When a carmaker claws its way to the top of Formula One rankings and stays there to dominate year on year, there’s only one way to celebrate – build the world’s fastest hypercar.
The Mercedes-AMG Project One has been teasing for months now and at the IAA last night it finally broke cover as a Formula One car for the road, a 1,000hp (740kW) stunner which features advanced aerodynamic appointments and engineering smarts directly carried over from the motorsport – that includes a demanding engine and drivetrain service life of every 50,000km to make sure the car is in peak condition.
Looking at the figures of the Project One we have a mid-mounted 1.6-litre (like your Corolla but not really) which delivers the aforementioned 1,000hp from a single turbo V6 which can easily hit 11,000rpm without blowing up.
Like the winning Mercedes-AMG F1 car, this petrol engine is paired with four electric motors – a 120kW electric motor on the turbo, one on the crankshaft and two smaller electric motors driving the front wheels.
When paired with the petrol motor, an AMG Performance 4Matic+ all-wheel drive system and an eight-speed gearbox, the Silver Arrows have a car that is capable of some insane lap times.
Mercedes-AMG Chairman Tobias Moers told Autoblog at the launch that “the Hypercar is the most ambitious project we’ve ever made.”
“This marks another highlight of the successful strategic development of Mercedes-AMG as a performance and sports-car brand.”
“The Project One is the hottest and coolest car we have ever designed,” Daimler’s chief design officer Gorden Wagener added.
“It combines our design philosophy of Sensual Purity with the performance of our Formula One racing cars and is the perfect embodiment of Performance Luxury.”
“This hypercar’s extreme design marks a milestone in design ‑ there are no lines, and the interior is stripped down to the essentials.”
Those keen on acquiring one for their garage will need to part ways with a serious sum of $US2.54 million or $4 million Australian pesos.
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