Mercedes-AMG Project One won't set new 'Ring record

Mercedes-AMG says its upcoming Project ONE hypercar could be even quicker than the modified Porsche Le Mans racer that destroyed the outright Nurburgring lap record in July.

While it is not considering a record run of its own, Mercedes-AMG believes the Project ONE could be a match for the Porsche 919 Evo at the track that means the most to its Stuttgart rival.

“Of course, I saw the lap record run on video and it was impressive,” Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers told motoring.com.au.

“Could we beat the Porsche’s ‘Ring time? We could, probably.

“It would be close, but I think we could. I just don’t know what we’d do it for.”

While the Porsche 919 Evo averaged 238km/h on its blistering lap of the ‘Ring with Timo Bernhard at the wheel and stretched its legs up to 369km/h, it was no production car – nor did Porsche claim it was.

The 919 Evo was pitched as a ‘Tribute’ car to salute its Le Mans success, but Project ONE is planned to be a road car riddled with hybrid F1 technology.

Porsche has denied that the pending arrival of the Project ONE and its Red Bull-Aston Martin rival, the Valkyrie, prompted it to defend Stefan Bellof’s all-time record of 6:11.13 set in 1983.

Sources have insisted even Porsche family members and supervisory board members didn’t want the 919 Evo lap record run to eclipse its beloved Bellof’s achievement, set in a 956 racer.

The Porsche 919 Evo was tweaked to deliver more of everything allowed by the FIA’s LMP1 rulebook, including upping the electric energy recovery from 6.37 megajoules to 8.49, boosting the turbocharged 2.0-litre V4 motor from 368kW to 530kW and pushing 323kW out of the front electric motor.

Its custom-built aero package delivered 53 per cent more downforce at the bumpy track, and it cut out its on-board jacks, windscreen wipers and air-conditioning to pull its weight down to 849kg – 39kg less than the car’s race trim.

But Bernhard’s 5:19.55 run — almost a minute quicker than Porsche’s own previous Nurburgring record — hasn’t daunted Moers, who remains confident in the Project ONE’s powertrain and aero efficiency.

“It’s not a production car and ours is,” he explained.

“Theirs is a racing car that isn’t actually fit to race anywhere, in any class, anywhere. It doesn’t have any rules.

“We have to meet full homologation rules. We could do some things to the aero and take out the air-conditioner and fit some slightly different tyres and then I’d be confident about it.

“But we’re not going to do that.”

Mercedes-AMG this week released images of the Project ONE -- which was first presented in show-car form at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show, undergoing development testing.

It said a transnational team has spent the past several months undertaking a digital development process dubbed Project ONE Virtual Engineering to ensure Daimler’s Formula 1 hybrid technology is ready for the road and series production.

“Hundreds of testing hours have already been spent to master the immense challenge of making the high-performance drive unit ready for series production,” said AMG.

“The whole powertrain including all hybrid components underwent the toughest race track tests on the high-performance dyno tests of HPP's engine specialists in Brixworth.

“The successful completion of the dyno tests was followed by the installation of the highly complex powertrain into the first prototypes, which since then have been driving around unnoticed on a secret test ground in England.

“But it turns out to be more difficult to keep this testing confidential: the camouflaged prototypes of the Mercedes-AMG hypercar are still being driven on closed off test grounds and racetracks.

“However, because of their characteristic F1 sound they are hard to keep from the public.”

As we’ve reported, Mercedes-AMG’s first hypercar will develop at least 740kW and 1000hp at 11,000rpm from an F1-derived 1.6-litre turbo V6.

It will hit 200km/h in less than six seconds on its way to a 350km/h-plus top speed, as well as offer a 25km EV range via four electric motors.

Despite a price tag that could top $5 million each, eight left-hand drive examples from a global production run of just 275 will be delivered in Australia from late 2019 – all of them already sold.