Wilhelm Maybach was born on February 9, 1846 in Heilbronn, a town on the Neckar River, Baden-Württemberg. His father was a carpenter. At the age of ten, the boy was left an orphan and was brought up in the Brotherhood of the then famous Pastor Werner. At fifteen he began his technical education at a mechanical engineering plant in Reutlingen associated with the Brotherhood. During the day he did an internship in the workshop and design bureau of the plant, in the evening he took lessons in drawing and natural sciences at the city school, and later in mathematics at the city real school. By that time, Wilhelm had already carefully studied Julius Weisbach's three-volume textbook on technical mechanics and took up English. His abilities, perseverance and determination were noticed in time.

In 1863, Gottlieb Daimler became the technical director of the Reutlingen plant. After working here for three years, he moved to Karlsruhe to the position of technical director of the Deutz company, owned by N. A. Otto and E. Langen. At that time she was building stationary engines internal combustion. In 1869, Daimler remembered the talented and efficient young man and invited Maybach to Karlsruhe. Having met, they became interested in the idea transport engine internal combustion, which would be lighter and smaller than the stationary one produced at the factory. Langen supported the idea, but Otto was categorically against it. Much later, in 1907, the Deutz company nevertheless began building cars - first cars, and later trucks, tractors, buses, but by that time the pioneers of internal combustion engines for transport were no longer here.

Not finding understanding with the company's management, Daimler decided to open his own business in Bad Cannstadt and persuaded Maybach to leave with him. In 1882, an agreement was concluded between them, according to which Maybach took over the technical design, and if it came to the commercial implementation of the development, he received a fixed sum of money, like a bonus.

In August 1883, Maybach's first stationary engine of its own design was ready. The motor weighed 40 kg and ran, as was customary then, on lamp gas. In December of the same year, the next sample appeared - with a displacement of 1.4 liters and a power of 1.6 hp. Along the way, Maybach suggested new system ignition IN stationary engines At that time, the mixture was ignited with an open flame, and he also designed an incandescent tube, which was heated red-hot by a burner. A special valve, opening and closing, controlled combustion in the combustion chamber. This system ensured stable operation at the lowest speed.

From the very beginning of his independent activity, Wilhelm Maybach was distinguished by the desire to constantly modernize the design, use new patents, and achieve perfection. At the end of 1883, another of his engines was tested - a single-cylinder engine air cooling, developing 0.25 hp. at 600 rpm. An improved version (0.5 hp, 246 cm3) was built in 1884; the designer himself called it a “grandfather clock” - the shape was indeed quite unusual. Later, technology historians noted that Maybach achieved not only a reduction in the weight of the engine, but also its purely external elegance.

Next, extremely important for all future internal combustion engine designs was the development of an evaporative carburetor, which made it possible to use liquid fuel instead of illuminating gas. And finally, in the fall of 1885, a Maybach engine powered a two-wheeled carriage! This, without any discounts, was a revolutionary event in technology. The motorcycle, or, as they called it then, a motor bicycle, had two small wheels on the sides for stability. Motor 0.5 hp rotated at a constant frequency, a two-stage belt drive made it possible to move at a speed of 6 or 12 km/h; on November 10, 1885, tests were carried out in which his son Karl and Daimler's son Paul participated along with Maybach.

Not everything, of course, went smoothly. A year later, Maybach improved the engine by increasing the piston diameter and stroke; the working volume increased to 1.35 liters, but tests showed that the engine overheats. Trying to apply water cooling did not give the desired result, and this engine had to be abandoned.

For the world's first four-wheeled car, an engine with a displacement of 0.462 liters was made. They installed it on a ready-made horse-drawn carriage purchased by Daimler - they were in a hurry. On March 4, 1887, the first tests were carried out, and four weeks later, a powerboat with the same engine. With great care, Maybach collected and systematized the results of all tests, fully understanding how important this was.

