Street legal Formula 1 cars...now that's a new one!

Continuing with the recent themes of cars I was reading this on Top Gear's website yesterday and I just had to put it up on here.

According to Top Gear's website Mercedes AMG are set to reveal at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September their 1,000bhp-plus hypercar Project One.

According to Daimler CEO Dr. Zetsche this hypercar "...will be the missing link legitimising the integration of AMG with the Formula One team..."

And he goes on to say that:

"It will be a limited production, and ideally we want it to be sold out before the first one is delivered. It's the first street legal car with a Formula One engine, and will be perceived as the ultimate sports car."

This is the first glimpse of this new hypercar with a Formula One engine that Top Gear's website have had from Mercedes AMG:



So still Mercedes AMG are not giving anything away about how this new supped up hypercar will look like.

Although what Top Gear has managed to gleam from this "glimpse" of Project One, is that it looks like the finished car will have large vents and cooling slats on the rear and that it will feature a central fin that supposedly promises unprecedented aerodynamic downforce on a road car.

But I was just thinking how on earth can you realistically design a street legal formula 1 car with all their big engines, their completely different technology that includes completely not meant for roads top speeds, breaking speeds that are completely different to road cars, even the way the car is steered on a formula one car is completely different to road cars as they usually have a six gear gearbox with paddles on the back of the steering wheel that help the driver to drive the damn thing...and where do you even begin with the price of the car no matter about how on earth you'd even start to think how one of these Formula 1 cars become street legal.

But I have just thought that although there would be a lot of interest in owning a hypercar that has Formula 1 technology and engine inside...because come on who wouldn't want to own something that they can experience or even drive around the streets and pretend that their in an F1 car? but also according to this same Top Gear article Mercedes AMG aren't the only ones trying to do a street legal Formula 1 hypercars.

Adrian Newey has apparently designed and co-created along with Red Bull Advanced Technologies the Aston Martin AM-RB 001:



According to Top Gear this design draws downforce from immense underbody voids, and the driver would be sitting in it much like a Formula 1 driver would with their knees and feet high, there would be a naturally aspirated brand new ultra-compact V12 engine, the exhaust would exit upwards behind the tear dropped cockpit canopy. This hypercar will also according to this same Top Gear article be around 1,000bhp-per-tonne and will have a targeted weight of under 1,000kg.

Further research into what the transmission, suspension and battery will be like that will eventually go into the final hypercar will take a bit longer...but according to Adrian Newey this car will be comfortable to drive and he has said in this same article that he does understand that this must be friendly to drive and that it must be possible for normal drivers to not get intimidated.

This will have a limited run of 99 plus track versions of this car, with a production-date end of 2018 and if you have a spare £2-3m you could own your very own slice of this hypercar...so this car hasn't been designed for the average joe then.

The difference that the Mercedes AMG hypercar will have to the Aston Martin Red Bull designed hypercar is that it will have is a 1.6 litre V6 engine, split turbine, electric motor on the crank and the all-wheel drive application so says Tobias Moers Mercedes AMG boss. This has been done so says Tobias Moers to make this new hypercar more sophisticated regarding efficiency and drivability.

Moers says that turning this car into a street legal car will be tough though as the engine in a F1 cars already idles at about 4,000rpms but for this car it will idle at about 1,200 or so rpms. Also Moers says that for Mercedes AMG they need space for cooling and for the radiators.

Also one thing is for sure that this Mercedes AMG will have an electric powertrain with them reckoning that the car will do 15 miles on electric power alone. But Tobias Moers does say though despite this promised phenomenal performance potential the car will be easy to drive...it's just learning to trust the aerodynamics and getting used to the available downforce that'll be the tricky part that drivers of this Project One will have to get used to.

So other than these details there's no information on what kind of customer you'll need to be in order to own your very own slice of silver arrows F1 hypercar...whether like with the Aston Martin Red Bull car you'll need to be an ex-Formula 1 driver that owns your very own yacht or could you actually be an average joe and still get your hands on one of these cars? who knows but I'll keep my eyes peeled for anymore info on this when it is released.