About three years ago Mercedes-AMG announced its most focused model ever, Project One. After years of super saloons, performance coupes and sportscars wearing the Three Pointed Star, it is finally time for a genuine hypercar to leave the gates of Affalterbach. As we see in the video below of Mercedes-AMG One spied testing at the Nurburgring that will be a reality soon.

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F1 road car

For those who are unfamiliar, the Mercedes-AMG One uses a Formula One engine, from the company’s record-breaking single-seater racecar, in a road-going passenger car for two. It is an ambitious project that has never been carried out before. Incredibly, the Mercedes-AMG One has the very same engine size, at 1,6 litres, that is fed by a turbocharger and supplemented by a hybrid component as the current F1 rules demand. This hybrid model employs four electric motors in conjunction with the petrol-fed engine.

Check out the most recent model to be launched by AMG, the GT Black Series at this link.

Two motors drive the front wheels, a 120 kW unit is attached to the V6’s crank, and an 80 kW unit is fitted within Mercedes’ innovative split turbocharger to help spool up the turbine. The highly complex hybrid power unit will have full output of more than 800 kW, approximately the same as Lewis Hamilton’s weekend steed. Thanks to the two motors driving the front wheels the AMG One is all-wheel drive. Performance-driven torque vectoring will ensure maximum traction and quick lap times.

Ownership elgibility

Mercedes-AMG is building just 275 units of the One. As you can imagine they are pretty sought after. Our sources close to the factory sent us the scoring sheet to ascertain if one qualifies to own one of the limited-edition hypercars. Questions on the sheeting included: “Do you own any other direct sales Mercedes ie CLK GTR or GT3 racecar“, “number of AMG cars in your current collection”, “are you a race team owner/manager” and “are you a current/former F1 pilot or GT3 racer”? Sadly we scored pretty badly on this test and will not be eligible for Mercedes-AMG One ownership…

Read up on the history of all Mercedes-AMG’s Black Series models by clicking here.

Final testing

Several pre-production models are now undergoing final stages of testing. Development mules (as they are known) were recently seen attacking the Nürburgring Nordschleife on an industry pool day. This refers to a day/s when automakers chip in their share and use the track exclusively without the public in attendance. However, that doesn’t stop folks from pitching up trackside with cameras to shoot stills and videos.

The Nordschleife (which we drove and produced this video of the experience) is known as the most brutal racetrack in the world. It is said that if a car works well on this undulating and demanding piece of tar then it will work well on any other circuit in the world. Unlike an F1 car Mercedes-AMG One is using various active aero components such as the louvres, the air outlets in the front fenders and the large rear aerofoil to deliver higher lateral grip.

Learn more about the newest member of the hypercar club from its creators in the video below.