100 Cars I Love: #19 – 2005 Maybach Exelero

Greetings, dear readers. Let’s continue with that list of cars in my 100-stall dream garage. I guess I had plenty of justification for higher education, as it where. This next vehicle on this list of the 100 Cars I Love is the one-off 2005 Maybach Exelero. Mister Wayne, your car is here. It’s a huge-yet-svelte coupe, from Mercedes-Benz’s now aborted ultra-luxury division, Maybach. Physically speaking, the Exelero is simply colossal: an eleven-foot wheelbase contained in an overall length of almost twenty feet. The beast tips the scales 5864 pounds, just shy of three tons.

Size isn’t all that’s gigantic in this titanic coupe. A twin turbo V12, displacing 5908 cubic centimeters (I guess, to the American car fan, I must ask what is gigantic about 360 cubic inches?) metes out 690 brake horsepower, and 752 foot-pounds of twist. Seven years later that is still huge numbers. Google-fu is cryptic, but it’s my understanding that the engine is shared with the Maybach 57S, so I’d assume the Exelero also borrows the 57S’s five-speed automatic transmission. This combination, powering the rear wheels, is good for sixty miles per hour in 4.4 seconds and a crest velocity of 218 miles per hour.
The Maybach Exelero, like the previous car to bear the name, was commissioned to test tires for the German rubber manufacturer called Fulda. Since then, the one-off has earned a cult following among rappers, and has, like Wing Gundam Zero or the Millenium Falcon, changed hands a few times, from diamond magnate André Jackson to Jay-Z (the vehicle prominently featured in a video for the song “”), going to a man named Arnaud Massartic, who tried to sell it to Birdman Williams for 8,000,000.00, a deal Williams eventually backed out on. My bid of $900.00 and some spare video cards wasn’t responded to.

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