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In 1889, the Paris World Exhibition took place, and Daimler wanted to be a participant at all costs. Especially for this event, Maybach developed new car with a new motor. But what! The Daimler-Stalradwagen (translated as “with steel wheels”) had the first ever V-shaped two-cylinder engine with a cylinder camber angle of 17°. At 900 rpm, the engine developed 1.6 hp, the wheels were driven by a gear drive instead of the previous belt drive. The author essentially developed a conceptual design, but it also brought commercial success. The NSU bicycle factory in Neckarsulm took over the construction of the car. The French Armand Peugeot and Emile Levassor bought a patent for the engine and gears, pledging to put the Daimler brand on the engines they produced.

The money raised for the patent allowed Daimler to create a separate workshop for his talented employee, where research began full swing, this at least somehow smoothed out friction with shareholders based on promising developments, which occupied both him and Maybach.

In 1893, simultaneously with the Hungarian Donat Banki, Maybach developed the first spray carburetor with a syringe-type jet, and the following year he received a patent for the design hydraulic brakes, and a year later its two-cylinder appeared in-line engine Phoenix. Initially it developed 2.5 hp. at 750 rpm, but the design was gradually improved, and in 1896 the power reached 5 hp. A new radiator of an original design made it possible to improve the performance of the engine, and in 1899 a four-cylinder Phoenix was built, with a displacement of 5900 cm3 and a power of 23 hp. The engine was installed on racing car, created by order of the Ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Nice, Emil Jellinek, and on March 21, 1899, he won the Nice-La Turbie mountain race in this car. Jellinek performed under the pseudonym Mercedes. This was his daughter's name, which soon became a trademark of the Daimler plant.

In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died and Maybach's position worsened. The engineer, who devoted himself entirely to his work, and was not very healthy, was forced to write humiliating and unanswered requests for an increase in salary. Perhaps the new leaders of the company remembered how Maybach always took Daimler’s side in disputes with them...

Meanwhile, the development of technology went on as usual; the Phoenix model was replaced by the Simplex of 1902, which was already produced under Mercedes brand. It had a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 5320 cm3 and a power of 32 hp. at 1100 rpm and a four-speed gearbox. Racing Mercedes 1902 was equipped with a 40-horsepower (6550 cm3) engine, and for the then popular Gordon-Bennett racing (1903) a car was built with four-cylinder engine displacement 9.24 liters, power 60 hp. at 1000 rpm.

In 1907, Maybach left the company, whose fame was largely created by his talent and efficiency. In the sixty-first year of his life, he was fascinated by the idea of ​​​​creating engines for the then famous Zeppelin airships. Having found support from Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, Maybach and his son Karl founded the engine-building company Maybach Motorenbau GmbH in the city of Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake Baden. The company was led by Karl Maybach, and his father was a leading consultant and stopped working only at a very old age, after the First World War. Wilhelm Maybach died on December 29, 1929.

The enormous significance of Maybach's work lies in the fact that he was perhaps the first to understand that a car is not a carriage with a motor. The engineer's talent, rich experience in design and testing convinced him that a car is a complex of all its components and it is from this position that one must approach its design.

Contemporaries already called Maybach the “king of designers.” In 1922, the Society of German Engineers honored one of the fathers modern car the title of "pioneer designer". That's what he was. And a year earlier, when the seventy-five-year-old engineer was no longer working, the first car of the subsequently famous Maybach brand was built at the Friedrichshafen plant under the leadership of Karl Maybach.

August Wilhelm Maybach was born on February 9, 1846 in Heilbronn, Germany. A few years later, the family, which in addition to him had four more children, moved to the city of Stuttgart. He was orphaned at the age of ten. A charity organization responded to an advertisement in the Stuttgarter Anzeiger newspaper and took the boy under guardianship. Wilhelm attended school in Reutlingen, where his technical abilities were noticed and directed in the right direction by Gustav Werner, the founder and director of the school.

