Maybach SL680: A modern motoring marvel from the marque that once catered for Maharajas and movie stars

The French might call it a faux pas, but how the Germans would describe my Anglicised pronunciation of ‘Maybach’ ( ie may, back) I’m not too sure.

But now that I’ve learned the correct way to say it — ‘my baaachhh,’ with a properly guttural finish — I’m never going, er, baaachhh. Even if the first person I tried it on did respond by saying: 'So it’s made in Wales, right?'

Of course the Mercedes-Maybach SL680 Monogram Series doesn’t hail from the valleys. It comes from a special production line in Sindelfingen, not far from Stuttgart in south-west Germany, which is the home of this ‘ultra luxury’ arm of Mercedes-Benz.

The Maybach name dates back to 1912 when Wilhelm Maybach and his son, Karl, founded the firm as a manufacturer of diesel and petrol engines for Zeppelin airships and railcars before introducing their first automobile, the W3, at the 1921 Berlin motor show.

It soon set the standard for automotive ingenuity thanks to being the first German car with four-wheel brakes, while Maybach’s ‘doppelschnellgang’ transmission — which gave eight forward and four reverse gears — is said to have left many a chauffeur baffled.

But what Maybach came to be especially associated with was opulence, not least because every car built during the next 20 years was a bespoke creation with bodies, interiors and accessories all being crafted to suit the whims of wealthy buyers.

One Maharaja is said to have specified just a simple finish combining gold-plated bodywork embedded with rubies, while more low-key royals, aristocrats, tycoons and celebrities merely demanded luxurious interiors and the sort of coachwork that could make a Bugatti or a Rolls-Royce seem positively pedestrian.

More than 2000 Maybachs were built before the firm switched to military vehicle production in 1941, with no more cars being made post-war, only diesel engines for Mercedes-Benz - which took over the company in 1960.

The Maybach name subsequently lay fallow until M-B re-launched it as a standalone marque in 2002 with the ultra-luxury ‘57’ and ‘62’ limousines.

Despite a starting price of around £240,000 (the equivalent today of around £445,000), the cars found enough suitably high-profile buyers and things were looking promising – until the financial crash of 2007/8 helped to set sales figures into a downward spiral which made Maybach’s business model untenable.

As a result, Maybach was re-positioned as ‘Mercedes-Maybach’ in 2014, making it a sub-brand that, rather than building exclusive cars from the ground-up, adapts existing Mercedes models to make them more distinctive, more luxurious and, of course, considerably more expensive.

Which brings us back to the SL680 Monogram Series pictured here, which is the first two-seater from the modern-day Maybach marque.

Mercedes fans will quickly recognise the similarities to the SL 63 roadster on which it is based, but will also notice the Maybach-unique front end with its re-styled grille, bumper, bonnet and headlights (the bezels of which are treated to coppery detailing….)

The wheels and suspension are different too and, should any ignorant passer-by not realise you’re driving a Mercedes PLUS PLUS, the Maybach monogram is plastered all over the black-finished bonnet and the cover that hides the folded soft top, as well as being applied to the pedals — with Maybach badging adorning the car’s flanks and kick plates.

At launch, only two colour options are available: Red Ambience and White Ambience, the latter of which reminded me of how long it has been since I’ve heard anyone use the term ‘hairdresser’s car’.

But if the SL680 in White Ambience which I drove (complete with white leather interior perforated in a flower pattern, white wool carpets and white-rimmed steering wheel) is a hairdresser’s car, it’s certainly not for the type who charges a fiver for a short back and sides. At a follicle-greying £241,350, it costs a good £50,000 more than even the latest Mercedes-AMG SL 63 S E Performance hybrid – so what do you get for your money?

Apart from the aforementioned finishes and the opportunity to serve as a rolling billboard for the Maybach name, you get an engine that’s more softly-tuned than the Mercedes SL 63 on which the car is based, a plusher ride from that special suspension and what must be sufficient extra sound-proofing to insulate the Reichstag’s attic.

‘Softly-tuned’ does not, however, mean soft-hearted. The four-litre, twin-turbo AMG V8 beneath the monogrammed bonnet still delivers a gut-wrenching 585 horsepower and, during a section of our test drive that took in some unrestricted German autobahn, proved more than capable of delivering warp-factor acceleration and travelling at double the UK speed limit without breaking sweat.

And, in best Maybach tradition, it did so in the utmost comfort, with all that padding, squashy leather and ankle-deep carpeting contriving to make the car eerily quiet, even with the roof down at high speed.

The usual drive modes are available (comfort for a gentle cruise and sport for a gruffer exhaust note, sharper throttle response and more dynamic ride), while the ‘Maybach’ setting somehow notches-up the luxury — although exactly how is difficult to pinpoint.

What we can be certain of however, is the fact that the Mercedes-My Baaachhh SL 680 is certainly the best two-seat roadster never to have come out of Wales….

Mercedes-Maybach SL680 Monogram Series, priced from around £240,000; Alternartive paint finishes and customisation available at extra cost through the MANUFAKTUR programme. See more at mercedes-benz.co.uk.