Jalopnik
Why have a Fantasy Garage if you cant induct a fantasy? That's the question we ask this week, as we nominate the Maybach Exelero show car to the devil-may-care JFG. Cars are getting better and faster every week. But few, if any, have the presence, character and sheer sinisterism of the Exelero. (For sure they have less black paint.) Designed by a student named Fredrik Burchhardt, the Exelero glistens with the kind of unpolished enthusiasm you'd expect from a kid in art school who has yet to be beaten with the savage realities of the corporate world. The meanest-ever Maybach ought to be a shoe in, and we haven't even started discussing what's beneath its glistening surface. Nor, most troubling of all, why DCX never built the sick-ass thing.
The relationship between Maybach and tire maker Fulda (a tiny subsidiary of Goodyear/Dunlap) goes back more than 70 years. To highlight the performance potential of a particular tire, Maybach Motorenbau, with the help of coachbuilder Dörr & Schreck and an aerodynamics expert named Freiherr Reinhard Koenig Fachsenfeld, constructed the menacing W38 Stromlinienfahrzeug. It was a sleek, low slung coupe that's proportionally similar to the modern Exelero. Seven decades later, the two companies teamed up again to showcase what in 2005 was Fulda's craziest offering, the 315/25YR-23 Carat tire. That's not a typo. The profile is 25, they are YR rated and wrap around 23" wheels. When handing out the assignment, I'm sure the professor was expecting something cool. But I'm equally sure he wasn't suspecting what he'd get.
Sinspiration: The 1938 Maybach W38 Stromlinienfahrzeug
I would like to reiterate that Maybach didn't produce this wet dream of a car. Now, three years later, it seems to be a certainty they never will. I'm restating this because aside from the sheetmetal, the Exelero is basically a tweaked Maybach 57. The car that would freak out Batman is essentially honed from off-the-shelf DCX parts. Sure, it's an expensive shelf. But think of the halo effect the Exelero's series production would have had on the brand. I mean, when's the last time you heard a car nut mentioning Maybach in passing?
At the very least they did built a single pants-on-fire working prototype. While most of the parts in the Exelero began life intended for the 57/62 sedans, not all made the transition unchanged. Some pieces, like the gas tank and suspension, remained unadulterated. Other components such as the already fire-spitting, stump-busting engine were placed on a strict all-protein diet. The 57/62's 5.5-liter twin-turbo V12 made 543 horsepower. Naturally the boffins at AMG were nowhere near satisfied, so they bored it out to 5.9 liters, thereby bumping the power to a somewhat silly 691 hp. The turbos were also made larger, as were the intercoolers and the radiator. True, the embiggened mill requires 110 octane racing fuel, but who are you to argue with 752-lb ft of torque?
The Exelero might argue. Tipping the scales at a Cadillac Escalade ESV-esq 5,852 pounds (the Caddy weighs 5,866 lbs.), one might wonder if the black beauty can even move at all. Turns out yes, yes she can. The point of the entire Exelero exercise was to show off Fulda's high performance kung fu, not just look menacing in a black shark suit. 60 mph occurs in 4.4 seconds. Meditate on that number for a moment. The Shelby GT500 and the Audi RS4 both weigh one ton less yet take a tenth of a second longer. The new C6.5 Corvette weighs almost half as much and makes 60 mph in the exact same time.
Pretty good by 2005 standards, you say, but in today's hyper-horsepower world, four seconds flat is the new 4.5. So what? The Exelero was not built to show off the Fulda meats' accelerative prowess. It was built to show off their top-speed capability. Specifically, the ability to go 350 kph on less than an inch of rubber. At the Nardo high speed test track in Italy, while burning fuel at the rate of 2.8 mpg, race driver Klaus Ludwig whipped the nearly three-ton beast around the oval at 351.5 kph, or 218 mph. For comparison's sake, the Ferrari Enzo can only go 217 mph. In your face, Modena!
As stunning as the numbers are, who cares? The Maybach Exelero is the übermale id come to life. In Jungian terms, it's your shadow self, the righteous evil that lies below. Plus it's frigging enormous, stretching the tape over 19 feet long. The Exelero is actually six inches wider than a Maybach 62, yet only 54 inches tall. Impossibly long, low and double-wide the overall shape is reminiscent of another fab one off, Bugatti's Type 57 Imaginaire. Especially with the exaggerated hood and fastback rear end. Unlike the Bugatti, the Maybach has dual side exhausts and a couple of blow off valves. Sigh...
We'll never understand DaimlerChrysler's decision not to bring the Exelero to market (remember they also failed to act on the bat guano mental 240 mph ME 4-12). All the more reason we need the only working version in the Fantasy Garage. Really, how many more $8 million one-offs do you need to see at Pebble Beach? The Exelero is a rare bird indeed; not so much for its scarcity, but for the fact that the world-mugging performance it offers is eclipsed by the thing's nasty good looks. Maybach's decision not to build it makes as much sense as Noah's Bagels selling pork sausage bagel dogs, but such is the world we live in. Happy voting.
