History of the Maybach

Abhishek Nigam              11 May 2009

Think luxury and it's always names like Rolls-Royce or Bentley that comes to the mind. But there is also an ultra luxury segment in which the brand 'Maybach' has become a synonym for luxury cars featuring the best of technology and luxury.

The company's name comes from Wilhelm Maybach, one of Germany's first automotive engineers. He designed the first car that bore a Mercedes badge in 1901 and later collaborated with Graf Zeppelin to design and produce engines for the airships known as Zeppelins. With his engineer son Karl by his side, the automaker crafted the very first Maybach in 1919. Based on a Mercedes-Benz chassis, the Type W1 was an experimental project designed to give Maybach the opportunity to test-drive a few of his favorite engineering concepts. A couple of years later, the engineer evolved this prototype into a vehicle intended for public use the Maybach Type W3, which made its debut at the Berlin Motor Show in 1921.

The five-metre-long vehicle that attained speeds of up to 110 km/h was powered by the 70 hp in-line six-cylinder W 2 engine. The innovative features of the W 3 included a four-wheel brake system with mechanical braking power compensation and a two-speed transmission without gearshift. Gears were changed by depressing a foot-operated starting lever. As second model alongside the 22/70 hp, in 1926 Maybach introduced the 27/120 hp with a newly developed seven-litre in-line six-cylinder engine. The internal designation did not follow the system of the W 3 model with the W 2 engine model, instead both vehicle and power plant were christened W 5. This car was an early indication of Maybach's claim to leadership among the European manufacturers of luxury cars.

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