The young man met Gottlieb Daimler in 1865 in the city of Reutlingen, and then became his close friend and remained so until Daimler’s death. In September 1869, he went with Daimler to the city of Karlsruhe, and then, following his example, became an employee of the Deutz plant, which produces gas engines. During this period, he worked on a project for a lightweight high-speed internal combustion engine, which would be suitable not only for land and water Vehicle, but also for aircraft.

Due to conflicts with the plant management, Daimler left Deutz in mid-1882. Wilhelm Maybach followed him to Cannstatt, where both engineers began developing lightweight, high-speed internal combustion engines. Maybach conducted extensive research work, during which he came across a patent by the English inventor Watson, which described a system for unregulated ignition of the mixture in the engine in contact with the glow tube.

The horizontal cylinder engine, created in 1883, was followed by the “grandfather clock”, very light and compact power unit with a vertically fixed cylinder, which was excellent for land transport. However, Maybach quickly realized that it would be content to produce only car engines can not. The first result of this self-awareness was a car with steel wheels, through which Maybach introduced the sliding pinion system into the automotive industry.

When Daimler, Duttenhofer and Lorenz founded the Daimler Motors Society in November 1890, Maybach was offered the position of chief engineer. However, citing the unacceptability of the terms of the contract, Maybach left the company.

For a year and a half after this, Maybach’s own apartment served as a pavilion for Maybach’s design and engineering work. In the autumn of 1892, thanks to financial support from Daimler, the workshop was moved to the territory of the Hermann Hotel. Here Wilhelm implemented such significant projects as the carburetor sprayer and the Phoenix engine, and also worked on improving the belt drive system.

Due to pressure placed on DMG by British industrial magnate Frederick Simms, Maybach was reinstated as the company's technical director in November 1895. Returning to duty, the designer developed first a tubular and then a cellular radiator. So efficient system Engine cooling was a big step towards creating a modern car.

“The King of Designers,” as the French called him, did not stop there and created new ones. technical advances. He created the first four-cylinder car engine. From 1898 to 1999, he created a whole generation of engines consisting of five models, developing power from 6 to 23 horsepower.

Maybach created the most outstanding of all his projects after Daimler's death in 1900. It was the first Mercedes, which made a real splash at the Nice Week series races in March 1901. The car was superior to anything DMG had ever conceived or designed and brought the end to the era of the “self-propelled carriage” in automobile manufacturing.

The credit for creating a new, modern car belonged not only to Maybach, but also to Emil Jellinek, who pushed Maybach and DMG to develop cars capable of developing ever more high power and speed.

Although Mercedes cars enjoyed enormous success, Maybach became a victim of corporate intrigue. He was removed from the post of chief engineer and transferred to the invention bureau. In 1907, he said goodbye to DMG amid scandal.

After the Zeppelin LZ 4 airship died in a storm near the city of Echterdingen on August 5, 1908, Maybach was asked to design a new, improved engine for the Graf Zeppelin. Business negotiations followed, which resulted in the establishment of the company "Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau-GmbH Bissingen" on March 23, 1909. The position of chief engineer was taken by Maybach's son Karl, who created the project for the new engine.

In 1912, the company was renamed Luftfahrzeug-Motoren-GmbH and moved to Friedrichshafen. Father and son each held 20% of the company's shares, but Wilhelm Maybach believed that the future of the business was entirely in Karl's hands. In 1922, production of luxury cars was launched in Friedrichshafen.

A significant event was the release of the Maybach 12 model 1929, under the hood of which there was a DS type engine. This was the first car with a V12 engine, which, together with the Zeppelin-type unit introduced later, was considered the German answer Rolls Royce.