[The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage now appears every Wednesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our Fantasy Garage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. Would you like to nominate a car for the Fantasy Garage? Write tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "Fantasy."]
The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
RUF RT12 | 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | Honda 1300 Coupe 9 | 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe | Ferrari 288 GTO | Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 | 1970 Buick GSX 455 | First Generation BMW M Coupe | Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | Ford GT | Citroen SM | Porsche 928 | Jensen FF | DeTomaso Vallelunga | Audi Quattro S1 | Buick GNX | Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R | Honorary Fantasy Garager: The LS1 Powered Rotus | Lamborghini LM002 | Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe | Ferrari 250 GTO | Bentley Speed Six | Talbot-Lago T150C SS Figoni et Falaschi Raindrop/Teardrop Coupe | Porsche 917 | Audi RS4 Avant
Comments
Not to be a dick, but the 25 in the tire size isn't 25mm, it's an aspect ratio, which is 25% of 315mm (the section width), or a skosh over 75mm.
That said, hell yes, enshrine it!
I voted before reading what I am sure is a finely crafted argument for the Exelero's innumerable fine qualities, i.e. It looks BADASS and goes like hell. It is the finest execution yet of the "Lord Vader, your car is here," design language.
I actually voted no on this one. As much as I think it's a beautiful car, and it's got some amazing stats, for me, any car in the fantasy garage has to be either an amazing drivers car, or be very historically significant, preferably both. And I just think that in 5 or 10 years no one will remember another 1-off show car.
I was going to vote yes, just to have it around ot look at, but at the same time, in the back of my mind, I was thinking - if it gets voted in, maybe people will vote it out before they vote out the Honda.
So, as bad ass as it is, to me, it's just not as cool as that little 1300 coupe.
I don't understand how this review doesn't mention even once its menacing Darth Vader resemblance.
Yes!
Yes, what a perfectly cromulent JFG inductee.
@trlstanc:
'the hell?
This gets a 'duh' from me, and I'll be calling it the Stromlinienfahrzeug from now on.
A one-off is about as fantastic a fantasy as possible. This is a shoe-in.
Yes! What's a fantasy garage without a fantasy car? This is a modern intepretation of the kind of over-the-top 1920's vehicular megalomania that the 6-wheel Hispano represented. Maseratis and little pitiful Mercedes' are for poor people. When you drive down the highway at 150mph, the police will pull other motorists over and ticket them for being in your way. After you leave a casino, they have to kill the valet for touching your car. Darth Vader would have to call you "sir".
@trlstanc: you crystallized my exact thoughts on this thing. i think the driver's car point is especially valid. if i were to have a real garage full of all my fantasy cars i would want ones that i'd actually drive. this thing, while quite nice, is too much of a rarefied museum piece.
if it helps keep the honda around longer though, i am all for it.
No one will ever own this car. That's about as fantasy as one can get. Where's the Hells Yeah! button?
Now if only the navigation system spoke in James Earl Jones voice....
Another "no" here. If this thing were really produced, even in small numbers, I'd say it's a no-brainer. And I'm almost tempted to vote "yes" anyway, just because it is so friggin cool. But history is littered with interesting/amazing one-offs. Why not put in this one? Don't you want a supersonic car, even if it can't stop or turn?
Yes it's in but it's not as clear cut as some others.
While we are on true fantasy cars though why can't we have the batman tumbler and the Mach1 from speed racer?
oh hell yes. i would like to think that if death needed to get from place to place this is the care he would drive. don't get me wrong Vader needs a sinister car but the most sinister of bad buys deserves the most sinister of cars
A one-off, racing-fuel-requiring top-speed machine that is way too wide to drive on the street and too long to park. I suppose that one of those old Bonneville jet-cars is in next week?
And, while its personal opinion, its hideous.
No.
Some of these comments make me quite sad. Honestly where would ANY car be if it weren't for the prototype/concept car that was its predecessor.
So many of you LOVE a particular car, however NONE of you give a nod to what it came from. These prototypes are found and drug out years after the car ceases to exist and everyone gets hard up about how intellectually valuable it is, and how any self respecting collector should shell out big bucks to have it. How on earth do any of you know that something like this wont be in production at some point? How on earth do any of you know that this thing will continue to be a "one off" concept?
How many of us were ready to take up arms and kill the "artist" the other day for crushing a PORSCHE TEST MULE!!!! Everything has value to someone.
It shouldn't have to be something to everyone, but rather everything to someone.
There is only one other car to compete with this, and its the Ferarri P4/5 built on an Enzo.
Exclusive coach work on a modern version of the Cadillac V-16.
