Fulda looks back on a long tradition of special cars for testing tires and for introducing them to the public. The streamlined Maybach SW 38, designed in 1938 and supplied in 1939, was a response to technical developments in those days, i.e. to the cars’ ever higher road speeds in the 1930s.
Chassis and engine technologies, aerodynamically designed bodywork and the first motorways made high-speed driving possible. At the time, Fulda commissioned bodybuilder Dörr & Schreck in Frankfurt/Main with the manufacture of the test car – specifying a clear-cut condition: the car had to be capable of performing high-speed tests at over 200 km/h over longer periods of time. Dörr & Schreck accepted the challenge and chose Messrs. Maybach Motorenbau as cooperation partner for the project. With the support of Baron Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld, an aerodynamicist renowned in professional circles, a streamlined three-seater based on the chassis of the Maybach SW 38 was created.
The Fulda coupé with self-supporting bodywork and two-tone finish featured a long, downward-sloping rear end. Seen from above, the silhouette was a rectangle with rounded corners. Like the under-floor, the rear wheel arches were completely covered, and even the door handles were partly recessed.
To give the car a top speed of over 200 km/h, as demanded by Fulda, the engineers installed a powerful six-cylinder engine with 140 hp (103 kW). The top speed was equally made possible by an unusually low drag coefficient of cd = 0.25 (as opposed to 0.6 customary for contemporary series-production cars). Another pre-condition was that the chassis was not to weigh more than 1.6 tons.
However, the car was used to a very limited extent due to the outbreak of the Second World War. It disappeared in the turmoil of war and it had been missing since then. In 2005 Fulda asked Maybach again to produce a unique car to test their tires. I was named Maybach Exelero.
Dec 10 2014
1939 Maybach SW 38 Stromlinie
Fulda looks back on a long tradition of special cars for testing tires and for introducing them to the public. The streamlined Maybach SW 38, designed in 1938 and supplied in 1939, was a response to technical developments in those days, i.e. to the cars’ ever higher road speeds in the 1930s.
Chassis and engine technologies, aerodynamically designed bodywork and the first motorways made high-speed driving possible. At the time, Fulda commissioned bodybuilder Dörr & Schreck in Frankfurt/Main with the manufacture of the test car – specifying a clear-cut condition: the car had to be capable of performing high-speed tests at over 200 km/h over longer periods of time. Dörr & Schreck accepted the challenge and chose Messrs. Maybach Motorenbau as cooperation partner for the project. With the support of Baron Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld, an aerodynamicist renowned in professional circles, a streamlined three-seater based on the chassis of the Maybach SW 38 was created.
The Fulda coupé with self-supporting bodywork and two-tone finish featured a long, downward-sloping rear end. Seen from above, the silhouette was a rectangle with rounded corners. Like the under-floor, the rear wheel arches were completely covered, and even the door handles were partly recessed.
To give the car a top speed of over 200 km/h, as demanded by Fulda, the engineers installed a powerful six-cylinder engine with 140 hp (103 kW). The top speed was equally made possible by an unusually low drag coefficient of cd = 0.25 (as opposed to 0.6 customary for contemporary series-production cars). Another pre-condition was that the chassis was not to weigh more than 1.6 tons.
However, the car was used to a very limited extent due to the outbreak of the Second World War. It disappeared in the turmoil of war and it had been missing since then. In 2005 Fulda asked Maybach again to produce a unique car to test their tires. I was named Maybach Exelero.
By PaRaDoX • Maybach 0 • Tags: 1938, 1939 Maybach SW 38 Stromlinie, maybach, maybach sw 38, sw 38