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Mercedes-AMG One won’t challenge Nurburgring record lap time

In March, Autocar reported that Mercedes-AMG had investigated challenging the outright Nürburgring lap record. Mercedes was said to have studied the fastest two laps, both set by racing driver Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956, with the intent of setting a new benchmark using the AMG Project One, which will now be called merely the AMG One. Apparently AMG believed it could be done, the hardest part being “finding the right driver.” AMG boss Tobia Moers still believes the One could win the day even after the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo obliterated the old mark by nearly a minute. But Moers quashed the attempt, telling Australian site Motoring, “Could we beat the Porsche’s ‘Ring time? We could, probably,” then adding, “I just don’t know what we’d do it for.”

Moers admits the Porsche run “was impressive,” and a One victory “would be close.” To give the One a chance at the title, engineers could rework the aero, yank out the air conditioning, and put on different tires. But Moers can’t see the point of a fully homologated production car challenging a race car that’s been upgraded beyond any legal race spec. “Theirs is a racing car that isn’t actually fit to race anywhere, in any class, anywhere. It doesn’t have any rules,” he said. At one point there had been rumor of a track-only version of the One, which might have made more sense to field, but such plans, if there really were any, were axed.

For a quick rundown of the figures, Bellof’s 35-year-old record stood at 6:11.13, set during qualifying for the Nürburgring 1000 KM race. The 956 produced 630 hp in its most powerful guise from a 2.5-liter, twin-turbo V6. The upgraded 919 Hybrid Evo put out not less than 1,160 hp from the combined efforts of its 2.0-liter V4 ICE and electric motor. Having had its aero tweaked and been stripped of its A/C, windshield wipers, and jack system, it averaged 147 miles per hour around the ‘Ring, hitting a top speed of 229 mph, to set a lap time of 5:19.55. We’re still waiting on final specs for the AMG One, but it’s expected to make more than 1,021 horsepower from its 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 and four electric motors, and post a top speed beyond 218 mph.

We can see Moers’ point. Now that the One’s been placed in the ring with the 919 Hybrid Evo, Mercedes takes the biggest risk. If the One doesn’t set a new best lap, it looks like the Mercedes-AMG hypercar lost, and explanations of the lopsided competition won’t get trumpeted as much as the mark in the L column. Every One is already sold, and has given new dimension to the brand a year before the first customer delivery.

And yet, we think the challenge is all the more worthwhile if Moers really believes the AMG One can do it. To have a fully homologated road car from the sporty division of a luxury car brand beat a dedicated, unrestricted effort from the legendary racing division of a legendary sports brand at the world’s most iconic lap-record track? We’d buy tickets to that show.

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FIA introduces ‘Hypercar Concept’ for World Endurance Championship

One of the most common jabs at hypercars is the question, “Where can you drive them to their potential?” Imagine the answer being: to the checkered flag in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We’re not there yet, but the FIA World Motor Sport Council took a step closer to the possibility during its second annual meeting in Manila, the Philippines. One of three initiatives the WSMC announced for the 2020 World Endurance Championship was “Freedom of design for brands based on a ‘Hypercar’ concept.” This “Hypercar concept” would replace LMP1 as the premier class in the WEC.

The dream, of course, would be seeing racing versions of the AMG Project One, Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, Bugatti Chiron, Koenigsegg Regera, McLaren Senna GTR, Pagani Huara BC, and the rest of the gang trading paint and carbon fiber through Dunlop in a heinously expensive version of “Buy on Sunday, sell on Monday.” The reality is that we don’t have all the details yet on the set of regulations called “GTP,” but the FIA wants race cars more closely tied to road cars, albeit with the performance level of today’s LMP1 cars.

Exterior design freedom would shelter internals designed to reduce costs, the FIA planning to mandate less complex hybrid systems and allow the purchase of spec systems. One of the FIA’s primary goals is lowering LMP1 budgets to a quarter of their present levels. Audi and Porsche budgets exceeded $200 million, while Toyota – the only factory LMP1 entry this year and next – is assumed to have a budget hovering around $100 million. Reports indicated that Aston Martin, Ferrari, Ford, McLaren, and Toyota sat in on the development of the proposed class. If the FIA can get costs down to around $25 million, that would compare running a top IndyCar team and have to be hugely appealing to the assembled carmakers.

