘S’ variant of the Maybach arrived almost simultaneously.

The revived marque would ultimately prove a flash in the pan, but the Exelero was the ultimate showcase of the brand’s 21st-century identity.

It’s thoroughly frivolous, but as a piece of pure, unadulterated automotive theatre, the Exelero has few peers – even from this era of automotive white elephants.

The Maybach Exelero is hugely imposing

It is a monstrous, thirsty, magnificent monument, and while it could be dismissed as a joke, is it not also what every enthusiast wishes show cars could be?

Rather than a wildly styled, inert body that is pushed on to a convention-centre carpet, its windows blacked out to hide the lack of an interior, Maybach and Fulda made a car that wasn’t just a fully functioning, road-registered block of obsidian, but one that could do well over 200mph.

A bit silly, yes, but automotive history is far richer for marketing budgets spent on follies such as the Exelero.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Nationales Automuseum, The Loh Collection

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