Mercedes is continuing to tease the upcoming reveal of its fastest production car in history with new images and statistics.
On Friday Mercedes’ parent company Daimler Benz, published yet another cryptic picture of the car, currently called the Mercedes-AMG Project One, and finally confirmed the car’s projected top speed.
The hypercar, which borrows heavily from current Formula 1 technology, will be capable of hitting a top speed exceeding 350km/h, that’s 217mph.It has also confirmed that the car’s engine will develop in excess of 1000hp.
That particular figure may not sound so impressive in an age of hypercars from the likes of Koenigsegg and Bugatti that boast upwards of 1500hp on tap. But whereas they use a 5-liter V8 and an 8-liter W16 engine respectively to deliver so much power, the Mercedes AMG has a tiny, 1.6-liter engine mounted centrally within its chassis.
However, it’s no ordinary 1.6-liter; it’s a very high revving turbocharged engine based on the V6 powerplants used in the company’s Formula 1 racing cars (don’t forget Mercedes is the current world F1 champion) and one that uses a host of hybrid and energy recovery systems to deliver its power.
The car can capture energy lost through braking and energy lost as heat through the exhaust system and send it back to the car’s four wheels via four electric motors.
This combination of electric motors, two of which drive the front wheels independently to ensure sublime handling, also means that — like the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder — it will be a hypercar that can offer emissions-free electric-only power over short distances making it strangely suitable for city driving, even if it was developed on the race track.
The Mercedes-AMG Project One is rumored to cost $3 million and every example is already spoken for, even though the car will not be revealed in full until Mercedes’ traditional pre-show press evening in Frankfurt on September 11.
