The most beautiful car ever? Part 4

The Driver: Klaus Ludwig - The driver of the Fulda/Maybach project car


The trained radio and television technician entered motor sport in 1969, competing initially in slaloms and orienteering rallies. Following quick successes, at the beginning of the 70s he began to compete in saloon car racing. Particularly in this type of racing he demonstrated his excellent driving technique. Ludwig drove for several makes such as Ford, Porsche and Opel, but most successfully for Mercedes.

In the course of his many successful years in racing he won three DTM titles, won three times in Le Mans and twice won the German racing championship as well as the FIA-GT World Championship title. His aggressiveness and his brilliant style of driving secured him the top position to this day on the DTM’s all-time rankings with 1,629.5 points.

After winning the GT World Cup he retired from racing in 1998 after 29 years, although he still has an occasional drive, for example in the 24-hour race on the Northern section of the Nürburgring.

Currently, Klaus Ludwig is active at DaimlerChrysler in a development team in the area of driving dynamics, he provides commentaries on DTM races and can devote more time to his hobbies – including golf, mountain touring and mountain-biking.

Name: Klaus Ludwig
Date of birth: 5 October 1949
Birthplace: Bonn
Married: with Marion, two sons
Residence: Bornheim

The Partners: Definitive projects demand “High performance” partners
High Tech - High Speed - High Emotions


Stuttgart, May 18, 2005
Projects which go to the limits of what is feasible demand a high performance partnership: Without everyone pulling in the same direction, without mutual acceptance and respect between the partners and without trust in their efficiency, flexibility and motivation such projects are impossible.
Bernd J. Hoffmann, the manager of the Fulda project team thanked all concerned for their untiring efforts in the realization of the project at such short notice. The main partner companies are outlined briefly below:

The supplier of the idea and the home of the project - Fulda Reifen

It is well-known that Fulda Reifen has been producing car tires for almost 100 years. Less well-established in the public awareness is the fact that throughout almost its entire existence Fulda has presented its product program with eye-catching special vehicles. Thus, the intensive consideration of the company’s tradition on its 100th anniversary and also of the streamlined Maybach SW 38, led to the desire to realize such a project once again. As the date when the new ultra-high-performance Exelero wide tire would be ready for the market approached, the desire to combine this high-end product with a high-end vehicle became even more intense.

A project team was formed:


the project manager, Dipl. Kfm. Bernd J. Hoffmann, is also Managing Director

Dipl.-Betriebswirt Helge Jost, Fulda’s Marketing Manager acts as the communication interface

Dipl.-Ing. Rolf-Dieter Stohrer, Senior Product Manager Car Tires, is responsible for the technical coordination of wheel and tires
Exclusive cooperation partner and high-end technology - Maybach

As of 1919, Karl Maybach made a name for himself with the development and construction of luxury automobiles combining exclusivity with technical perfection. Previously, together with his father Wilhelm, he had devoted himself to the construction of powerful engines for the airships of Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Up to 1941, Karl Maybach produced almost 1,800 of these high-quality automobiles, the bodywork of which were built and equipped by specialist companies precisely according to the wishes of the buyers. At the end of 1941, the last complete passenger car chassis, an SW 42, left the plant. As of march 2002, to the delight of many lovers of exclusive high end luxury limousines, there was a comeback of the Maybach Brand at the Geneva Car Show. DaimlerChrysler, one of the leading automobile manufacturers in Germany, reactivated the Maybach brand with the objective of establishing it at the very top of a small but fine market segment. Automobiles for which customers make the highest demands in terms of technology, design, quality and prestige.

The proposal made by Fulda to Maybach, to develop a sporty special model for the optimal presentation of the new Excelero high-tech wide tire, fell on fertile ground. Following several initial discussions, Maybach and DaimlerChrysler, whose experts were standing by to provide advice and assistance, decided to tackle the ambitious project. Without this unbureaucratic and wide-ranging support from planning right through to design, the construction of the prototype and the execution of engineering work in the engine and chassis area, the project would never have been completed in the little more than two years that was available. And here, completed is synonymous with perfect.

We do not have enough space here to mention all the numerous experts and specialists from the automobile company. Representative for the purposeful and meticulously operating Maybach and DaimlerChrysler staff we would like to name:


Leon Hustinx, Sales and Marketing Manager of the Maybach brand,

Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Weissinger, Development Manager at Maybach

Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Leucht, Car Development at DaimlerChrysler and Manager of the Maybach production series

Peter Pfeiffer, General Manager of the Design Dept. at DaimlerChrysler

Stefan Diehl, Global Product Communications

Dipl.-Designer Professor Harald Leschke, Manager Advanced Design Projects and also responsible for Corporate Design at DaimlerChrysler

Many thanks for the rapid and generous support.
Creative and young in form and style – Pforzheim Polytechnic, Transport Design

The College of Design in Pforzheim has a good reputation for design worldwide. The college teaches in three main areas: Transport Design, Industrial Design as well as Fashion & VK. Stacks of applications are received from potential students, but only 10 students per department and semester are selected. The crowds of would-be students is easily explained. Graduates of the polytechnic, or more precisely the department of Transport Design, not only have the guarantee of an excellent education, often before graduating they also have the opportunity to capture one of the popular jobs in the automobile industry.

