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Earlier this year, Mercedes-AMG revealed some big news about their newest addition to the already performance-oriented line of luxury cars. Except this particular model wasn’t going to be something to drive quickly to the grocery store in. Welcome AMG’s Project One hypercar.
The name, which sounds suspiciously like “Formula 1” was chosen for a reason. We already know that AMG planned to use a slightly modified version of the power plant featured Mercedes’s W07 F1 car, but up until now, we’ve had no idea how they planned to stuff this into a street car.
This year marks AMG’s 50th anniversary, so of course they would want to maximize their extensive line of vehicles and technology to the public. What better way to do this than utilize the press from an event occurring from May 27th until May 28th? We’re talking, of course, about the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race. Just hours before the start of the event, AMG revealed its power plant that will be placed the hypercar.
As expected, the high-revving 1.6l V6 used in the W07 F1 car from 2014 to present made its way into the vehicle. The small displacement motor spins all the way to 11,000 RPM while spooling a large turbocharger to provide gobs of power. What is unique about the turbocharger on the platform is that it’s “split” into two. The large compressor housing sits on the front of the motor while the turbine sits in the rear. A large electric-assisted shaft connects the two and provides near-instantaneous spooling.
Speaking of electric, the Project One has quite the unique electric motor configuration. Each front wheel will have its own independent 120 kW electric motor to propel the car. These motors can both be altered with torque vectoring so that its all-wheel-drive system is dynamically tunable. In addition, two additional motors are found in the car. The third, already mentioned, spools the turbocharger instantaneously to eliminate turbo lag presented by the large turbocharger. The fourth 100 kW motor is attached directly to the crankshaft of the engine.
The combustion portion of the vehicle will produce 748 horsepower, while the four electric motors will assist with an additional 408 horsepower. A spokesperson at the event noted that the vehicle can operate fully electric for only about 15 miles. Owners can expect their motors to last a whopping 31,000 miles before requiring “rework”.
The vehicle in total will weigh in around 2,200 pounds. The same spokesperson mentioned that the chassis alone is about 420 kg (950 lbs). Interesting choices in weight reduction can be found throughout the chassis, including quite a bit of carbon fiber that makes up the intake and charge piping.
Power will be put down via a band new 8-speed automatic gearbox which is an integral part of the chassis. Mercedes not only achieves weight saving by doing this, but also increases the rigidity of the chassis. I fear for any of these getting into an accident which causes damage to mounting components of the suspension on the transmission, as the cost to repair the hybrid unit will surely be astronomical.
We won’t know all of the details until the vehicle makes it debut at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, per AMG chairman Tobias Moers. Most of us won’t be able to get our hands one one, and not only due to the $2.4 million projected price tag, but also the fact that nearly all of the 275 are already spoken for, as per Road and Track.
