Maybach Typ 12 1929 The Typ 12 came to life at Karl’s Maybach desire to create an opulent car, equipped with a completely new engine, to honor his father Wilhelm Maybach. The vehicle was built on the previously built W3 and W5 models and the engine was the first V12 in the history of the automobile. It was made of aluminum alloy, thus the engine weighed only 510 kg with a displacement of 6967 cm3. Uncredibly fast for that time, the car was driven by 150 hp. What was also a first, the transmission was a 3-speed semi-automatic gearbox. The Typ 12 had a top speed of 140 km/h and consumed around 27 liters of petrol to every 100 km. Karl Maybach introduced the Typ 12 to his father in 1929, the same year the Wilhlem Maybach died. At the end of the 1920’s, the Typ 12 was awarded the title of the largest German car, referring to both the bodywork and the engine. The Typ’s 12 price went up to 34.000 marks. The astonishing vehicle had a short production, of only 1 year, from 1929 to 1930, however, 1 year was enough time to develop the Maybach’s next luxury models, the DS7 and later the DS8, both models becoming known as Zeppelin.