Under the disguise at front and rear the prototype should be similar to the design of the study from 1997

Mercedes-Benz Maybach:
The future luxury limousine begins its worldwide practical trials

· First test drives with prototypes commence in December of this year
· Stylish elegance and trailblazing state-of-the-art technology
· Exclusive appointments and interior design to customer specifications
· Custom shop production at the Sindelfingen plant

Stuttgart – Just three years after presentation of the design study at the Tokyo Motor Show, the first of more than 20 prototypes of the Mercedes-Benz Maybach are ready to go and will begin their worldwide practical trials in early December 2000. Mercedes engineers have already been testing the suspension and drive systems of this future luxury limousine concealed within the bodywork of modified test cars for some considerable time. At the end of 2002 the first models of this unique, top-class automobile will be delivered to Mercedes customers. 

"The design study of October 1997 has led to one of the most ambitious development projects in the entire automobile industry. With the help of our experienced engineers and designers we shall be offering our customers an automobile which will meet the highest expectations in terms of style, appointments, comfort and technology", says Professor Jürgen Hubbert, the member of the Daimler-Chrysler AG Board of Management with responsibility for Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and smart. 

Double name: Homage to a designer of genius
The Mercedes-Benz Maybach continues the great tradition of representative luxury saloons bearing the three-pointed star, while pointing the way to the future with numerous technical innovations. The illustrious double name symbolises the unique role of this future top-of-the-range automobile, which will be produced by the world's oldest car maker in honour of its inspired chief designer Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929), who was for may years a close friend and companion of Gottlieb Daimler. The world is indebted to Maybach for many automotive engineer-ing inventions, and the first Mercedes is acknowledged to have been his brainchild.

Appointments: Tailor-made according to the customer's requirements
The top variant of the Mercedes-Benz Maybach will have an overall length of ap-proximately six metres and offer every imaginable comfort and refinement – from a complete business package to innovative entertainment systems. On request Mer-cedes-Benz will also supply this top-class limousine with a shorter wheelbase. By virtue of a unique standard of luxury and spaciousness, timeless styling, exclusive materials and perfect workmanship, both model variants will be incomparable automotive "personalities". 
Mercedes-Benz will enable customers to configure "their" Mercedes-Benz Maybach to their individual requirements with respect to materials, colours, appointments and technical features, assisted by engineers and designers, in a new building which is under construction at the Sindelfingen plant. Each example of this luxury limousine will therefore be an exclusive and thoroughly unique specimen.

Technology: A powerful V12 engine and innovative air suspension
The technical highlights of the luxury limousine include a newly-developed, particularly powerful bi-turbocharged twelve-cylinder engine, whose practical trials have also already commenced, and an air suspension system which has been specifi-cally developed to provide maximum comfort in this top-class automobile. Thanks to seminal new developments the Mercedes-Benz Maybach will also set new stan-dards in noise and climatic comfort. 

Production: Custom shop assembly at the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen
The future top-of-the-range model by Mercedes-Benz will bear the quality distinc-tion "Made in Germany": production of the luxury limousine will commence during the second half of 2002 in the tradition-steeped surroundings of the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen, where new production facilities akin to a custom shop are being installed specifically for the Mercedes-Benz Maybach.
End of DaimlerChrysler press text

Maybach on test drive

World premiere at Mercedes-Benz: The Swabian car maker itself deliveres a spy-photo of the future luxury limousine Maybach. It shows the flagship still heavily disguised at a test drive. Three years after the presentation at the Tokyo Motor Show ((Japan) the Swabian car maker sets 20 ready-to-drive prototypes on the wheels and starts test drives in December ((2000). Already since pring ((2000)) Mercedes tests the technique of the future flagship within the DaimlerChrysler group in bullet-proof and lengthened S-classes of the W140-series which was made until 1998; these conversions roughly correspond with the future Maybach in terms of length (circa six metres) and weight (between 2000 and 3000 kilogrammes). At the end of the year 2002 the Maybach shall be delivered to the customers. The estimated prices: From German Marks 650.000 for the normal version ((W240)) and from German Marks 750.000 for the variant with lengthened wheelbase ((V240)).
End of translated article from "Auto Motor und Sport"
Translation by MBEP webmaster - As ususal remarks in ((blabla)), but (blabla) belongs to original text
The article came with the same basic photo as above.
DM 650.000 = Euro 332.500 = USD 276.000 assumed USD 1 = DM 2.35, 
DM 750.000 = Euro 383.500 = USD 319.000 assumed USD 1 = DM 2.35
As of December 2000 a MB 600 in Germany starts at DM 218.000 = Euro 111.500 = USD 92.800 so expect a SWB Maybch to be as thrice as expensive.

