In the mid to late 30's in Germany, there was a lot of work done in creating vehicles with a low Cd. The impetous for this was the building of the Autobahn, which provided a roadway that was capable of handling much higher speeds than the typical car/engine combinations available at the time could produce.

This  car was designed in 1938 and made in 1939. Fulda (Fulda looks back on a long tradition of special cars for testing tires and for introducing them to the public) commissioned bodybuilder Dörr & Schreck in Frankfurt/Main with the manufacture of the test car. It was a response to the cars’ ever higher road speeds in the 1930s. This car had to be capable of performing high-speed tests at over 200 km/h over longer periods of time. The car used the maybach sw38 underpinnings. To reach 200km/h it used a 6 cylinder engine with 140hp. This car was very aerodynamic and had low drag coefficient of cd = 0.25. It was used by Fulda as a test car for testing tires.
Unfortunately this car disappered during ww2. In 2005 Fulda asked Maybach again to produce a unique car to test their tires. It was named Maybach Exelero.

Unfortunately this bout of automotive experimentation was shut down with the the start of WWII and most of the vehicles lost in the ensuing conflict. 

The Maybach 57 (chassis no. W240) and 62 (chassis no. V240) were the first automobile models of the Maybach brand since the brand's revival by DaimlerChrysler AG (now Mercedes-Benz Group AG). They are derived from the Mercedes-Benz Maybach concept car presented at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show. The concept car was based on the Mercedes-Benz W140 S-class sedan platform, as were the production models. The Luxury Brand Status Index 2008 placed the Maybach in first place, ahead of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. The models ceased production in December 2012 due to continued financial losses for the marque, and sales at one-fifth the level of the profitable Rolls-Royce models.

Both Maybach models are variants of the same ultra-luxurious automobile. The model numbers reflect the respective lengths of the automobiles in decimetres. The 57 is more likely to be owner-driven, while the longer 62 is designed with a chauffeur in mind.

The engine in the base Model 57 and 62 is the Mercedes-Benz M285, a 5.5-litre twin-turbo V12 developed specifically for the new Maybach cars. Output is 550 PS. The Maybach 57 accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in about 5.1 seconds; the Maybach 62 and 57 S, about 4.8 seconds; the Maybach 62 S, 4.5 seconds, and the Landaulet, 4.5 seconds. In terms of power output, the 57 and 62 have 550 PS; the 57 S and 62 S, 612 PS; and the Zeppelin has 640 PS.

With poor sales expectations and heavy impact of 2008 financial crises, Daimler AG undertook a review of the whole Maybach division. This included talks with Aston Martin to engineer and style the next generation of Maybach models along with the next generation of Lagonda models.

However, on 25 November 2011, Daimler announced that sales of all Maybach models and the brand would cease in 2013 Before the announcement, only 3000 Maybach vehicles had been sold, with estimated loss of €330,000 for each car sold.