German designer and entrepreneur. One of the pioneers of the engine and automotive industries.
Born into a carpenter's family in Heilbronn (Württemberg). After the sudden death of his parents in 1856, he ended up in the Bruderhaus Reutlingen orphanage, where he worked in a workshop, the director of which at that time was Gottlieb Daimler. He turned out to be a capable student and attracted the attention of Daimler, becoming his friend and assistant.
After graduating from the orphanage school, he was sent to courses at the Reutlingen Technical College. In 1869 he entered the design bureau of the Maschinenbau Gesellschaft enterprise in Karlsruhe. When in 1872 Daimler received an invitation from Eugen Langen to take the position of technical director at the Otto und Langen Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz company, which produced gas engines. He stated that he would accept him only if there was room for his assistant Wilhelm Maybach. The contract was signed.
Maybach began improving the Otto engine and organizing production. In March 1882, due to disagreements that arose with the management of the enterprise, both were forced to leave the company. In April of the same year, Daimler founded the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft company, and Maybach became a designer for it. A year later, the first successful test took place four stroke engine, and soon its production began.

Racing “Mercedes” with a 6-cylinder engine, 1905.

Maybach also participated in the work carried out by Daimler in 1885 to create the first motorcycle, which was patented a year later. In subsequent years, he designed cars and engines for Daimler. In 1901, under his leadership, the first a car“Mercedes”, followed by several more models that became winners in a number of prestigious sports competitions, including the Gordon Bennett Cup. In 1906, the first Mercedes car appeared with a 6-cylinder engine designed by Maybach.
At the beginning of 1907, he left Daimler's enterprise and accepted an offer from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin to found a company to manufacture engines for airships. In 1912, this company was reorganized and moved to the city of Friedrichshafen, where the production of aircraft engines began.
After Germany lost the war and was forced to sign the Treaty of Paris, it lost the right to produce military products at its enterprises, including engines for airplanes. Therefore, Maybach returned to the automobile industry and developed a 6-cylinder engine with a displacement of about 6 liters and side valves.

“Maybach-W3”, 1921

In 1921 it appeared new company, which bore the name of the designer, who specialized in the manufacture of cars upper class. True, Maybach himself increasingly retired from business. Most of the developments implemented at the company belonged to his son Karl, who inherited his father's talent as a designer. In the spring of 1929, Wilhelm Maybach, having barely celebrated Easter with his family in Canstatt, fell ill and died two days later. The designer's name is immortalized in the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit.

Wilhelm Maybach played a huge role in the automotive industry. He was one of the first to realize that a car is not just a carriage with an engine. For some it is a luxury, and for others it is a means of transportation, but in any case, the design of machines must be approached from the perspective of the person using them

Maybach was born on February 9, 1846 in the German town of Heilbronn into the family of a carpenter. At the age of eight, his family moved to Stuttgart, and 3 years later, left an orphan, he began to be raised in the orphanage of Pastor Werner.

The trustee of the orphanage where Wilhelm was raised was Gottlieb Daimler. He noticed and recognized the talented Wilhelm well. Since the age of 15, Wilhelm Maybach has been working at a mechanical engineering plant in Reulitgen.

By this time, the teenager had already studied Yu. Weisbach's three-volume textbook on technical mathematics and began to study English. The abilities, determination and perseverance of young Maybach were noticed in time.

Gottlieb Daimler became technical director of Deutz in 1866. Before that, he worked as technical director of the Reutlingen plant for 3 years. In 1869, he invited Wilhelm Maybach to his place in Karlsruhe.

They both came up with the idea of ​​​​creating an internal combustion engine. It should be smaller and lighter than the stationary engines that were produced at that time. One of the owners of the Deutz company, E. Langen, supported this idea, but another co-owner, N.A. Otto was categorically against it. The Deutz company began building cars only in 1907.

Having not met with understanding from the company's management, Daimler decided to open his own business in Bad Cannstadt and invited Maybach to work with him. In 1882 they entered into an agreement under which Maybach was responsible for technical design. In the event of commercial implementation of the development, he was paid a certain amount of money.

In August 1883, Maybach created the first stationary engine of his own, weighing 40 kg and running on lamp gas. Three months later the next engine was created. It used a fundamentally new ignition system. It included a filament and a special valve that controlled the combustion chamber. Thanks to this system, stable engine operation was ensured even at low speeds.

