The years before and following World War I right up to the early 1930’s were marked by a exponentially growing interest in cars, planes, and any form of motorization. This too is the time of the daredevils, the record breakers and the barnstormers on motorcycles, planes, speedboats, or purpose-built racing cars.
One of these one of-a-kind racing cars was the Maybach “Spezial Renn-wagen” of 1920, really one of the first drag racers, which nowadays you can see on display in the Technik Museum in Sinsheim, south of Frankfurt (Main).
This extraordinary “beast” has now been perfectly miniaturized by Autocult in 1:43 scale. Price: 91.50€
Maybach Special race car 1920 (Technik Museum Sinsheim)
The following article takes over the description of the model from the Technik Museum Sinsheim:
Contrary to Mercedes, Maybach has never been playing an eminent role in motor sports. Thanks to the commitment of a few private investors, however, the Maybach name became a term in the 1920s in a very special category of automobile sports, that is short-distance record races. For this purpose, gigantic Maybach-Zeppelin-engines were installed in chassis of passenger cars and equipped with huge transmissions.
The specimen on exhibit is a typical representative of this kind of cars. The 6-cylinder-engine has a displacement of 23 liters and generates 300 hp. The hood of seemingly endless length prevents the car’s front from lifting off on acceleration. The special racing car thus can definitely be regarded as a predecessor of today’s dragsters. The maximum speed of this extraordinary vehicle is about 160 km/h which are accomplished by the engine at a mere 1,050 rpm.
(Please note: The model pictures show a pre-production prototype)
Quellen / Sources : Text: Technik Museum Sinsheim . Fotos / Photos: Technik Museum Sinsheim; verschienene/various.
(с)BERND D. LOOSEN