Maybach limo : New Models

29/11/2000 

Mercedes-Benz has released a picture of the Maybach limousine prototype, clad in disguises.
Presumably, this is to pre-empt snaps by spy photographers once the vehicle starts road testing early in December. The Maybach will be on sale by the end of 2002, and will satisfy M-B devotees who just don't find the slimmed-down S-Class quite special or opulent enough any more. 
At around six metres long, the Maybach specification list will include just about any gadget or refinement possible, and a bespoke package will be created for each buyer. Power will come from a bi-turbocharged V12 engine, and the Maybach's comfort should be assured thanks to a new air suspension system which has already undergone extensive testing. Two different wheelbase lengths will be offered. The Maybach, named after Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), the designer of the first Mercedes and close friend of Gottlieb Daimler, will be built at M-B's Sindelfingen plant in Germany, where new production facilities are being prepared for its manufacture.
Clues to the Maybach's styling can already be discerned through the cladding applied to the prototype, and it is unlikely that more will be revealed for a while yet. However, it's safe to assume that it will look just like an uber-Mercedes should, and that it will resume the tradition of the huge SEL models of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
End of article from N.N.
Many thanks to Michael M. for sending the article!

Translation of an article from "Auto Motor und Sport" May 1999 written by Bernd Ostmann

Charlie The Great
With the luxury liner Maybach from DaimlerChrysler no any half measures are being taken: For the over six metres long and nearly half a million German Marks costing flagship even a 24-cylinder engine is in the planning
"What he can do we can do all along". An engineer from the Mercedes development centre Sindelfingen gives clear hints, whom the marque with the hyper-car like the Maybach gets in its sights - Ferdinand Piech. The head of Volkswagen has given top priority to the arms race in the luxury class and let present huge sedans and sports cars: A roadster study with twelve-cylinder engines, the Bentley Hunaudieres with 16-cylinders and the 18-cylinder Bugatti EB 218.

21st of October 1997 10:03 a.m. Stuttgart (dpa).
According to a report of the "Financial Times" the Stuttgart car manufacturer Daimler-Benz will challenge the British Rolls-Royce and Bentley with an own luxury brand.
Daimler-Benz AG confirmed on Monday only that a study of a luxury car will be presented at the Motor Show in Tokyo.
"Financial Times" reported on Monday Daimler-Benz wants to revitalize the prewar luxury brand Maybach. But the company announced there will be no Maybach brand. According to the London paper the new model will be bigger and stronger than any preceding Mercedes-Benz and will have a bigger version of the twelve-cylinder engine, now powering the Mercedes flagship S600. The car should be offered in Great Britain for more than the most expensive Mercedes 600, which costs around 100.000 pound sterling (300.000 DM) ((USD 158.000 assumed USD 1 = DM 1,90)). The British Rolls-Royce and Bentley-models start at around 125.000 pound sterling. The "Financial Times" sees the plans of Daimler-Benz as a direct challenge to BMW AG, which tightly co-operates with Rolls-Royce. BMW will provide engines and electronics for the new Rolls-Royce-models. The paper speculates this to be the cause for the decision to revitalize the luxury brand Maybach.
End of first article from German car mag "Auto Bild".
Translation by MBEP webmaster as well as remarks in ((blabla)), but (blabla) belongs to original text

22nd of October 1997 11:00 a.m. Stuttgart (dpa).
The new Mercedes "Maybach", which shall be presented at the Motor Show in Tokyo, has 400hp according to information of the Hamburgian professional ((car)) journal "AutoForum". The magazine reported in it's current issue that the luxury car would be half a metre longer than the present Mercedes flagship S-Class ((W140)). The maximum speed is limited to 250km/h ((155 mph)). The wheelbase would be 40 centimetres longer than those of the S-Class. According to earlier announces of Daimler-Benz the twelve-cylinder car shall be presented at Wednesday noon (local time) at the Motor Show in Tokyo for the first time. Daimler-Benz-chief Juergen Schrempp is expected to participate. The company historian of Daimler-Benz AG (Stuttgart), Harry Niemann, said, the name honours the automobile pioneer Wilhelm Maybach (1846 to 1929), who built the first fast running gasoline engine together with Gottlieb Daimler in 1883. Maybach left the company in discord in 1907 and nowadays counts as one of the co-founders of the oldest German car manufacturer. Maybach`s son Karl built the legendary Maybach luxury-automobiles in the 1920`s and 1930`s. According to "AutoForum" the new Mercedes "Maybach" is a four-seater. A completed computer integration offers internet and telephone. Standard equipment comes with golf equipment and a bar for hot and cold drinks. "AutoForum" estimates the price to roughly half a million DM ((USD 263.000 assumed USD 1 = DM 1,90)). To save weight the body  will be built from a compound of steel, magnesium, aluminium  and fibre material.
End of second article from German car magazine "Auto Bild".
Translation by MBEP webmaster as well as remarks in ((blabla)), but (blabla) belongs to original text