At the end of 1883, Maybach completed the development of a low-power, single-cylinder, air-cooled engine. IN next year an improved version was built. Due to its unusual shape, it was nicknamed the “grandfather clock”.

The following was developed essential element for further internal combustion engine designs, such as an evaporative carburetor. It made it possible to replace lighting gas with liquid fuel. Finally, in the fall of 1885, a revolutionary event occurred - the Maybach engine made a two-wheeled carriage go. The motorcycle (then called a motor bicycle) had two small wheels on the sides for stability. Motor rotation with 0.5 hp power. carried out at a constant frequency. Due to a two-stage belt drive, the crew developed a speed of 6 or 12 km/h.

A year later, the designer tried to improve the engine by increasing its diameter and piston stroke. As a result, the working volume increased to 1.35 liters. During the tests it turned out that the motor overheats. Maybach tried water cooling, but without success. I had to admit that the resulting engine was a failure.

The world's first four-wheeled car was equipped with a specially created motor. Its working volume was only 0.462 liters. Due to lack of time, the engine was installed on a ready-made horse-drawn carriage. The first tests took place on March 4, 1887, and a month later a motor boat equipped with the same engine was born.

In 1889, Daimler's company took part in the Paris World Exhibition. Especially for her, Maybach created a car with a new engine. The Daimler-Stalradwagen car boasted the first V-shaped two-cylinder engine in history, the cylinder camber angle of which was 17 degrees. At 900 rpm, the new engine developed a power of 1.6 hp. The wheels were no longer driven by a belt, but by a gear drive. The design was a commercial success. A bicycle factory in the French city of Neckarsulm began building a car. Its owners acquired a patent for the engine and transmission. Using the proceeds from the sale of the patent, Daimler created a separate workshop for his talented developer.

In 1893, Maybach developed a new carburetor - the first spray carburetor with a syringe-type jet (this was done simultaneously with the Hungarian designer Donat Banki). The invention of the automobile carburetor improved its performance and reduced fuel consumption. 1894 was marked by the receipt of a patent for the design of hydraulic brakes. In 1895, the two-cylinder Phoenix engine was developed. At first, this engine developed a power of 2.5 hp. at 750 rpm. Thanks to improved design, its power doubled within a year. The improvement of engine performance was also facilitated by the installation of a new radiator of an original design.

In 1899, the designer built a four-cylinder Phoenix engine. Its displacement was 5.9 liters with a power of 35 hp. This engine was installed in a two-seater racing car created for Emil Jellinek. He former ambassador Austro-Hungarian Empire in Nice and at the same time a representative in France of the Daimler company. The car could reach speeds of up to 100 km/h. Jellinek used the nickname "Mr. Mercedes" at races in honor of his daughter Mercedes. With this car he won the Nice-La Turbie car race. Soon Jellinek's pseudonym - Mercedes - became a brand of the Daimler plant.

Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900. After the death of his longtime colleague, Maybach's financial situation worsened. The new managers of the company recalled to the engineer how he always sided with Daimler in disputes with them.

Meanwhile, technology was developing at an unprecedented pace. The Phoenix model is a thing of the past, giving way to the 1902 Simplex, which was already produced under the Mercedes brand. This car was equipped with a four-cylinder engine with a four-speed transmission. Its main technical indicators were as follows: displacement - 5,320 cm3, power - 32 hp. at 1100 rpm. A 40-horsepower engine was installed on a racing Mercedes of the 1902 model. At the then famous Gordon-Bennett auto racing, a car was equipped with a four-cylinder engine, the displacement of which was 9.24 liters and the power was 60 hp. at 1000 rpm.

In 1907, car designer Wilhelm Maybach left the company. His name was already widely known outside his country. At the age of 61, he became interested in the idea of ​​​​creating engines for Zeppelin airships. Having secured the support of Count F. Zeppelin, Maybach, together with his son Karl, became the founders of an engine-building company in the city of Friedrichshafen. Karl Maybach became the head of the company. His father, Wilhelm Maybach, worked for the company as a leading consultant until a very old age.

