by Wallace Wyss –
At the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Mercedes unveiled a car called the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 (they seem determined to keep that name “Maybach” alive as their ultimate luxury model, though a Maybach marketed in the US previously failed). They showed it as a roadster this year but previously showed a gullwing coupe.
The puzzler about this car is that it had a long, long bonnet (maybe 10 ft.) but instead of a V12 or V16 motor you would expect in an ultimate luxury roadster it had four electric motors.
It was rated at 738 hp., a figure you would expect from an ultimate car. The 0 to 60 time is four seconds which handily beats a 427 Cobra by 0.2 seconds. They said the car will go 200 miles on a charge and if you need to add range, a mere 5 minute plug in will get you another 60 plus miles of range.
Surprisingly for such a modern car with lots of electronics, they said the roadster (they call it a cabriolet) had Elmwood trim in the interior and lots of leather.
Here’s my take on the styling:
SIDE: the coupe is just too exaggerated to believe, maybe needs 10% of the length taken out between the front wheels and the firewall. The roofline when the convertible top is up is very stylish, like a coupe, with good to the side visibility. I have seen two types of wheels on it, the mag wheels of the coupe and the more many bladed mags (simulating wire wheels at a distance) of the roadster. Side indentation to emphasize curving sides is made more acceptable by chrome along its edge.
FRONT: The front grille is very strong and dynamic, though you wonder if it will meet crash standards. The body color front spoiler is well integrated, and gets away from the flat black spoilers.
The bonnet opening in two halves (like old Rolls Royce Silver Cloud) might be welcome, especially if you ever had a rearward hinged one piece hood fly up and smash your windshield as I have.
REAR: Very old-fashioned shape to the tail, similar to 1961 E-type Jaguar. Wonder if that under tray rear spoiler is going to be enough to prevent rear end lift. The coupe had a tunnel back (inset rear window) split window roofline but fortunately the convertible doesn’t have these gimmicks.
INTERIOR: I didn’t see the interior of the roadster at Pebble but the picture of the coupe interior found online looks very space age, without any wood as they describe in the press release.
OVERALL: Have to say that the car is daring but still far too exaggerated, like the coupe (if it was in a movie, the villain would drive either one , I envision a sort of Snively Whiplash kinda guy) This is second gen, by this generation I expect a taming down of a Concept to reality by now; it’s still too much like a movie prop car…..
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss has been a guest lecturer at the Art Center College of Design, and authored 18 car books. He is currently painting portraits of sports cars on commission. He can be reached at Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com.
I was thinking more like Bluto kidnapping Olive Oil and stuffing her into this car for a heated getaway in a new age Popeye cartoon!
Snidley.