The initiative represents another cycle of the roughly once-a-decade reboot of sports car racing to counter power or cost concerns. The FIA shut down Group 5 Special Production Sports Car class in 1982 to halt worrying power hikes, and introduced Group C. In 1993, Group C came to an ignoble end over costs; manufacturers were spending $15 million on a season, back when that was real money and not one-fifth of a Ferrari 250 GTO. Then came the BPR Global GT Series that morphed into the FIA GT Championship, which would see the last not-really-a-road car take overall Le Mans victory in 1998, the Porsche 911 GT1. That era would be most aligned with a future hypercar class. After that, the FIA created the LMP classes that would take those previous stellar budgets supernova.

We’ll get more details on the proposal next week when the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the Le Mans organizer that worked with the FIA on the ideas, hold’s its pre-Le Mans press conference.

Elsewhere on the WMSC docket, the FIA approved aero changes to 2019 Formula 1 cars to improve overtaking. An even bigger shock: the FIA World Rallycross Championship will go electric-only from 2020. The WRX will use silhouette cars provided by Oreca, powered by two 500-kW electric motors sourced from Williams Engineering, and a common battery. Ex-World Rally Championship maestro Sebastien Loeb, now a World Rallycross team owner and driver, said of that move, “We don’t dream about electric cars, but if the future for all cars is to be electric then it’s normal that we’d make the swap. And in this case I think Rallycross is the best series to do it because it’s very short, you have a lot of power, very fast cars and an intense fight…”

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AMG Project One could claim Nurburgring lap time record, says AMG boss

Speaking to Autocar, typically understated AMG head honcho Tobias Moers said it’s “reasonable to speculate” that the Mercedes-AMG Project One would take the absolute lap record at the Nürburgring. That means he’s not talking about beating the 6:47.25 lap the Porsche 911 GT2 RS set last September. Nor is he talking about the 6:43.22 lap the McLaren P1 XP1 LM Prototype set in May 2017. Apparently Moers means beating one of two lap records set 35 years ago, both of them by Stefan Bellof in a Rothmans Porsche 956.

During qualifying for the 1983 Nürburgring 1000 KM, Bellof ran the 20.832-kilometer Nordschleife in 6:11.13. In the race that weekend, Bellof clocked a 6:25.91. Moers wouldn’t divulge anything else about the Project One ‘Ring attempt, but Autocar says AMG has studied both of Bellof’s lap records in detail, and the biggest challenge to making the dream come true is “finding the right driver.”

The Porsche 956 and the AMG Project One have a few things in common. The Project One exists as a result of Formula 1, Porsche used a 956 chassis as testbed for the TAG-branded F1 engine that would power McLaren to three F1 Driver’s Championships and two Constructors Championships. The 956 and Project One specialize in aero; the 956 was one of the first Group C racers to employ ground effects aero, the even sleeker Project One will generate aero downforce equal to half the car’s body weight. Regarding technology transfer from racing to road cars, the 1982 Porsche 956 switched to digital fuel injection that used less fuel but maintained horsepower and increased torque, and the 1983 Porsche 956 was the first race car to use a double-clutch transmission. The Project One represents the wholesale transfer of F1 tech to road use.

Where the two differ greatly are amenities and power. The 956 needed “the strength of a bear and a lot of courage” to drive, and Bellof’s 956 made around 630 hp in its most powerful guise from a 2.5-liter, twin-turbo V6. Moers said the 1.6-liter V6 hybrid power unit in the Project One is already showing 1,000 horsepower on the dyno, and will probably come in somewhere closer to 1,100 hp by the time customers take delivery.

That sounds like plenty of firepower to lay on the target, but there’s a reason Bellof’s record has stood for so long that some believe it won’t ever be broken. The 956 was so fast that when Bellof’s teammate, Derek Bell, ran a practice lap with camera equipment for a TV segment, Bell did a 6:47 — and got passed by a screaming Jacky Ickx on a qualifying lap in another 956. No one’s been within 30 seconds of Bellof’s qualifying time since 1983.

