All you need to know about MAYBACH
Born: 1921
Nationality: German
The Maybach company began car production at the beginning of the 1920s, but its story goes back to founder Wilhelm Maybach. As an employee of Gottlieb Daimler, he prepared the Otto four-stroke engine for production - he also designed the first Mercedes in 1901. He also invented the spray-nozzle carburettor, which established the fuel-input technology that became an industry standard.
In 1907 Maybach left Daimler Motors after an acrimonious period during which he was replaced as chief engineer and reduced to the title of "inventor". With his son Karl he set up a business designing and building Zeppelin engines.
The post-war embargo on making engines for airplanes or airships forced the Maybachs back to their motoring roots. In 1919 Karl built his first prototype using Mercedes parts. At the time he also built engines for ships and motorcycle, and also for the Spyker car company in the Netherlands which actually used the Maybach nameplate for a time.
The first true Maybach, the W3, was launched in 1921 at the Berlin Auto Salon, where Karl proudly told the industry he would be building "the most expensive" cars of the time.
That first Maybach had a 5470 cc engine outputting 70 hp and a two-speed gearbox worked by pedal like the Motel T Ford. Five years later the W5 was revealed, with a seven-litre engine - an innovation was the option of overdrive transmission.
By the end of the 1920s, Maybach had established a reputation for perfection and precision. The company's slogan was modest - the car's double-M logo was "the sign of unbeatable quality".
Maybach began the 1930s with style, introducing the largest car ever produced at the time, the DS7 Maybach Zeppelin which was 5.5 metres long and had a 150 bhp seven-litre 12-cylinder engine. A successor, the DS8 was powered by a 200 hp eight-cylinder engine. All Zeppelins had seven-speed gearboxes. Also in the period from 1930-1936, a smaller DSH model with 130 hp 5.2-litre engines was produced. The last models produced by the company until 1941 were the SWs, which could be had with 3.5-, 3.8-, or 4.2-litre engines.
In its 20-year production history, just 1,800 Maybachs were sold. Only 152 of these still exist. The brand was revived in 1997 at the Tokyo Auto Show when Daimler-Benz presented the new Maybach concept, based on the S-Class chassis. It was to be bigger and more technologically advanced than any other car to come out of Stuttgart, powered by the S600 V12 engine that created echoes of the famous DS7 Zeppelin.
The four-seater car is the epitome of excess, from the fully-reclining seats with integrated leg-rests to the cigar humidor and the chilled compartment for drinks and crystal glassware. Only 250 technicians are certified to produce Maybachs on a special production line, and each is built to individual specification. Karl Maybach would have been proud - maybe.
Best Car: Arguably the eight-cylinder DS8 Zeppelin, the German answer to Rolls-Royce.
Worst Car: For its excesses, the current Maybach is more drawing-room than car.
Weirdest Car: As a personal view, the current car, for similar reasons. ... -