The 350 km/h 700 bhp Fulda Maybach Exelero

Andreas Hellmann's proposed design went in another direction. His concept had a very American look about it but, at the same time, possessed unmistakable traces of its historic predecessor. The choice of two-color paintwork, for example, is an attractive visual reference to the famous test vehicle from 1939.

Like the model from Andreas Hellmann, the design study from Stefan Barth also called for a two-color paint job for the new Fulda Maybach Concept Car. The design of the tail unit was thereby based on the the model of a boat's stern. The most striking modification in Barth's concept: here the fins on the hood of the original are extended harmoniously into the line of the roof.

The design study by Fredrik Burchhardt led to different associations: While some recognize significant traces of a Corvette split window, parallel to that others drew comparisons with the construction of a catamaran. The design made in the colors red and black put the focus clearly on the radiator grille and deliberately avoided the use of a fender at the front. Initially, it was Fredrik Burchhardt's design which emerged as the winner. But the outstanding creative efforts of Barth, Hellmann and Seebers were not ignored in the following implementation phase.

All four designs were milled as 1:4 models and from each of the presented designs, important ideas and impulses were picked up and incorporated in an exceptional design of an incomparable vehicle.

As outstanding as the concept designs were, their implementation was equally professional. And equally exclusive was the result - a masterly arrangement of the most striking style elements of limousine and coupe, combined in a spectacular sports car on the basis of today's Maybach 57.

The completion of the Fulda Maybach Concept Car appears all the more remarkable when one considers the challenging objective of developing a coupé on the basis of an existing limousine without having to create a completely new design. Despite a tight time schedule, Jürgen Weissinger, the responsible project engineer and manager of development at Maybach, together with his team, managed to realize the project successfully.

The sports coupé took shape at the end of May 2004: after three model phases had been successfully completed, the exterior, interior and chassis were tested, adapted and perfected. In the 1:1 model dreams, visions and ideas took on concrete form in the final reference object for the decisive step in development: the construction and test process.

However, with the reinterpretation of the streamlined car of 1938, it was not only intended to create an optical novelty of modern automobile manufacturing. The targeted 350 kilometers per hour maximum speed confronted the commissioned design engineers with the challenge of manufacturing a fully-functional special vehicle which, as the fastest Maybach ever, is capable of redefining the benchmarks in terms of performance for limousines on standard tires.

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