Debuting at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Mercedes-Maybach 6 coupe concept was the gleaming red answer to a frustratingly unresolved question: Namely, what would an ecological-minded but image-conscious villain from “Batman: The Animated Series” drive?
This year, they’re upping the ante with a drop-top version that makes the S650 Cabriolet look like a tarted-up S-Class.
Like its coupe counterpart, it’s big. Really big — the “6” in its name refers to its length of 6 meters, or nearly 20 feet. That’s longer than a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, and it’s not much shorter than the Maybach 62, which is basically a limousine. The 6 Cabriolet, on the other hand, only has two seats. Personal transportation has rarely been this unabashedly ostentatious since before the Great Depression; it ought to fit right in on the lawn at Pebble Beach.
Dude, whoa.
Considering that it’s got enough room up front for a wicked-but-smooth V16, or V24, or heck, a V36 or something, the fact that it’s a hypothetical EV is a shame; we’re promised a 750-hp motorized setup with a theoretical range of at least 200 miles and sub-4-second 0-60 acceleration, but it’s just not the same, man. The ample underhood space is given over to luxury accoutrements, including (from what we can tell) custom luggage, silverware (?), an umbrella and a smaller umbrella.
We’re not entirely sure what to make of the odd melding of vintage proportions and futuristic powertrains, but it’s something of a quiet trend at Pebble this year; Infiniti’s wild never-was prewar EV racer offers an unexpected parallel to this Maybach land yacht. We can’t say we’re mad about it, even if these things are, for the time being, far-out concepts.
In the future, space formerly occupied by internal combustion engines will used as a stash spot for your luxury goods.
Graham Kozak – Graham Kozak drove a 1951 Packard 200 sedan in high school because he wanted something that would be easy to find in a parking lot. He thinks all the things they’re doing with fuel injection and seatbelts these days are pretty nifty too.
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