IN 1921, German Karl Wilhelm Maybach created what he considered to be the world's most luxurious car. The engineer was also responsible for a 410 brake-horsepower V12 diesel engine which, in 1933, powered the Fliegende Hamburg train, as well as a 750bhp power unit for the German army's feared Tiger tank towards the end of World War II.
Maybach was the son of the 'king of designers', Wilhelm Maybach, an engineer partner of Gottlieb Daimler and responsible for the development of many early Daimler cars, including the first Mercedes in 1901. In 1907, the elder Maybach joined Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the manufacture of engines for airships. During World War I, he also made power units for Gotha bombers before he retired and handed over to Karl Wilhelm Maybach, who from 1919 made a name for himself as the designer of exclusive and technically sophisticated luxury cars.
The first Maybach car had an engine based on a truck unit, which was a six-cylinder, side-valve version of 5.7 litres and featured light-alloy pistons and dual ignition. The engine produced a creditable 72bhp and managed a top speed of 130km/h.
Launched at the 1921 Berlin Motor Show, the model was the most expensive car on the German market. The marque flourished and many classic-car enthusiasts say the pinnacle of Maybach achievement was the 1931 DS 8 'Zeppelin', a 5.5-metre paragon of automotive excellence 'which meets every wish with the most distinguished elegance and power', its brochure said. Up to 1941, when limousine production ceased and the company's expertise was integrated into the German war effort, Maybach produced approximately 1,800 luxury cars, whose bodies, parent company DaimlerChrysler says, 'were designed and equipped precisely to customer requirements by specialist coachbuilders'. Of these classic masterpieces, 135 survive.
On July 2, with DaimlerChrysler reviving the marque after more than 60 years, the Maybach 62 was launched in New York, arriving with due ceremony on board the Queen Elizabeth II liner. Maybach's motto in the 1920s and 30s was 'On land, on sea and in the air', referring to the uses to which its engines were put. In keeping with this, the first new production model left Sindelfingen in Germany by road and was loaded aboard the QE2 in Southampton. Arriving in Manhattan, a helicopter lifted the Maybach off the liner's deck and transported it to a reception on Wall Street.
The unveiling ceremony was hosted by Professor Jurgen Hubbert, the main DaimlerChrysler board director responsible for passenger cars, but also on hand to connect the past with the future was Wilhelm Maybach's grand-daughter, Irmgard Schmid-Maybach, who now lives in San Francisco.
The Maybach 62 is powered by a hand-built 5.5- litre, twin-turbo V12 producing 550bhp (405 kW) and 900 Nm maximum torque. The engine allows the massive machine a degree of performance rarely associated with cars of this stature. In short, it is the height of luxury and surpasses anything else on the market. The '62' in the name refers to the car's length, 6.17 metres. At the Paris Motor Show (September 28 to October 13), there will be a shorter version, the '57', but it will still be larger than anything else available at 5.7 metres.