Normally, at this time of year, I would start to present some of the new 1:43 models the various modelmakers intend to release this year. This year however, thanks to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the “Nueremberg Toy Fair 2021” has been cancelled, and the manufacturers intend to announce their new models just around the time they are being produced.
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Autocult is in the process of releasing for Avenue the 1:43 model of a rather unusual Maybach from 1938, which received a new custom body made by Spohn in 1950. Originally a SW38-42 Pullman limousine, the car was transformed into a SW38-42 Cabriolet. The car is on display in the Maybach Museum in Neumarkt in Bavaria. The car’s history is related as follows by the Museum:
This Maybach SW 38 (Chassis No. 1999; Engine number original: 11440) was delivered on 21.04.1938 to the press and rolling mill (Thyssen Group) in Düsseldorf and approved for the official registration number 'IY 14346'. Originally, the chassis was fitted with a grey-green Pullman limousine body by Spohn.
Not much is known about the first years and the wartime. In 1948, however, the car was rewritten to the Thyssen gas and waterworks in Duisburg and returned to the Maybach Motorenwerke in 1950. Spohn was commissioned to equip the car with this modern pontoon. On this occasion, the chassis was overhauled and equipped with a new 4.2-litre engine (engine number 11719). This body was The first pontoon convertible by Spohn after the Second World War and remained a unique piece. The work cost an enormous 38,000 DM in 1950 ... For "only" 29.000,- DM already you got the dream car of all Germans, the Mercedes 300 SL!
In 1955, the car went to the construction company Kahlmann & Co from Hamburg. In 1961, the vehicle was deregistered. A few years later it was rediscovered in an estate and
finally it ended up in the Maybach Museum in Neumarkt, where the car can be admired today.
(с)BERND D. LOOSEN
