2005 Maybach Exelero Concept

Compared to Maybach's current product lineup, the Exelero is from a completely new page. Based on the "sporty" 5.7-metre-long

Compared to Maybach's current product lineup, the Exelero is from a completely new page. (Photo: Fulda Reifenwerk)

Maybach 57 (the smaller of the two), the one-off showpiece has the same base footprint, including a width of 2,140 mm, and a wheelbase of 3,390 mm. Despite its two-door layout, it's marginally longer than the 57 at 5,850 mm, and significantly lower at just 1,390 mm tall. While there are no reservations that Exelero is absolutely huge, its styling is well proportioned thanks to the adaptation of the traditional sports car layout of a long nose and rearwards-shifted cabin. Finished in black, the vehicle looks as if it has rocketed straight out of Gotham City - low, sleek, and certainly slick.

Like the SW 38, the Exelero is a total visual departure from the standard production Maybach. The concept does away with the 57 and 62's reputation of being a copycat Mercedes S-Class by positioning a massive, angular chrome grille between two swept-back triangular headlamps that are mounted on arched fenders. Italian coachwork firm Stola masterfully executed the design, translating sketches and CAD designs into metal. Particular highlights include the side

Italian coachwork firm Stola masterfully executed the design, translating sketches and CAD designs into metal. (Photo: Fulda Reifenwerk)

panels and the gargantuan doors, which have multiple scalloped layers flowing upwards to the window line, wrapping around the cockpit dome, which Fulda likens to a Formula One racer. The car culminates at a pointed tail, through a tapered, narrowing windscreen, and vertical waterfall tail lamps, outlined in chrome.

But there's more to the Exelero than just a reinterpretation of a classic design; extreme attention was paid to the car's aerodynamics. With the SW 38, engineers used ancient techniques such as taping woolen yarn to the vehicle to observe air flow, in order to promote a wind-cheating design. But it's an entirely different story at 350 km/h, in a world of high-speed wind tunnels and computer simulators.