An enthusiastic and talented Russian car lover has created a drivable replica of the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet concept in his garage.
The thing about concept cars is that, no matter how stunning and beautiful they are, they are most likely doomed to remain only in history books and nowhere else. Such is the case with the breathtaking Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet concept, which is nearly 6 meters long. First unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2016 in coupe form and then as a cabriolet at the IAA in 2017, the name of the concept refers to its 6 meters or 19.7 feet length.
This concept was envisioned as the Maybach version of the Mercedes SLS roadster—a 2+2 electric car with gullwing doors and approximately 750 horsepower. As we all know, Mercedes-Maybach did not actually follow the path predicted by this concept. But someone else did.
A Russian enthusiast, known simply as mr_maybach6 on Instagram, recreated the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet concept at home. With few available details, social media shows several steps during the construction. The enthusiast based his version of the Maybach 6 Cabriolet on another Mercedes roadster, in this case, a Mercedes-Benz SL500 from the R230 generation.
Unlike an ordinary garage project, it appears that the basic Mercedes roadster had its bodywork completely stripped, which was then 3D scanned to obtain the digital base data for the dramatic transformation it was about to undergo. The Vision 6 Cabriolet's body was then digitally "placed" on the skeleton and modeled to achieve the correct proportions.
After all, we are talking about a 20-foot-long body adapted to a much shorter platform. Once this was done, it seems that the body was made from self-hardening foam on balsa wood, which was then processed to achieve the complex surfaces. This was the first step before the entire body was reimagined in steel and fiberglass.
Key steps during the construction process are missing, but the result is a level of detail and finish that is not usually associated with garage projects. In fact, the exterior appearance is so close to the original that it could be considered something Mercedes itself might create. This is indeed high praise for any car maker, let alone a car enthusiast bringing his favorite concept car to life in his garage somewhere in Russia.
