Maybach SW42

Extra information

Maybach’s Last One...
 
In the second half of the 1930s Maybach built its SW-models for well-healed business leaders. For a significant amount of money, almost every automotive desire was satisfied. The customer list of Maybach read like the “who-is-who” of the German industry. At that time Maybach’s main competitors for the favor of the truly wealthy citizens were the company Horch and Mercedes-Benz.

 

The Friedrichshafen-based company focused on the development and production of the engines and chassis of its cars and mostly ordered the car bodies from the body maker Spohn. The company Spohn oHG understood its business very well and was specialized in fulfilling the individual and special needs of its customers and therefore also the needs of Maybach’ buyers. In 1941 the production of passenger cars was ceased at Maybach and was also not restarted after World War II. Karl Maybach, son of the company founder, left the company aged 73 to go into retirement in 1952. He moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he spent his remaining years.

 

Around the year 1956 he apparently felt like driving once again a specially built car out of his former production. He fell for a Type 42 SW-model from 1937, which survived the years at the plant. But instead of driving the then already 20 years old limousine with its old body, he had more modern look in mind. Just as in the good old days, he commissioned the construction of the body to the company Spohn.

 

For the very last time, a “real” Maybach was fitted with a more modern car body.