Move aside Porsche, the new conqueror of the Nürburgring Nordschleife is here, although it comes in the form of another German automaker, after all. The Mercedes-AMG One, officially known as Project ONE set a new Nürburgring lap time of 6:35.183 min. In other words, it’s stupid fast, and that too, on a day when the conditions were not “ideal”, so to say.
Frankly, since the birth of the motorcar, engineers have been trying to make the fastest car, and with the ever-progressing technology, the fastest car tends to change just about every year, officially. Case in question, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS with the Manthey Racing pack lapped the 20.8km circuit in 6:43.3 min last year. And now, the Mercedes-AMG one proves to be 20 seconds faster, in a Herculean effort of both tech and skill. Of course, 1,063 horsepower (in the Mercedes-AMG One) will win over 700 horses (of the Porsche)…
The fact is, Mercedes-AMG now becomes the first car manufacturer to debut an F1-inspired hypercar onto the Nürburgring Nordschleife, setting impressive official records there. Not only did the Mercedes-AMG One become the fastest road-legal vehicle on the Nordschleife, but it’s now also number one in the challenging Nürburgring "super sports car" category. Here’s the low down…
What Makes The Mercedes-AMG One So Fast?
Mercedes-AMG successfully tuned Formula-1 tech into a road-legal hypercar and calls the Project ONE a premium-class E performance plug-in hybrid. It uses a 1.6-liter V6 turbo petrol engine with four electric motors. Thus, the turbocharger, crankshaft, and front axle act together to deliver more than 1,000 horsepower and the official number is 1,063.
Everything also falls into place with the powerful, directly cooled 800-volt battery, which comes from High-Performance Powertrains, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 engine builder. Mercedes-AMG One claims to be faster than 350 km/h, which translates to more than 217 mph, again, making it perfect for those who need speed, always.
There’s a lot more to the technological marvel of this car, given that its very modest V6 ends up doing what many V8 engines cannot, and you can read all about it, here.
So basically, this is one car you can drive on the road with ease, and get your kicks in at the racetrack, looking good while doing both. Given that it comes at an astronomical price, of more than $2.7 million, well, it’s not that much of a surprise, right?
Mercedes-AMG One Is The Fastest HyperCar On The Nürburgring Nordschleife
A Nürburgring lap time of 6:35.183 min is big shakes given that it makes the Mercedes-AMG One the fastest production car to have ever lapped the Green Hell, so much so, it’s nearly supersonic. Of course, given the challenges of the day, we’d say the effort was also Herculean.
German racer Maro Engel went behind the wheel on the last lap of the day, at 5:14 pm local time (the track shuts at 5:15). While he had set a new record, he felt he could better it, and so even though the track was damp, and the conditions were not “ideal”, Engel engaged the One’s hyperdrive setting for one last time in the day.
To prep the two Ones, as the two cars that Mercedes-AMG decided to test that day, they set the camber to maximum and used the ‘Race Plus’ mode to its endurance limit which gave them active aero, tighter chassis tuning, a lower ride height (37mm) and all the power squeezed from the engine and the motors. Engel said he had to “lift and coast” during the lap to build braking energy for the faster sections, and managed to hit 210 mph along the fastest areas of the track, like the Döttinger Höhe.
Mercedes-AMG Brought Two Ones Into The Testing Ring
To make sure the unofficial test went without a hitch, Mercedes-AMG bought in two Ones, both inspected by the authorities to make sure they were compliant with the stock rules of the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Plus, the lap times came precisely measured by the neutral experts of "wige SOLUTIONS” to make sure the win came fair and square.
After the lap, Engel was on an understandable high, saying, “That was really an unforgettable experience. I didn’t expect that we would be able to set such a lap time with these track conditions. I had to deploy the electrical energy of the hybrid drive in the best possible way and that’s not easy, especially with this length of the track. In addition, the DRS function had to be used optimally, but that’s also a real Formula One feeling."
Philipp Schiemer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes‑AMG GmbH also cheered the success as he felt this was a win for the whole of the Mercedes-AMG one team, given that their dream and vision had finally come to life.
Sources: Mercedes-Benz, YouTube channel Mercedes-AMG