Today’s featured 1920 Maybach Spezial-Rennwagen like last weeks featured Brutus is run and operated by the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim.

Maybach’s first car built in 1919 is said to have used a proprietary chassis, most likely from Daimler considering that Wilhelm Maybach was not only an almost life long friend of Gottlieb Daimler, but also his former assistant.

If the 1920 date for today’s featured vehicle is correct then the this car was built before Maybach ever showed a vehicle in public, since that did not occur until the Maybach W3 appeared at the Berlin Show in 1921.

My suspicion is that like Brutus, the Napier Bentley, the GN JAP and numerous other Curtiss engined specials, the Maybach Spezial-Rennwagen is another creation made from an assortment of vintage parts.

The 6 cylinder engine for the Maybach Spezial-Rennwagen is said to have been built for use in Zeppelin’s, Maybach’s Luftfahrzeug Motoren GmbH was founded as a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH in order to build motors for airships in 1909.

The engine size is quoted as 23 litres which is the same as the Maybach Mb IVa
motors built from 1916 to 1918 used to power the Zeppelin airships LZ 105 to 114.

In theory the Maybach Mb IVa could produce 300 hp at sea level but because the engine was designed for maximum power at high altitude the motor had to be restrained to producing just 245hp at sea level in order to enhance it’s longevity, this is still enough to easily propel the Maybach Spezial-Rennwagen seen in these photographs at Cholmondeley Pageant of Power to 100 mph.

Thanks for joining me on this “Zeppelin Airship Power” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the competitors vehicles at the recent Great Western Sprint at Castle Combe. Don’t forget to come back now !