During his lifetime, Maybach earned the nickname “king of designers.” In 1922, the famous engineer was awarded the title of “pioneering designer.” It was assigned to him by the Society of German Engineers. In 1921, when the 75-year-old developer had already retired, the Friedrichshaven plant, led by his son Karl Maybach, produced the first Maybach car, famous for the future brand.

This man was at the forefront of creating the internal combustion engine for the car.

Wilhelm Maybach was born on February 9, 1846 in Heilbronn, a town on the Neckar River, Baden-Württemberg. His father was a carpenter. At the age of ten, the boy was left an orphan and was brought up in the Brotherhood of the then famous Pastor Werner. At fifteen he began his technical education at a mechanical engineering plant in Reutlingen associated with the Brotherhood. During the day he did an internship in the workshop and design bureau of the plant, in the evening he took lessons in drawing and natural sciences at the city school, and later in mathematics at the city real school. By that time, Wilhelm had already carefully studied Julius Weisbach's three-volume textbook on technical mechanics and took up English. His abilities, perseverance and determination were noticed in time.

In 1863, Gottlieb Daimler became the technical director of the Reutlingen plant. After working here for three years, he moved to Karlsruhe to the position of technical director of the Deutz company, owned by N. A. Otto and E. Langen. At that time, it was building stationary internal combustion engines. In 1869, Daimler remembered the talented and efficient young man and invited Maybach to Karlsruhe. Having met, they became interested in the idea of ​​a transport internal combustion engine, which would be lighter and smaller than the stationary one produced at the factory. Langen supported the idea, but Otto was categorically against it. Much later, in 1907, the Deutz company nevertheless began building cars - first cars, and later trucks, tractors, buses, but by that time the pioneers of internal combustion engines for transport were no longer here.

Not finding understanding with the company's management, Daimler decided to open his own business in Bad Cannstadt and persuaded Maybach to leave with him. In 1882, an agreement was concluded between them, according to which Maybach took over the technical design, and if it came to the commercial implementation of the development, he received a fixed sum of money, like a bonus.

In August 1883, Maybach's first stationary engine of its own design was ready. The motor weighed 40 kg and ran, as was customary then, on lamp gas. In December of the same year, the next sample appeared - with a displacement of 1.4 liters and a power of 1.6 hp. Along the way, Maybach proposed a new ignition system. In stationary engines of that time, the mixture was ignited with an open flame, and he also designed an incandescent tube, which was heated red-hot by a burner. A special valve, opening and closing, controlled combustion in the combustion chamber. This system ensured stable operation at the lowest speed.

From the very beginning of his independent activity, Wilhelm Maybach was distinguished by the desire to constantly modernize the design, use new patents, and achieve perfection. At the end of 1883, another of his engines was tested - a single-cylinder air-cooled engine that developed 0.25 hp. at 600 rpm. An improved version (0.5 hp, 246 cm3) was built in 1884; the designer himself called it a “grandfather clock” - the shape was indeed quite unusual. Later, technology historians noted that Maybach achieved not only a reduction in the weight of the engine, but also its purely external elegance.

The next thing, extremely important for all further internal combustion engine designs, was the development of an evaporative carburetor, which made it possible to use liquid fuel instead of illuminating gas. And finally, in the fall of 1885, a Maybach engine powered a two-wheeled carriage! This, without any discounts, was a revolutionary event in technology. The motorcycle, or, as they called it then, a motor bicycle, had two small wheels on the sides for stability. Motor 0.5 hp rotated at a constant frequency, a two-stage belt drive made it possible to move at a speed of 6 or 12 km/h; on November 10, 1885, tests were carried out in which his son Karl and Daimler’s son Paul participated along with Maybach.

Not everything, of course, went smoothly. A year later, Maybach improved the engine by increasing the piston diameter and stroke; the working volume increased to 1.35 liters, but tests showed that the engine overheats. An attempt to use water cooling did not give the desired result, and this engine had to be abandoned.

