STRONG silent type
THIS IS THE LIFE! The rear door of the Maybach 62 opens 85 degrees to reveal an expanse of plush velour carpeting, beautiful wood trims, an Alcantara-lined ceiling and leathered everything. You know the quality and craftsmanship is top-notch, and how sweet is the aroma of that rich Grand Nappa leather.
You don't need to twist your waist to avoid the door edge, duck under the window rim or even angle your ankles to avoid the back of the front seat. You just walk up to a Maybach, step in and sit. The rear leg-room is so big, two small children could skulk in comfort, and because your seat's so far to the back, closing the door is impossible. So, instead of leaning forward and reaching for a handle like the hoi-polloi, you press a door-closing switch on the ceiling.
A rear seat recliner hums to angles of your choosing. The seat rest tilts back, the seat cushion extends forward and up, the thigh support raises, and the lower leg support telescopes downward. The footrest is unfolded manually, but only then does the vast floor space make any sense, as you stretch out in this semi-sleeping position. Each individual cushion and support can also be electrically adjusted. This is the most comfortable rear seat I've known. It takes business-class travel (or dental practice) onto the road.
These seats form the focal point of the Maybach 62, but there's so much more. It has three gorgeous gauges in wood and chrome surrounds to indicate the vehicle's speed, the time and the outside temperature. There's a TV monitor on the back of both front seats, offering TV, DVD, radio, a satellite navigation system in some countries (but not in China) and sockets for a camcorder and MP3 - all controlled by a remote handset unit and with two sets of wireless headphones. There are also two cellular phones, a wireless and a fixed line, and the armrest cover reveals a refrigerator that's big enough for light refreshments and two champagne goblets. The 62's interior lighting is seductive. The main ceiling light is turned on when the doors are opened, and the combination of the passengers' reading lights and the illumination of the overhead control panel, footwells and the diffused floodlights on the B and C pillars provide a unique 'starry night' feel.
Maybach has also devised its version of Mercedes-Benz's popular Panoramic Roof. Its optional glass-dome roof has a wooden cassette structure that extends across the rear section. The inner pane of the glass roof has a layer of liquid crystal that can filter away up to 76 per cent of daylight with varying degrees of opacity at the touch of a button. I rode in the 6.17-metre Maybach 62 and its smaller brother, the 5.7-metre Maybach 57, in Germany. And what rides they were, thanks to the Airmatic DC suspension that was first introduced in the latest E-Class.
Unlike other German saloons, the Maybach soaks up the bumps without fuss. When you corner fast and brake hard, body motions are compensated for and always well checked. 'The car simply glides down the road,' our 62's chauffeur says. The cabin is extremely quiet. The front suspension is on a steel sub-frame, which is connected to the body through four hydraulically dampened bearings, as is the rear.
The side windows are double-glass design, as with the S-Class, with layers of plastic membrane inside acting as sound and ultra-violet light insulators. The Maybach is super quiet. Only over 200km/h do you sense wind noise around the windows, but it's never annoying and the stillness of the ride makes the Bose 600-watt, 21-speaker, seven-amplifier hi-fi system more enjoyable. Configured at 60 degrees, the Maybach's V12 engine is smooth.
At 550bhp, only a handful of cars produce more horsepower than the Maybach, but its 900Nm torque is top of the world. The basic architecture of the engine is derived from Mercedes-Benz's V12 S500, SL500 and E500, with a single camshaft for each cylinder bank, three valves per cylinder and a 5.5-litre displacement.
To propel the weighty Maybach (2,855kg for the 62, 2,735kg for the 57), there are two turbo-chargers - and their acceleration is fearsome. The 62 sprints to 100km/h in 5.4 seconds. The lighter 57 is one-fifth of a second faster. Top speed is limited at 250km/h, which is reached effortlessly.
When I drive the 57 in the rain from Maybach's Sindelfingen centre to Frankfurt, 350km away, I find the recirculating-ball steering system is a letdown. Steering-wheel movement is light and fluid, but road feel is a bit vague and fails to demonstrate the precision of, say, the SL and E-Class' rack and pinion system. The smaller Maybach is quite a handful on mountain roads, and the size of the car and the thickness of its pillars don't help. So, you might have good reason to prefer to let someone else drive the longer 62 in Beijing or Hong Kong.
The Maybach is equipped with the second-generation SBC brake-by-wire system that was first seen in the SL and E-Class. Pedal feel is pleasingly firm in autobahn decelerations from more than 200km/h. I'm in the fast lane all the way to Frankfurt. Not even a Porsche 911 can pull away from the majestic grille of my Maybach. In around-town driving, at 1,500rpm, the engine already makes nearly 70 per cent of its peak torque, so meaty acceleration is available any time. The five-speed automatic transmission's shift quality is as smooth as I expected, even in the 'Sport' mode. Time after time, German road-users greet the Maybach with admiring glances. There'll be no shortage of buyers in China. Maybachs are works of art on wheels.
TESTED
What drives it? A 550bhp, 5,513cc, V12 engine with microprocessor-controlled petrol injection, alternating current twin-spark ignition, twin turbochargers and a five-speed automatic gearbox.
How fast is it? Top speed's 250km/h. The Maybach 62 does 0-100km/h in 5.4 seconds; the 57 in 5.2 seconds
How thirsty is it? 15.9 litres per 100km on a 110-litre tank
How much is it? A 62's $7.1 million; a 57's $5.98 million.
Available: Maybach Centre, Repulse Bay, Hong Kong (tel: [852] 2594 8138)
Alternatives: Rolls-Royce Phantom;
Bentley Arnage T and Red Label versions