DaimlerChrysler, for example, maintains particularly close links with the college. On the one hand, it delegates lecturers, and on the other, the students get the opportunity to undergo six months of practical training in the company.

As part of the project, four students from the 6th semester were allowed to complete a traineeship in the Daimler-Chrysler Group, supervised by Professors Lutz Fügener and James Kelly.

Lutz Fügener has been directing the course of studies for Industrial Design/Transport Design since 2002. His colleague James Kelly has been at Pforzheim Polytechnic since 1992, and was awarded his chair in the field of Transport Design in 1993. He is not unknown to Fulda because, together with his students, in the mid-1990s he accompanied the design of the then futuristic Fulda Showtruck, which was completed on schedule for the anniversary "100 years of Fulda Reifen".

Many thanks are due to the four creative students

Stefan Barth, Pforzheim

Fredrik Burchhardt, Bowenden

Andreas Hellmann, Pforzheim and

Wolf Seebers, Pforzheim

as well as the professors

Lutz Fügener and

James Kelly,
who provided the four would-be designers with help and advice.

In the end, Frederik Buchhardt turned out to be the winner, his design embodied the most harmonious link between the vehicle generations. Overall, design details from all four students were integrated into the final design.

Innovative model and prototype developer - Stola

Already founded in 1919, the unconventional company founder Alfredo Stola quickly took a leading position in automotive model-making. In the 1930s up to the outbreak of war, Stola was regarded as a creative, brilliant supplier of ideas for the entire Italian automobile industry. In the 50s and 60s, Stola was able to extend his important ranking in the industry not only throughout Europe, but also in Japan and North America. The continuous further development and the gradual introduction of modern materials and machines up to the present day, the expansion of the production centers to Southern Italy and Brazil, as well as the program upgrade with regard to sheet forming, complete bodywork production and prototype production, make Stola the top service provider to the automobile industry.

DaimlerChrysler has been working successfully for many years with the creative Italian. Stola is virtually the prolonged workbench of the Stuttgart company, so to speak. Only one thing is deliberately missing in the otherwise perfect service program: the area of design. In order to preserve strict neutrality, design work is not offered. This has paid off, 475 employees handle orders from Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen, no less than 40 showcars and prototypes were created up to now.

The Fulda-Maybach Exelero prototype is one of the most beautiful models ever built by the Italians. Our sincere thanks for it.

Network and project coordinator - René Staud

Sometimes skill and performance needs just a little bit of luck. In this case that was the long-standing business relationship of Fulda Reifen with René Staud Studios. Staud, an exception photographer in the automobile area, was interested in only two things from an early age: photography and automobiles. To these two areas of interest, were added a high degree of creativity and an absolute eye for light, colors, contours and aesthetic technique. His countless calendars and coffee-table books for the most varied manufacturers, veteran cars, commercial vehicles etc. are testimony to the perfection of his automobile photography.

For the Fulda-Maybach project, Staud joins the partners from a completely different direction: he is the project coordinator. Why an outsider? Through his long professional career, René Staud has an intimate knowledge of DaimlerChrysler (for 31 years) and Fulda Reifen (for 20 years). He knows the hierarchies and the management levels of both companies, the contacts, the decision-makers. He knows what goes, is aware of possible stumbling blocks and all the short-cuts, in short, he steers the project. And did so, not only in the initial phase of the vehicle, but well beyond in its later use. When the Maybach-Exelero is possibly on its way to the most varied events worldwide.

This where Staud’s company MEM (Motor Event Marketing) also has a role to play. Here in Leonberg, the Exelero has its home, is serviced, managed, planned. That is what happened, at least, from a commercial point of view, to the Gemballa high-performance sports car. In addition, MEM obtains and sells veteran cars, for example, for photo purposes or plans and organizes veteran car rallies. In other words, MEM is a project agency which creates a link between motor sport, veteran cars and showcars.

Many thanks to René Staud whose perfect coordination made a major contribution to the observation of the very tight realization period.

Cooperative right from the start – TÜV Automotive Süd

Because the Fulda/Maybach project car was not conceived as a typical showcar, the basic objective was also quite different: not only the unique design should set itself apart from everything on the road in the automobile sector, the maximum speed of the Exelero should also reach record levels.

Of course, as a machine to be driven on the road it needed a road license and thus the TÜV became involved early in the individual stages of development. In this case it was TÜV Automotive GmbH, South Group, and one of its most experienced experts, Dipl.-Ing. Peter Kühlwein. Step by step, Jürgen Weissinger discussed the vehicle components in the group’s development department with the engineering professional from TÜV.

Sometimes, the expert remained inflexible, for example, on the necessary composition of the windows with the required transmission grades. Sometimes he could be more cooperative, give advice and thus shorten the procedure of production, e.g. on lighting questions. Considering the project as a whole, once again the typical reservations about "officials with a love of red tape” could be convincingly disproved.

The cooperation, or rather the partnership, which even went so far as provide suggestions and valuable tips for the vehicle’s engineering, was extremely beneficial for the project. For this many thanks are due to Dipl.-Ing. Peter Kühlwein, representative of TÜV Automotive GmbH, Gruppe Süd.

Summing up, it only remains to be said:
It all started in 1938 with a project, in 2005 the circle is closed with the realization of a new one.

And they stand s over both: