Press Release
Method in the torture
- The practice: 2.5 million kilometres of testing in nine countries
- The prototypes: 27 hand-built prototypes put through two years of testing
- The procedure: from the icy cold of Sweden to the desert heat of Dubai and Arizona
- The programme: a 6,000-kilometre endurance test on the Nürburgring circuit
- The test rigs: new type-12 engine subjected to over 36,000 hours of extreme testing
Stuttgart - The Maybach is the end product of around three years of development work. In this time, the new high-end luxury saloon has covered 2.5 million kilometres and successfully met the extreme demands of a wide range of tests. In their quest to ensure the reliability of the new Maybach and the readiness of its innovative technology, Mercedes engineers took 27 hand-built prototypes, and 14 test vehicles and pre-production models on a journey over three continents and nine countries.
"We test our new models under the most exacting conditions conceivable," confirms Maybach project manager Professor Hermann Gaus. "The Maybach had to undergo the same strict testing programme which new Mercedes models are subjected to before they can go into production. That means placing huge demands on the functionality, reliability and durability of the vehicles. Our aim was to develop a car which would function perfectly in all types of climate and on all kinds of road surfaces anywhere in the world."
The following are just some of the elements included in the exhaustive testing programme for the new Maybach:
- 720 days of stresses and strain for a total of 41 test vehicles, prototypes and pre-production vehicles;
- a total of over 2.5 million kilometres of testing in Europe, America and Asia;
- hundreds of unforgiving tests on the test rig at the Mercedes Technology Centre in Sindelfingen, Germany, involving all bodywork and chassis components;
- 24 crash tests using complete vehicles, plus a large number of crash and structural tests on individual components.
