When you’re building a car to go super fast, part of the design process is testing super tough rubber in a tire torture chamber. As vital as this stage is, the thought of testing tires is enough to send me into a boredom coma.
But before I give up looking at these experiments, I have to admit that there is a much more interesting way to test tires. And that path is called the Maybach Exelero.
While the Exelero might look like a vehicle designed to grace a quirky corner of Pebble Beach, or pace a snail through a hate rapper’s “music” video, you can more accurately think of it as a tire test.
While that description still doesn’t get much excitement, the way this car tests tires is enough to set any gasoline head’s hair on fire. Because this car with the satanic look is really like nothing that has been done before or since. And that’s the story behind it all.
The Exelero project began in 2003 at the request of Fulda Tires – the German division of Goodyear – which was developing a high performance tire called the Fulda Carat Exelero. You can then see the car not only as the way Fulda tests its tires, but also as a way to promote it; partly because of the eponymous connection between the tires and the car, but also because of the extreme nature of the test that Fulda specified.
His requirements for Maybach were simple: build a car capable of taking our 315 mm thick tires to 350 km/h (217 mph). Oh, and don’t worry about leaving the car light on. After all, a heavy car will put more pressure on the tires, proving its qualities.
Excelero is not the first time that Fulda has asked a car to test a high performance tyre. In 1938, a vehicle called the W38 Stromlinienfahrzeug was the car tasked with doing the Exelero’s job – almost 70 years before it was created.
However, for the W38, Fulda did not initially approach Maybach. Instead, they turned to coachbuilders Dorr & Schreck and asked them to build a car capable of maintaining a speed of 200 km/h (124 mph) to test high-performance tyres. D&S accepted the challenge; after that they chose to collaborate with Maybach Motorenbau (as they were called at the time) and aerodynamicist Freiherr Reinhard Koenig Fachsenfeld. Too bad your name wasn’t as simple as your car turned out to be!
When you look at the old W38 and compare its profile to the newer Exelero, its elegance exudes a family resemblance. And that’s just one of the few similarities between how the two cars were developed.
It was essential for Maybach that the Exelero had an aesthetic connection to the W38 as a tribute to its history with Fulda. With great courage, they handed over responsibility for the styling to just 4 students from the Pforzheim Design Academy. And 9 months later, a drawing by one of these 4 students – Fredrik Burchhardt – was chosen.
The main effort in bringing Exelero to life was to sketch out that vampiric aesthetic. Just as the old W38 was smooth body on a Maybach SW38 chassis, the Exelero was coupe body on the chassis of a Maybach 57 limousine. Due to the fact that it was built specifically around the tires for which it was designed for testing, the L’Exelero ended up being 6.3 inches wider than the 57, making it just over 7 feet wide! Additionally, to embody a coupe-like feel on the Exelero, the cabin sits nearly 16 inches further back than on the 57.
The 57 also gave its suspension, 5-speed automatic transmission and steering column to the Exelero. He even donated his V12 heart – but only after being pumped with an appropriate dose of steroids.
The standard 57’s 5.5L twin-turbo V12 produces 543 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque, which is undoubtedly very healthy. But to reach the speeds required by the Fulda, the engine would need some performance modifications. For starters, the engine capacity was increased to 5.9 litres. Larger turbos were therefore installed, as well as a larger radiator and larger intercoolers. The result was 691 hp and 752 lb-ft of torque – but only on 110-octane racing fuel.
The Exelero was going to need every one of those horsepower if it was going to exceed the Fulda-specified 217 mph target. Listed dry weight for the car is 5,864 pounds (2,660 kg) – but as observant readers will have noticed, that’s just “dry” weight. Filled with liquids and with a driver on board, the Exelero weighed around 2.9 tonnes. Or in other words, a little more than Kilimanjaro.
Although obese, the Exelero was still able to propel its lard from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds. Think about it for a moment. It’s easy to get lost in the outrageous world of launch control and scoff at any 0-60 mph time that doesn’t start with a 2. But for a car that weighs more than most Icebergs, it can launch at 60 mph faster than a base Porsche 911 can today is hugely impressive.
When it comes to handling, the Exelero can be compared more accurately to something made by Cunard than to any other car. Until you turn traction control off. Then all that 752 lb-ft of torque – which is ready to be loaded onto the rear wheels from just 2500 rpm – ignites the 315mm rear tires in the first three gears. If you’ve ever felt the arbitrary urge to drag a yacht, Exelero will help you achieve that ambition.
From the time Fulda commissioned Maybach to build the car, it took only 25 months to complete. When it was presented to the world at the Tempodrom in Berlin on May 11, 2005, it had already completed the job for which it was built.
On May 1, 2005, Maybach took Exelero to the Nardo Ring. Although it wasn’t possible to achieve the Exelero’s absolute top speed around the Ring, as it was essentially a constant turn, they had the 217mph target in sight.
Behind the wheel was racing driver Klaus Ludwig – an apt-sounding name for such a sinister car. His mission was simply to put his foot on the squeaky pedal and hold it until the car stopped accelerating, while guiding nearly 3 tons of metal around Nardo’s mesmerizing curvature.
In the end, the Exelero ran out of steam at 218 mph – narrowly exceeding its target. In racing, the car averaged 2.4 mpg, meaning every 7.8 mile lap of Nardo emptied the 14.8-litre 110-octane fuel tank. At the current UK price of 110 octane racing fuel, this works out to £9.11 per mile!
Once the car served its purpose, Maybach began to put it up for sale. Never having intended to produce Exelero, they relied on its uniqueness to give it value. In fact, they set the asking price at €5,000,000. And it was immediately bought by diamond industrialist Andre Action Diakite Jackson. I’m not making this up, that’s his real name. Complete with a rhyme that even a rapper would approve of. Speaking of rappers…
Exelero was later loaned to Jay-Z to feature in a talkie video for the talkie song “Lost One”. After that, it was bought for an undisclosed amount by European businessman Arnaud Massartic. And then, in 2011, Exelero hit the market with a price tag of $8,000,000. Now who would want to buy an 8 million dollar car that is 7 feet wide, 20 feet long and is a symbol of such absurd vulgarity that it allows the driver to watch the rest of the world as a series of poorer people? people than them? Oww, I know: a rapper!
It was via Twitter that American rapper Birdman announced he was buying the $8 million Exelero – with particular emphasis on the price. But a few months after announcing that he was buying the car, Arnaud Massartic announced that he had not paid for it.
Since then, Exelero has slipped off the radar slightly. Information is scarce, but from what I can tell it is currently owned by Frank Rickert, the founder of the tuner Mercedes-Benz Mechatronik.
While the Exelero was built to do a seemingly mundane task, the sheer extravagance that explodes into every molecule means test tires are the last thing people think of when they see it. She will forever be regarded as what must be the most imposing land-based yacht ever made. A car worthy of Count Dracula; a continuous reflection of its bank balance. While it might be as bad as cars can get, it’s also fantastic.
Written by: Angelo Ucello
Twitter: @AngeloUccello
Tribe: Speed Machines
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Photo credits: Maybach