Never let it be said there there’s no competition for the loose change of adrenaline-hooked billionaires who make Tony Stark seem more like Montgomery Burns. Add another to the next wave of somewhere-beyond-hypercars. The first of these we told you about is the AM-RB 001 that’s being jointly developed by Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing. In its more extreme track-only guise, F1 designer Adrian Newey assures us, that car will deliver similar levels of performance to an LMP1 race car. Now reports from the U.K. suggest that Mercedes is also working on a similar project, with a roadgoing car that will be powered by the same turbocharged V-6 engine that propels the company’s Formula 1 race car.
This all sounds far-fetched to us, as it probably does to you, but evo claims that a source within the Mercedes F1 team has confirmed the existence of the road-car project. The U.K.-based magazine says the vehicle will use a hybrid-assisted version of the Formula 1 car’s turbocharged V-6 engine, one that will deliver a total output somewhere in the region between 1000 and 1500 horsepower.
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That’s a big region. Certainly, the Mercedes-AMG powerplant would have to make huge horsepower to approach the RB 001’s claimed power-to-weight figure. The bigger question is how something as high-strung as a Formula 1 engine can be made suitable for road use. The finished car, according to evo‘s report, is likely to get a second turbocharger to aid low-rpm response. The electric side of its powertrain supposedly will use a pair of 160-hp electric motors, one to drive each front wheel.
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There’s no word on price, although we can be assured it will run well into seven figures—the Aston Martin/Red Bull program is expected to wear a $3 million price tag. The published report says that the Mercedes-AMG hypercar-plus car will be launched to coincide with AMG’s 50th anniversary, which is next year. We will bring you more details if and when Mercedes deigns to communicate them.
After starting in radio, Mike Duff broke into writing about cars more than 25 years ago.
Since then he has reviewed several thousand, working for major outlets on both sides of
the Atlantic. In the U.K. he held senior staff positions with CAR, Autocar and evo, and in
the U.S. he wrote for MPH and Autoweek before becoming Car and Driver’s European
Editor for ten years. Being a Brit means he also understands most of the rules of cricket
