- The “F1 car for the road” was showcased in the concept guise last year at Frankfurt Motor Show.
- The hybrid powertrain has undergone testing in a closed environment in England.
- Limited run of 275 cars are already spoken for, deliveries might happen sometime next year.
At the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes-AMG arrived with the wildest, outlandish and more laden with F1 technology than any road-legal car in the world. Called the Project One, the concept was laden with F1 technology to the extent that its powertrain was the same 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 that took Lewis Hamilton to his Formula One title in 2015. It also had two electric motors on the front axle, increasing the total output to 1000bhp! Now, a year after its premiere, the geniuses at Affalterbach are out on the street testing the Project One prototypes.
Following its Frankfurt showcase, the Project One underwent digital development process called ‘Project ONE Virtual Engineering’. Mercedes claims to have already put down hundreds of testing hours on “closed off test grounds and racetracks” somewhere in England. The powertrain underwent a dyno test at Mercedes-AMG’s High Performance Powertrains testing centre in Brixworth, Northampton where F1 cars are usually tested. The exact details of the powertrain to be used by the production-ready model is not yet available. But we don’t think it will deter away from the F1-inspired mill from the Concept.
The Project One will surely have a go at the famous Nurburgring and according to guys at AMG, it has a chance of smashing Lamborghini Aventador SVJ’s laptime of 6:44:7 seconds. And as for the 275 production models of the Project One that will be built next year, all of them have been sold out already. As for the price tags – if you have to ask, then it stands to reason that you cannot afford it.
