2005 Maybach Exelero

For 99 years, Fulda has been making car tires. For most of this time, the company has advertised its products with special vehicles. Luxury buses, advertising vehicles with special bodies, high-speed buses for tire tests, a whole series of showtrucks, racing cars and - in the 1930s something quite special - streamlined car from the Maybach company which could conduct tire tests at speeds of over 200 km/h.

Unfortunately, not for too long, because the test car designed in 1938 and delivered in 1939 disappeared during the war years and never reappeared again.

66 years later: Fulda is introducing a new sophisticated high-tech tire to the market. For the most extreme dimension of this tire line, 315/25 ZR 23, licensed for speeds of more than 350 km/h, and that as a series tire, not a racing tire, what was needed was a high-speed vehicle but not a racing car. A few years ago, one the most exclusive German automobile makes was revived, why not organize a joint project together once again, just like in the old days?

The contacts were made and thanks to René Staud, a world-class photographer of automobiles and an outstanding "networker" of DaimlerChrysler and Fulda Reifen, they were purposefully and effectively developed. Following several coordinating discussions with Leon Hustinx, Maybach’s manager, agreement was reached: Maybach would build a car for Fulda. Objective: to position the vehicle as an impressive ambassador for the new ultra-high performance tire generation Exelero. An indispensable helper in the boat with the project partners: two professors and four students from Pforzheim Polytechnic’s Dpartment of Transport Design. Together with the design professionals from DaimlerChrysler, under the direction of Professor Harald Leschke, the team went to work and after three-quarters of a year of promising design proposals, it was decided to realize the outline of the student Fredrik Burchhardt. He succeded in producing the most elegant symbiosis of design elements of former and present vehicle generations.