For the world's first four-wheeled car, an engine with a displacement of 0.462 liters was made. They installed it on a ready-made horse-drawn carriage purchased by Daimler - they were in a hurry. On March 4, 1887, the first tests were carried out, and four weeks later a motor boat with the same engine appeared on a lake near Bad Cannstadt. With great care, Maybach collected and systematized the results of all tests, fully understanding how important this was.

In 1889, the Paris World Exhibition took place, and Daimler wanted to be a participant at all costs. Especially for this event, Maybach developed a new car with a new engine. But what! The Daimler-Stalradwagen (translated as “with steel wheels”) had the first ever V-shaped two-cylinder engine with a cylinder camber angle of 17°. At 900 rpm, the engine developed 1.6 hp, the wheels were driven by a gear drive instead of the previous belt drive. The author essentially developed a conceptual design, but it also brought commercial success. The NSU bicycle factory in Neckarsulm took over the construction of the car. The French Armand Peugeot and Emile Levassor bought a patent for the engine and gears, pledging to put the Daimler brand on the engines they produced.

The money earned for the patent allowed Daimler to create a separate workshop for his talented employee, where research was in full swing; this somehow smoothed out friction with shareholders on the basis of promising developments that so occupied both him and Maybach.

In 1893, simultaneously with the Hungarian Donat Banki, Maybach developed the first spray carburetor with a syringe-type jet, the next year he received a patent for the design of hydraulic brakes, and a year later his two-cylinder in-line Phoenix engine appeared. Initially it developed 2.5 hp. at 750 rpm, but the design was gradually improved, and in 1896 the power reached 5 hp. A new radiator of an original design made it possible to improve the performance of the engine, and in 1899 a four-cylinder Phoenix was built, with a displacement of 5900 cm3 and a power of 23 hp. The engine was installed on a racing car, created by order of the Ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Nice, Emil Jellinek, and on March 21, 1899, he won the Nice-La Turbie mountain race in this car. Jellinek performed under the pseudonym Mercedes. This was his daughter's name, which soon became a trademark of the Daimler plant.

In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died and Maybach's position worsened. The engineer, who devoted himself entirely to his work, and was not very healthy, was forced to write humiliating and unanswered requests for an increase in salary. Perhaps the new leaders of the company remembered how Maybach always took Daimler’s side in disputes with them...

Meanwhile, the development of technology took its course; the Phoenix model was replaced by the Simplex of 1902, already produced under the Mercedes brand. It had a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 5320 cm3 and a power of 32 hp. at 1100 rpm and a four-speed gearbox. The 1902 Mercedes racing car was equipped with a 40-horsepower (6550 cm3) engine, and for the then popular Gordon-Bennett racing (1903), a car was built with a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 9.24 liters and 60 hp. at 1000 rpm.

In 1907, Maybach left the company, whose fame was largely created by his talent and efficiency. In the sixty-first year of his life, he was fascinated by the idea of ​​​​creating engines for the then famous Zeppelin airships. Having found support from Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, Maybach and his son Karl founded the engine-building company Maybach Motorenbau GmbH in the city of Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake Baden. The company was led by Karl Maybach, and his father was a leading consultant and stopped working only at a very old age, after the First World War. Wilhelm Maybach died on December 29, 1929.

The enormous significance of Maybach’s work lies in the fact that he was perhaps the first to understand that a car is not a carriage with a motor. The engineer's talent, rich experience in design and testing convinced him that a car is a complex of all its components and it is from this position that one must approach its design.

Contemporaries already called Maybach the “king of designers.” In 1922, the Society of German Engineers honored one of the fathers of the modern automobile with the title of "pioneering designer." That's what he was. And a year earlier, when the seventy-five-year-old engineer was no longer working, the first car of the subsequently famous Maybach brand was built at the Friedrichshafen plant under the leadership of Karl Maybach.

S. KANUNIKOV
"Behind the wheel"