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There is something dubious about driving a $189,350 car down a farm road in Ojai, CA at speeds nearly double the legal limit. It’s risky. It’s reckless. It’s illegal. The car could wreck and a quarter-million dollars of brilliant engineering and the world’s finest materials could be crumpled up in a ditch. But when you’re enjoying a hot stone massage and the scent of agarwood wafts through the air (it’s oaky, with vanilla), you don’t think of such things. And the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600 — with its V12 biturbo engine ripping through the gears (it does 0-62 mph in 5 seconds) and Magic Body Control suspension eating up every pock and divot in the tarmac — does little to remind you of the inherent risks. In fact, this car is so capable, so safe, so sturdy and so powerful, you feel you can do damn well anything you want.
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After the belly-flop performance of the Maybach 57, 57S and 62, Mercedes is relaunching the Maybach name with this S600, and, finally, it’s worthy of the brand’s illustrious luxury motoring past. In the early years, back in the pre-WWII 1930s, the Germans flaunted their Mercedes-Benz 770 model, which set the high-water mark for luxury automobiles. Then came the war and with it, pragmatism. Mercedes continued making cars, but they dropped the ultra-luxe line. It wasn’t until the ’50s, with the Type 300 (nicknamed the “Adenauer” after Konrad Adenauer, the First German Chancellor), that the manufacturer began heading back to its ultra-luxe roots. Following the Type 300, Mercedes expanded their luxury line to include the “Super Mercedes” 600, an automobile that met with a modern equivalent of the 770’s high-end prowess. Opulent automobile manufacturing returned, the S-Class launched in 1972, and Mercedes advanced into their current classification of luxury. Today, the S600 is their luxury apogee.
For the driver, the Maybach offers enough horses to make powerful people feel more powerful.
The Maybach offers enough horses to make powerful people feel more powerful. Although it’s an almost 18-foot boat of a car (it’s 214.6 inches long, 8.1 inches longer than the next longest S-Class Sedan), the thing reached 90 mph fast enough to tighten the sphincters of the engineers who designed it. The exterior body is meant to exude a look of classic luxury — not boisterous, not loud, but very, very confident. The wheels, exclusive to the Maybach, are big, round, beautiful saucers. And in case anyone forgets what you’re driving or riding in, the Maybach Manufaktur logo — a double M inside an arched triangle — is sprinkled throughout the exterior and interior.
Under the Hood
