AMG boss Tobias Moers has said it's ‘reasonable to speculate’ that the target Nürburgring lap time of Mercedes-AMG’s forthcoming Project One hypercar would be the outright lap record. This means a time of 6min 25.9sec lap or quicker to beat the record set by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 during the 1983 Nurburgring 1000km.
Moers would not be further drawn on the car’s simulated Nürburgring lap time, but AMG is known to have studied past lap records in detail, including the outright records of Stefan Bellof who lapped the circuit in 6min 11sec in a Porsche 956 in preparation for the 1000km race there in 1983 and the 6min 25.9sec he set in the race itself.
The production road car record is currently held at 6min 47sec by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS. Moers did say, however, that the biggest challenge he faced in extracting the ultimate lap time from the Project One would be “finding the right driver” to accomplish the feat.
The lap time will be assisted by the car's ~675kg of aerodynamic downforce, despite it not having an enormous fixed rear wing like the recently revealed McLaren Senna.
AMG boss Tobias Moers said the downforce generated will be “approximately half the weight of the car” and confirmed that the Project One will weigh between 1300kg and 1400kg, not the 1200kg reported elsewhere. Taking the 1350kg midpoint, this would indicate that the car will likely produce around 675kg of downforce, which would fall short of the Senna's 800kg claim but appears impressive given the Project One's sleeker shape and less prominent active rear spoiler.
It's not clear at what speed this figure is developed: in the Senna, it comes at 155mph. Like the Senna and the Ford GT, the Project One’s driver will be able to lower the car for track driving, increasing the amount of downforce generated under it. This is just one of the many facts about the hypercar that have emerged since its launch at last year's Frankfurt motor show.
Mercedes-AMG Project One hybrid tech due in series production model by 2021
As an example, Moers stated very clearly that the 1000bhp output quoted for the car is just what the 1.6-litre V6 hybrid engine is developing on the dynamometer at present and that its actual output will be that figure “plus, plus, plus”. Ultimately, he said that he expected it will be below 1100bhp, but it's not yet known by how much.
Lewis Hamilton reveals the Project One - in pictures
According to Andy Cowell, head of Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division, the biggest challenges with the engine are neither keeping it reliable nor adapting to road car use, saying it will idle in a Dubai traffic jam in mid-summer without overheating. Instead, he cited emissions and persuading an engine that usually requires a battery of engineers to operate “to start at the press of a button, in all weather conditions, regardless of how long it’s been left”.
AMG boss Tobias Moers on the challenges of Project One
It also now seems that while the engine will be produced in Brixworth, Mercedes’ Formula 1 team will be involved largely on a consultancy basis. Even so, almost all the other important components will be made in the UK, including the bespoke robotised manual eight-speed gearbox that Xtrac is developing and the tub and bodywork, which will be produced by an as-yet-unnamed third-party supplier.
Moers confirmed that despite the car’s price of approximately £2.4 million, AMG received 1100 requests from credible customers for the 275 units that will be built.
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while it maybe a tour de force in Car technology, you could hardly call it beautiful, but I guess if your a Car collector you’ll have one, may be drive it a few hundred miles a Month, I think these Cars have peaked, we don’t really need Cars to do over two hundred miles per hour, naught to sixty in under two second, generate G’ force that will tear your Head off, no, autonomous is the next hurdle for us all, trusting a collection of circuits to whisk us here and there will little drama, it’s the future folks!!!!
while it maybe a tour de force in Car technology, you could hardly call it beautiful, but I guess if your a Car collector you’ll have one, may be drive it a few hundred miles a Month,
Drive it? Most will never turn a wheel, once the owner gets it home or into secure storage whilst they wait for the value to rise. Cars like this are wasted on the people that buy most of them.
while it maybe a tour de force in Car technology, you could hardly call it beautiful, but I guess if your a Car collector you’ll have one, may be drive it a few hundred miles a Month,
Drive it? Most will never turn a wheel, once the owner gets it home or into secure storage whilst they wait for the value to rise. Cars like this are wasted on the people that buy most of them.
You can’t insist they drive them.......
The front looks too aggressive, resembles my mother in law. Maybe this is what the customer wants. I didn't.
SInce the revelation that BMW, Mercedes and VW have all been using caged monkeys for emissions tests it appears Autocar have been giving these companies even more exposure.
The publishers like to think it's a journal, the magazine of record, but it's not and they know readers prefer to read about BHP than NOX violations.
As for the Project One it does abosultely nothing more me. Hypercars are supposed to stir the soul, be special to behold, make your jaw drop and just look utterly incrdible. Project One does none of this. It's just a cold and amorphous blob of a car. At the end of teh day it's just a Mercedes. A hypercar shouldn't feel like that.
Might of more power than the Newey Aston or the Senna but is it really needed? Is it 2wd or 4wd?
Brilliant. but at what speed?
if its at three figures then arguably it has little value on a road car
I have driven an AMG for the last 11 years. This is no AMG and I completely despise it.
Source : autocar