| Exelero - The Legend Lives
Excelero - The Legend Lives Just imagine an automobile that combines the elegance and first-class quality of a high-end limousine with the powerful suppleness of a sports coupe. Create a vehicle in your mind’s eye which, with an unladen weight of over 2.66 tons and the dimensions of a small transporter, achieves a maximum speed of over 350 km/h. Conceive an ultra-high performance tire which not only copes with the aforementioned weight, the dimensions and the speed, but also makes the automobile safe, stable and |
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comfortable. Such a vehicle and such tires do not exist? Now they do. The Excelero Project |
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The Exelero project is actually a joint venture between Maybach and German tire manufacturer Fulda. Fulda has been making all sorts of high-performance rubber for almost a century, and is well known for using high-profile one-off vehicles to advertise itself. Past vehicles include high-speed buses, special trucks and racing cars. Oh yeah, Fulda also once used a super streamlined Maybach to test high-speed tires (over 200 kph) way back in 1938.
As you well know, car and tire technology has changed a lot, so Maybach and Fulda can't just rebuild a mere 200 kph (148 mph) car and call it a day. Fulda needs a car to test its 315/25ZR23 tire that is capable of speed of over 350 kph (217 mph). For those of you not literate in reading tire sizes: this tire will fit a 23-inch rim, be 313 millimeters wide (or over a foot wide) with a super-low profile sidewall. More importantly: this tire is not designed for race cars it's designed for standard street legal ride. Well, a street-legal ride that can go almost 220 miles per hour.
This optimized Maybach Type 12 engine is capable of making 700 brake horsepower and 1,000 newton meters (737 lb.-ft.) of torque. Obviously, those are some very impressive power numbers, but how does the car perform? Well, the Maybach Excelero was able to achieve a top speed of 351.45 kph (or about 218 mph).
How It All Started
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.
A one-off custom-built Maybach was unveiled in May 2005 at the Tempodrom in Berlin. Commissioned by tyre company Fulda, the Exelero is a chopped-down two-seater coupe, though it's more than just a show car - in tests at the Nardo high-speed oval, the prototype reached a speed of 218.38mph, despite weighing over 2.66 tonnes. It is capable of acceleration from 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds.
The car's design was the result of a competition amongst students at the Pforzheim Polytechnic Department of Transport Design, which has worked on show vehicles for Fulda in the past. The design of 24-year-old Fredrik Burchhardt was chosen, and his work was co-ordinated with that of the Maybach design centre in Sindelfingen. The project, based on the Maybach 57 limousine, required a certain amount of re-engineering; the A-pillar and doors had to be shifted rearwards, and the steering column, pedals and gearshift all re-located. The standard 550bhp V12 engine was bored out to 5.9 litres, and tuned for 700bhp and over 738lb ft of torque. With final dimensions of 5890mm long, 2140mm wide and just 1390mm high, the car was kitted out with a full-spec interior, including leather, neoprene, aluminium and carbonfibre finishes.
Maybach says the car, built by Stola in Turin, is "a one-off vehicle created to showcase the new ultra-high performance Exelero tyre range from leading tyre manufacturer Fulda"; it's not the first time the two companies have teamed up, as back in 1938 Fulda demonstrated its tyres on a Maybach SW 38 limousine. There are, however, "no plans to produce the model in series", though it has been certified for on-road use.
Maybach Excelero Specifications
The Mayback Excelero is no ordinary automobile. The Excelero is a high-performance sports car disguised as a luxury sedan. Want to know what makes this beast cruise at a top speed of 217 mph, while its occupants drive in shear luxury?
| Specifications | |
| Engine | |
| Type: | V12, Twin-turbo |
| Displacement cu in (cc): | 360 (5908) |
| Power bhp (kW) at RPM: | 700(515) / 5000 |
| Torque lb-ft (Nm) at RPM: | 753(1020) / 2500 |
| Redline at RPM: | n.a. |
| Brakes & Tires | |
| Brakes F/R: | ABS, vented disc/vented disc |
| Tires F-R: | 315/25 ZR23 |
| Driveline: | n.a. |
| Exterior Dimensions & Weight | |
| Length × Width × Height in: | 229.7 × 83.5 × 54.2 |
| Weight lb (kg): | 5863 (2660) |
| Performance | |
| Acceleration 0-62 mph s: | 4.4 |
| Top Speed mph (km/h): | 218 (351) |
| Fuel Economy EPA city/highway mpg (l/100 km): | n.a. (If you need to know, you can't afford it.) |
Maybach Excelero - Exterior
Maybach Excelero - Interior
Maybach Excelero - In Action
The Maybach Exelero concept car and it's top speed at the Nardò track, Italy. Video credits to www.autofernsehen.de.
Maybach Excelero - Price
The Maybach Exelero concept car sells for $8 million.
Who Owns A Maybach Excelero?
Rappers tend to have some of the biggest paychecks known to man. Even "Birdman" who may not be the most recognized or the most talented rapper has enough money to splurge now and again. Keeping that in mind, it’s no wonder that he recently became the owner of a Maybach Exelero for which he paid an incredible $8 million. Considering Forbes lists him as the fourth wealthiest rapper and he is also the proud owner of a Bugatti Veyron and a Maybach Landaulet, this latest purchase shouldn’t astound anyone.
Birdman said in a recent interview.
"They got this new Maybach that I want that costs $8 million, I gotta have it."
And why shouldn’t he when his net worth is estimated to be $100 million?
UPDATE 08/15/2011: Either Birdman has changed his mind or the money from his old CDs isn’t coming in as fast as he would like it to because the rapper has yet to pay for his expensive new ride. According to a representative of European entrepreneur, Arnaud Massartic (the current owner of the Exelero), Birdman has yet to pay for the Maybach.
Courtesy of Malbach Excelero
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