AMG’s 50th birthday celebrations will culminate in the reveal of the 1,000bhp-plus Project One hypercar at the Frankfurt motor show in September. Daimler CEO Dr Zetsche told TopGear.com: “The hypercar will be the missing link legitimising the integration of AMG with the Formula One team. It will be limited production, and ideally we want it to be sold out before the first one is delivered. It’s the first street legal car with a Formula One engine, and will be perceived as the ultimate sports car. We have relatively strong indications that this could be an achievable target.”
Project One will use the same hybrid powertrain as the current, all-conquering Mercedes F1 car, with some necessary alterations. Following a teaser glimpse during CES, Mercedes has also released the first official image of the car, which clearly shows a roof-mounted central air intake, large vents and cooling slats on the rear, and an ultra-wide rear track. It will also feature a central fin, which promises unprecedented aerodynamic downforce on a road car.
Fascinatingly, the new AMG elevates high-end, high-performance cars to a level above even the likes of the McLaren P1, LaFerrari, Porsche 918, and Bugatti Chiron. As well as vying for supremacy on the world’s race tracks, Mercedes and Red Bull are now also locked in a battle to deliver the most authentic F1-influenced road car, Project One going head-to-head with the Adrian Newey-designed, Aston Martin-designed AM-RB001 that was announced last summer. There are major differences, though, as AMG boss Tobias Moers told TG.com when we caught up with him during the Detroit show for an exclusive progress update. The Aston-Red Bull car is stunning, I noted, but I can’t see how they can achieve the aero they’re chasing while packaging a normally aspirated V12 in that body. “Me neither,” Moers says with a sly smile. So when and why was the decision made to embark on Project One?
“Five years ago the brand was not capable of doing [a hypercar]. Now we are,” Moers says (AMG sold 99,235 cars in 2016, and has tripled its volume in three years). “It was very clear to us that it could not be a V8 or V12 hybrid car. It should be something really special. Who else, other than us, could try to bring a Formula One engine to the street? I called Andy [Cowell, MD of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] and said, ‘have a think about it. Can you do it?’ He said, ‘give me two months’. He came back and said, ‘yep, we can do it.’
“The feasibility study started at the end of October 2015, and that lasted until the end of February last year. Then we had a clear understanding of how we could achieve it. Where are we up to? The exterior design is frozen. We’re currently finalising the interior. We fired up the first engine last year.”
Moers insists that the project offers significant pointers for AMG’s direction of travel. “It’s not just about doing another ‘me too’ hypercar with a V8 or V12. That’s not what I see for us as a brand. Of course, so many of our customers have asked if we’re going to do a hypercar, and yes, it’s a birthday present, and you’ll see it on the stage in Frankfurt. But it will also give you an indication of how we see the future of high performance.
