Remember the Maybach Exelero? The one-off, 700 HP, $8 million master car was built by Maybach for Fulda Tires back in 2005. Now, they're being made for the general public for just $670,000. But, there's a catch.
Prompting a whole new generation of trite "Darth Vader Your Car Has..." headlines, the Exelero was the product of a more innocent time, a time when Maybach still had a future and a tire company no one's ever heard of had millions of dollars to burn on a bit of marketing. The Exelero wasn't a concept, but rather a custom-built vehicle that reached a tested top speed of 218 MPH thanks to a twin-turbo V12 yanked out of the Maybach 57 S.
A Swiss company is now offering to reproduce the Exelero for anyone with a giant wallet and the need to demonstrate to the world how long and black their four-wheeled penis substitute is. What do you get for your $670 K? Not a Maybach and not a V12, but rather a $90,000 Dodge Viper in drag. Sure, they've bolted a supercharger on to take power from the 8.4-liter V10 up to 800 HP, but the Viper is hardly the optimal basis for a luxury hyper car. Rather than wafting owners along in cigar-scented silence, the Viper's possibly the least refined road vehicle ever conceived, maximizing on noise and heat and minimizing on driveability and tell-you-before-it-kills-you-ness.
Perhaps tellingly, the company offering the conversions, Lamborghini Geneva, hasn't released any pictures of a completed car, instead offering old press shots of the real deal. Somehow, we don't expect the kit car's interior to look this swanky. [JamesList]