The chassis had the four-wheel brakes that were not introduced by Rolls-Royce until 1924.So great was anti-German feeling after the First World War that the car had little chance beyond Germany, and only 700 had been made by the time production faded in 1929 In that year, the car that was the Maybach emerged. This he did, in spite of runaway inflation in Germany between the two world wars.
His very first car, the W3, was one of the most expensive to be unveiled at the Berlin Motor Show of 1921. As with Henry Royce, Karl Maybach made only the chassis – bodies were supplied by Kellner, Spohn and others. The engine, of 5.4l, was, like those of Rolls-Royce, unremarkable in design, but it was beautifully made and could, with reasonably light bodies, reach and hold the upper 70s. British auction houses keep alive the names of many manufacturers that would otherwise be lost to memory, but so few Maybachs survive that they rarely benefit even from that. Between 1921 and 1941, some 2,000 cars, at most, were produced, and of these, perhaps 135, hidden in barns, survived the Second World War.They bear the name of Karl Wilhelm Maybach, the engineer of Royce integrity who designed, built and outlived their manufacture by two decades – he died in 1960 at the age of 81. He was the son of Wilhelm Maybach, friend of Count Zeppelin and Gottlieb Daimler, member of the board of Daimler-Benz, and a man with his finger in many engineering pies.

From adolescence, Karl was steeped in the ambitions of men whose business was transport by car, train, airship and, eventually, plane and tank, and it was all but inevitable that he would seek to make the perfect car to rival Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza. It seemed an act of inspired lunacy, a year or two ago, for Mercedes-Benz to reinvent the Maybach. Most of us said, “The what?”, for the marque was rare even in its brief heyday, and now, more than 60 years after the last car emerged from the factory at Friedrichshafen in 1941, it is pretty well forgotten here, and everywhere outside Germany. Next to such follies, Ferrari’s svelte new F430 Spider is almost sensible.But let us leave the show with some more of the concept cars that add so much to the showmanship. Renault’s little Zo?ity car is a flight of Renault fancy, which may just hint at the next Twingo And then there’s the Skoda Yeti, complete with rather undernourished-looking abominable snowman in attendance. European carmakers haven’t really cottoned on to the “soft-roader” idea as portrayed by the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and others, but here is Skoda’s riposte based on an Octavia platform.The Yeti, complete with a man dressed up as one, was there to gauage reaction, and reactions were positive until it emerged that a likely production version might be front-wheel drive only, even though the Octavia, whose mechanicals underpin the Yeti, will spawn a 4×4 version.Looks like Skoda may have just reinvented the Matra Rancho.. Design house Pinin- farina showed a concept inspired by the Maserati Birdcage, and the old Bizzarrini name has been resurrected by a hopeful new enterprise as old names often are.

It’s enough to make any other supercar maker give up.But they don’t. As before, there’s a hint of Audi about the quality, but this time there’s a hint of BMW 3-series about the rear side window shape. Volkswagen claims great things for its new saloon, and by the time you read this I shall have driven one. Also from Germany came the Mercedes-Benz’s B-class compact MPV and R-class estate/SUV/thematic identity-crisis car.

The number of niches Mercedes now fills is extraordinary, but it seems strange that the R-class is a six rather than a seven-seater. Why not make a version with three seats in the middle row?The German power game continued apace with the unveiling of Audi’s 420bhp, V8-engined RS4 and BMW’s M6 coup?hich placed the M5′s V10 engine in the 6-series body, but for total power outrage how about the Bugatti Veyron? This long-delayed, epically extravagant supercar from the outer reaches of the Volkswagen group galaxy has a 16-cylinder engine of 7,993cc, delivers 1001bhp to make it the most powerful car you can buy (for around £700,000, if you’re planning a purchase), and would reach 250mph if there existed the place to do so. But why would you buy one? Because it’s a clever mix of hatchback and tall estate car (more blurring of categories), and no rival is roomier.But one rival which is roomy is Volkswagen’s new Passat. This uses Vectra underpinnings, but has suspension set to Fiat principles so it should be a more fluid drive, and features its own, unexpectedly sumptuous interior. There’ll even be a 240bhp VXR version from October, likely to be the fastest MPV in existence.Another practical newcomer from GM was Saab’s long-promised 9-3 SportWagon, which features a boot floor able to fold into vertical transverse dividers, while a certain amount of GM (about 30 per cent) underpinned the new Fiat Croma.