Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Maybach Exelero

Big-bucks enthusiasts annoyed that they're not the only ones at the club with a Veyron can now ensure that they arrive in total exclusivity. That's because the one-off Maybach Exelero, commissioned by Fulda to act as a high-profile demonstrator for its tire line of the same name, is now for sale. The Exelero isn't some delicate flower of a show car. Based on the Maybach 57 and powered by a 700-horsepower version of that car's turbocharged V12, the Exelero reached 218 mph at Nardo. In many ways, Exelero represents what Maybach could have and should have been -- a place where daring styling and incredible performance could merge with extreme luxury to compete with Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Instead, while the marque's sedans clearly get the luxury part of the equation right, in terms of styling, they basically work in anonymity, looking like peculiar old S-Class sedans. There's nothing anonymous about the Exelero, though, and for €5,000,000 (around $7.8 million USD), you can drive the sybaritic supercar that Daimler should have given Maybach all along.


[Anamera via eGMCarTech]

Click on the images to view in high-speed and high-resolution

Remember the Maybach Exelero? The ultra-premium marque from Merceceds-Benz built it almost two years ago as a high-speed test vehicle based on its Maybach 57 luxury sedan, but unfortunately never offered production versions to the public. To the rescue comes Brabus, those whacky German tuners who give the go-fast treatment to everything produced by the three-pointed star, from the Smart ForTwo all the way up to this 730-hp limousine.

Like the Exelero, Brabus' monster is based on the Maybach 57 and was built in order to achieve the highest speeds attainable. To get there, Brabus tuned the Maybach's twin-turbo V12 to the same standard as the CLS-based Brabus Rocket speed record car: that means boosting power from 550 hp to 730, thanks to an increase in displacement from 5.5 liters to 6.3, coupled with a new crankshaft, pistons, cylinder heads... the works. The turbos were beefed up, and along with the intercoolers, a custom exhaust was installed and the ECU was reprogrammed.

The result is a top speed of 330.2 km/h (205.2 mph in American speak) achieved at the same Nardo test track in Italy where the Exelero was put through its places. A far cry from the 218.4 mph achieved by the Exelero, but not to shabby in its own right. And here you thought the S versions of the Maybach 57 and 62 were obscene enough....

Check out the images in the gallery below, and the press release after the jump.

[Source: Brabus]

"The Exelero show car did more for us than all the tweaks to the 57/62 series combined." That's what a source inside Maybach had to say about the gargantuan showcar when speaking of future Maybach models. The Exelero, more than any other, looked like it was built to transport Darth Vader. But it wasn't. Nor was it built just to garner attention, although that factored big in the formula, as well. The purpose of the Exelero was to serve as a high-speed – and high-profile – test vehicle for German tire manufacturer Fulda, who decades prior had embarked on a similar venture with the original Maybach. In short, the Exelero has the go to back up all that show.

In the video after the jump, witness the time-warping power and speed of the two-door performance coupe built on the platform of the Maybach 57, which itself is second only to its big-brother 62 in the rankings of the largest and most obscenely powerful cars on the market.

In so many ways, and in so many words, this is huge.

Related posts:

• VIDEO: Maybach Exelero
• Wow! Maybach Exelero

[Source: Automobiles Deluxe via Motor Authority]

By most accounts, Maybach managed to move less than 300 units in all of 2006. These are low numbers even for an ultra-exclusive personal limo manufacturer. We can personally attest to the Maybach sedan being a very fine road car that is sumptuous and coddling, while simultaneously being capable of amazing alacrity when given the spur. Sure, it couldn't quite keep up with its corporate cousin CLK DTM, but it will more than hold its own against a Silver Spur or Phantom. But even a good car can get a bit stale, and although the line was expanded with the "S" models, the 57 and 62 won't personally guarantee the marque's future. As much as we'd love to see the Exelero reach production (so would The Governator), it's far more likely we'll be seeing a cabrio/landoulet version of the current sedan, and possibly an SUV, as well.

CAR Magazine, in fact, is reporting that the 57 and 62 sedans will go topless, with a power cloth top dropping to expose that huge passenger compartment. They also predict that a version of the corporate Mercedes-Benz GL will get a Maybachover to create the ultimate SUV. Picture a new nose and tail and those Concorde-like seats inside. They guess that these models could quintuple Maybach output by adding 25-50 ragtops and up to 1,500 Sport Utes. We see the cabrio as a must-have in light of the debut of the Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe, even if Mercedes brings the Ocean Drive to fruition. The SUV seems like less of a necessity, but with a possible Bentley SUV in the future, this would make sense, too.

[Source: CAR Magazine]

Did you think the Maybach 62 S was ridiculous? The high-performance stretched limousine has nothing on its one-of-a-kind brother, the Maybach Exelero. Based on the already-big-for-a-sedan Maybach 57, the gargantuan coupe was created for German tire maker Fulda as a high-speed test bed (and, we suspect, a bit of a publicity stunt...and a successful one at that).

This video tells the story of Fulda's historic collaboration with the stoic luxury brand – a partnership which was rekindled after DaimlerChrysler recently revived Maybach – and shows us some footage of the gargantuan Exelero undergoing high-speed testing at the Nardo track. After all, this may have been a show car, but it was built to go fast and push its rubber to the limit.

[Source: Motor Authority]

We still haven't finished going through our pics from Monterey's week-long carfest. Here is a quick wallpaper gallery of concepts, coachbuilds and new production models displayed on the putting green outside The Lodge at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. The Glickenhaus commissioned P4/5, the stubby Dodge Hornet, the Phantom look-alike Chrysler Imperial, the "Darth Vader GT" Maybach Exelero... all there, along with a handful of other concepts and a few near-production-ready models. Follow the jump for the full clickable gallery.