Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 revealed in all its retro-inspired glory

When Mercedes put out teaser pics of the sweeping roof line of the new Vision Mercees-Maybach 6 concept car we went along thinking there’s no way it’d look anything less than stunning. We were right.

Revealing images of Mercedes-Maybach’s shapely Vision 6 concept car have been leaked, bypassing the usual teaser image drip-feed and showing the car in all of its splendour ahead of its official debut at this weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

And it’s as magnificent and as outrageous as we had hoped.

As the images leaked by UK outlet AutoExpress show, the long nose, elliptical roofline and huge wheels accomplish a neat fusion between the nostalgic and the futuristic. The execution is sympathetic to Mercedes history (and certainly channels the spirit of the mid-century Mercedes-Benz SL300 Gullwing) but is as forward-looking as a retro-inspired concept can be.

The starship-like inside, pictured with most information displayed on a windscreen-spanning head-up display, only has two seats but the shell looks like it could accommodate four. And can you really call them seats? The bases of both seats are conjoined, seemingly formed by draping a single sheet of tufted leather across the centre tunnel.

There’s still no word on how it’s powered. The long bonnet looks like it will easily swallow a twin-turbo V-12 - or a straight 12 for that matter - though there is plenty of room along the car’s entire 6-metre length to host a hell of a lot of batteries.

Mercedes is keeping mum about that, not to mention whether there will be a production version; however it’s believed the concept will be used to promote Maybach’s return as a standalone brand and spearhead a product plan that expands beyond the current range of Mercedes-Benz S-Class based limousines.

The Vision 6 isn’t the first time Mercedes-Maybach has flirted with long-nosed coupes. The uber-luxury offshoot nearly went there with the Exelero in 2004, a 522kW twin-turbo V12 beast that never went beyond prototype stage. It did get out on the road though and apparently ended up in the hands of US rapper Birdman for a tidy US$8 million.

Hopefully that experience has prompted enough suits to ponder the business case for a production version of the Vision 6. No doubt they’ll be keeping close tabs on the public reaction at Pebble Beach this weekend, but if these images are any indication it’s guaranteed to be a showstopper.