If AMG does find “the right driver” and the Project One is the right car, said driver will not only cut a fat hunk of time off the nearest comparable benchmark, that of the McLaren P1 Prototype, he (or she) will shame everything else out there. In a car with an airbag, infotainment system, and a phone charger. Stay tuned.

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Why the Mercedes-AMG Project One’s active aero doesn’t split like Lamborghini’s

Related: We obsessively covered the Frankfurt Motor Show — here’s our complete coverage

FRANKFURT, Germany — We learned some interesting facts from Mercedes-AMG’s CEO Tobias Moers at the Frankfurt Motor Show about the Project One. While the machine boasts a comprehensive suite of active aerodynamic technology from adjustable spoilers to opening vents, the right and left sides of the Project One can’t operate independently of each other.

As you may remember, the Lamborghini Huracán Performante‘s party pieces are vents that adjust the amount of downforce applied to either the left or right side. This helps keep the car level in corners, and it likely contributed to the Lambo’s wickedly fast Nürburgring lap time. The astonishing Project One will not take advantage of a similar system.

Moers told us he didn’t see an advantage to such a variable system. He feels that having downforce is vital right from the moment of turn-in, and adjusting downforce left and right can’t be done quickly enough to make a difference at corner entry. And there’s no way to predictively adjust aero to prepare for a corner, at least not at this point in time. That being said, Lamborghini certainly sees merit and has said there are benefits in high-speed corners and we agree that it makes a difference.

Mercedes-AMG Project One powertrain

According to Moers, 1,000-horsepower Formula 1 V6 hybrid powertrain wasn’t particularly difficult to make durable and reliable enough for daily driving on the streets. He said that the criteria from racing wasn’t too far off. One of the primary difficulties was getting the idle down from around 4,000 rpm to a more livable 1,000 rpm. Accessories like air conditioning, which usually require belt-driven compressors from the engine, were taken care of by simply powering them with electricity, something the hybrid will have plenty of.

We also gather that Mercedes will take the car to the ‘Ring to set a lap time. Unfortunately, Moers wouldn’t give us a target time the company is shooting for. After all, there are still some things to fine tune and prepare before the company starts delivering cars to customers in 2019.

Deciding who gets a Project One is another of the things Mercedes-AMG is still working on. Despite a cost of over $2.5 million, demand is impressively high. Moers told us that about 3-4 times as many people asking to buy one as the total allotment of 275 cars. So if you’re not already in line, well, it’s probably not gonna happen.

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Mercedes teases 1,000-horsepower, 217-mph AMG Project ONE

Mercedes has been surprisingly forthcoming with details and information about its upcoming AMG Project ONE hypercar, having shown a completely undisguised powertrain. But the one part of the car the company has been tightlipped about is the body. Finally, the company has released a teaser giving us some idea of what the car will look like.

One of the first interesting things we noticed about this car is that it seems the three-pointed star is not going to have the same prominent position in the center of the grille as with virtually every other production Mercedes. Instead, it appears to be lying flat against the bodywork, away from the grille. This also seems to indicate that Mercedes isn’t trying to shoehorn the AMG GT‘s fascia onto this unique car. The headlights are narrow slits unlike the more bulbous units on regular Mercedes. The silhouette also looks reminiscent of GT1-class race cars of the late 1990s, such as those based on the McLaren F1 and Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.

Mercedes-AMG Project ONE powertrain

We’ll have to wait for the car’s full reveal at the Frankfurt Motor Show to get a clear look at the body, but we can tell you plenty about what’s under the skin. It uses a hybrid powertrain consisting of an F1-based 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 that revs to 11,000 rpm and a quartet of electric motors. Mercedes confirmed with this teaser that the powertrain will produce over 1,000 horsepower and take the car to a top speed of over 217 mph. The company will build 275 examples of the car at $2.54 million a piece. Mercedes has said that the car can be operated like a normal car, but the engine will have to be rebuilt at 31,000 miles. Such is the life of a racecar engine, but we doubt prospective buyers will be too concerned about the short engine span, and many cars likely won’t even reach that any miles. Expect more fascinating details to come forth when the car is revealed.

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