Photo copyright: Auto Motor und Sport
Additional preparation for the web by MBEP webmaster

Mercedes: Pleasure and burden with the Maybach
The technique of the Maybach - debut 2003 - at the very moment is tested in old, bullet-proof S-Class bodies of the W140-Series (1991 - 1998) ((see photos above from "Auto Zeitung")) which are lengthened in the area of the B-pillars. The reason: With them Mercedes can simulate the high weight (depending on the trim level between three- and four-thousand kilogrammes) of the Maybach. As drive for the test vehicles serves the old Mercedes twelve-cylinder engine in a tuned version with enhanced displacement and more power. The test vehicles already possess the future chassis technique with the air-suspension known from the S-Class ((current version, sedans, W220)) which is refined in detail. The comfort, so technicians involved ((in the development)), shall be another class better as opposed to the S-Class sedans. Here the high weight comes to benefit for the Maybach. In another sense it turns out as a severe handicap.
Because at ((mountain)) tests at Grossglockner-pass ((Austria)) brakes got overheated it had to be switched to 19-inch wheels with bigger brake discs. ((Car part supplier and tyre manufacturer)) Continental not only develops the air-suspension for the luxury-colossus but also reinforced tyres of the type Premium Contact (275/50 ZR 19 Reinforced). The drive, too, doesn't have it easy with the Maybach, particularly as Mercedes refrained from the initially favourized 18-cylinder with 1.000 Nm torque and with the now used new V-12 moves away from the supercharging otherwise preferred with gasoline engines. The Maybach V-12 is being boosted by two turbo-chargers for the benefit of a better sound insulation and the displacement is reduced from 5.8- to 5.6-litres - no ideal size for a clientele which - especially in the Asian region - orientates on displacement and the number of cylinders. And this V-12 isn't exclusive, too, because it will be used later also in the S-Class, in the new SL and as well in the SLR.
The biggest problem: In fact the motor delivers roughly 440 hp, but has - as is spread from circles of the test drivers - a significant weakness with starts. Turbo-chargers with variable turbine geometry ((as known from the actual CDI-engines from E- and C-Class)) should enhance torque in the lower rev range. But because the cost for the Maybach-project threatens to go off course (600 million German Marks have already been flown), the VTG-chargers have been cut against the resistance of the technicians. Reason: The Maybach shall neither be driving machine nor bearer of technology, but deliver highest comfort and luxury.
Therefore in the interior there's nearly no plastic used. Instead chrome, wood, leather and alcantara dominate. As examples serve the interiors of ocean yachts and business-jets. In the rear the passengers can stretch on airbag-protected reclined seats. With the long-wheelbase versions built for chauffeur use the rear can be cut off with an electrically operated divider window. As standard also comes a multimedia-system with DVD-player and Dolby-surround system, an umbrella dryer ((yes, to dry umbrellas used in rain!)) and a box for golf-shoes. Additionally it is taken into account to equip the Maybach with an ice-cube machine - but for that a 30 litre water-tank would have to be carted along. Caused by the bar integrated into the rear center armrest no ski-bag can be integrated. Therefore a noble roof ski-rack shall be developed.
Reservations can be placed from July 2000 on ((date for German market)). The prices: German Marks 650.000 ((USD 295.000 assumed USD 1 = DM 2.20)) for the short version and an additional German Marks 100.000 ((USD 45.000)) for the long version. For the period of twelve years every year 1.500 Maybachs shall be built. An impressive target, because the segment of the super-luxury-cars only consists of 3.000 vehicles a year according to estimates by Mercedes. Critical points also are the distribution- and service-net as well as the question of guarantee. It is considered to give the Maybach a life-long guarantee.
End of translated article from "Auto Motor und Sport" - translation by MBEP webmaster
As usual remarks in ((blabla)), but (blabla) belongs to original text.