Oh, to be a robber-baron!
I'm voting no since the car doesn't, technically, exist. Maybe next time when we have the fantasy fantasy garage, but it's not getting in before Airwolf. That said, Stromlinienfahrzeug is the most bad-ass name for a car, ever.
For everyone complaining that the Garage has too many pure sports cars here is the answer.
@trlstanc: The Honda is the technical marvel would only get looked at, this thing would be driven.
I'm not sure that would fit in a garage...
@B: "it's not getting in before Airwolf"
Perhaps the best argument against an inductee I've ever heard, especially when we're getting so far into the realm of true fantasy. That said, I still voted for it.
@B: [www.youtube.com]
NO.
yeah, I hate to pop a squat and contribute a steaming pile here, but I think including a concept (however drivable) opens a whole new can of nightcrawlers.
This thing is a sexy-as-all-hell footnote, and doesn't belong in the stall next to the GNX.
Perhaps for the dumbass car hall of fame, but not for the fantasy garage. How is this different from a donked Escalade? Answer: it's uglier.
This is the kind of fantasy you might get from a bad LSD experience.
@TurboBrick:
Your post almost convinced me to vote yes.
This sure would make a perfect ride to do a late night burn from LA to Vegas though...
@no_slushbox: if i had that honda, i'd drive it every day. i think it is a beautiful car. i would feel conspicuously ostentatious driving this thing however.
I paused for a second to worry about the implications of letting concept cars into the JFG. (What next, the indigo, the rageous?)
...but this thing is the JFG inductee among concept cars. Perfectly over-the-top in styling and performance.
Last week I said if I could I'd buy the RS4 Avant and put 20,000 miles a year on it.
That's true, but I'd drive this on dates.
Yes. First, because it is so polarizing. Second because it is a fantasy. Third because it shows that even though Merc screwed the sedans up, they do understand Maybach's brilliant history.
Finally, and mostly, yes because it's as close as we're ever likely to get to those wonderful, mad, unique coachbuilt wonders of the '20s and '30s. It's a giant middle finger in the face of logic and the ultimate expression of arrogance and ego.
I have to give this one my first JFG thumbs down. Ostentatiousness is not equivalent to presence.
Perfect car for the JFG.
@b.borrman: Thank you. I agree.
There is something to be said for flipping the bird to logic. Where would anything be if we didnt push the boundaries of what is the norm and accepted?
@B: I don't see how this car exists any less than a Grp. B rally car. They both, technically, exist. They're just not road legal production cars.
@no_slushbox: I'll admit that I would jump at the chance to drive the Exelero if given the chance; preferably across several small countries.
The 1300 on the other hand seems like it would actually be a lot of fun to drive on the track, through the canyons, or even just around town.
And as long as I knew that the JFG mechanics would keep everything in tip-top shape, I would absolutely drive the snot out of it.
So who would win in the fight between this and a Cadillac Sixteen?
Okay, fine, same question, except this time the Sixteen is painted black?
The JFG criteria has officially sunk to:
Would look good on a poster above a 13-year-old's bed.
Exeloro? Nein!
Okay, I've been accused of having a small penis before, but even my penis isn't so teensy as to require that much compensation. No.
If it's not a real series produced car, then it better be a purpose built race car, or a very historically significant one-off. I just don't see this as having a place. If Maybach later builds an Exelero, and enough years pass, maybe. But right now...nah.
This car is truly the stuff of fantasy. Of course yes.
Yay! I can finally vote yes for a JFG nominee again!
I'm fortunate enough to have seen the (an?) Excelero in person, and it is literally a speeding train with a great big cow-catcher on the front. This car has an inexplicable seduction that just can't be matched by anything currently in production. This car would humiliate and humble rich brats in Dad's Viper. And yet, this car would fit in perfectly parked in front of the doors to a mega-bucks hotel.
I think Turbobrick summarized it the best: You'd drive 150mph and the cops would pull over others for being in your way. This car is pure power, both vehicular and human.
I've never seen such a split reaction.
Not since the Exelero's spiritual Fnatasy predecessor that is, the Buick GNX.
Its rough, but I had to go for a no for all the previous reasons. Hey, the $60k wheel ornament in the ME 4-12 is pretty tight too, cooler than any low profile wheel if you ask me.
Does that mean we can have a Mercedes C111 too? That and an AMG tuned 600 Pullman are the only other M-B products I would consider fantasy worthy
It's a beautiful monster. BEAUTIFUL.
An imaginary car that runs on imagin
If we're really going to put true fantasy cars in, can we put the car that Homer Simpson's designed in too ;-) Or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or the Back to the Future car, or Batmobile (etc, etc :))
I along with darth vader and all other evil overlords vote with a resounding hell yes!
Hmmm... maybe we need a minimum vote percentage for the JFG as opposed to a simple majority. This car is clearly one o