Yahoo Autos Aston Martin and Red Bull's Hypercar Is the McLaren F1 for a New Generation
The McLaren F1 was the ultimate supercar of the 1990s, and arguably of the last fifty years. It combined the engineering genius of Gordon Murray with a special V12 from BMW and the meticulous craftsmanship of McLaren to form something incredible.
The AM-RB 001, a joint venture of Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, is the same idea, but 20 years later with different players and vastly higher performance targets. This new car is F1 genius Adrian Newey's first road car project, which is being engineered in collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Technologies. The results should be ridiculous.
What you see here is a model that isn't the real car, but is very close. Adrian Newey has worked most of his aero magic on the underside of the car which has allowed Aston design chief Marek Reichman to have free reign on the design. This looks like nothing that's on the road today, more Le Mans prototype that street legal car. It also looks nothing like any current Aston Martin, but does resemble an Aston Martin from some sort of dystopian, sci-fi future.
It's powered by an all-new, high revving, mid-mounted, naturally aspirated V12 (YES) which is attached to a gearbox of Newey's design, the details of which are yet to be unveiled. It's safe to say it isn't a manual. Aston says that the all-carbon fiber car will boast a 1:1 power to weight ratio, like the Koenigsegg One:1. We'd be guessing that in order to achieve those targets, there might be some sort of hybrid aid, like an ERS system from an F1 car. Since Red Bull Racing is involved, that's not out of the realm of possibility. Details of the suspension haven't been released either, Aston and Red Bull just saying it will have innovative technology and "employ principles honed by Newey over his career." Presumably this means they won't be experimenting with some sort of unknown material like boron or cheese in the shocks.
That will combine for unbelievable performance. Top speed, 0 to 60, and other normal performance metrics haven't been unveiled yet, but one performance target has been released and it's ridiculous. There will be a track-only version of the car, and that will supposedly be able to lap Silverstone in the same amount of time as a current LMP1 race car.
Wow.
That doesn't mean that the road-only version will be slow and boring. Far from it. Newey wants a car that can be comfy on the road and devastating on the track. Perhaps the road version will only be as quick as an LMP2 car, which won't be a disappointment.
Aston Martin hasn't settled on final production numbers, but they will build between 99 and 150 road cars and 25 of the track-only versions. Production is slated to start in late 2017 with deliveries beginning in 2018. No price has been released, but it will be exorbitantly expensive.
