Yahoo Autos Behold The AMG Project 1's Insane F1-Style Engine
AMG is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and decided to reveal a significant chunk of their most exciting product to date just a few hours before the start of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. This is the drivetrain and suspension package of the AMG Project 1 hypercar:
AMG's halo car is a rather special piece of engineering, and the closest thing to a road-legal Formula 1 car. It uses a drivetrain based on Lewis Hamilton's 2015 ride, with a 1.6 V6 turbo that revs to 11,000. The F1 car's power unit is built around a machined block, with its redline at 13,500. It also idles at around 4000rpm, running a much higher compression ratio. For the road car, AMG applies a more traditional building method, using different pistons, crankshaft and a whole lot of electric wizardry to achieve a thermal efficiency of 43 percent.
I say the Project 1 has five motors, because connected to the V6 are two electric units. An 80 kW (107 horsepower) motor is responsible for keeping the turbo spooled up at all times, while a 120 kW (161 horsepower) unit is connected to the crankshaft.
There are also two 120 motors on the front axle, turning AMG's weapon into a front-wheel drive daily driver in all-electric mode, offering a range of around 15 miles.
V6, electric turbo, three additional electric motors. That's five, technically.
The mid-mounted battery pack houses the same insanely expensive cells as the F1 cars, but the road-going version is four times larger, weighing around 220 lbs. The car's electric system operates at 800 volts.
The entire drivetrain adds 925 lbs. to the car's weight, with the engine-gearbox being a structural part of the carbon fiber chassis. No one-to-one power-to-weight ratio here, but with this much power and such response, performance should be a touch more than adequate.
Because the combined output is over 1000 horsepower with an engine spinning 2000 revs faster than a Porsche 911 GT3's, AMG uses an eight-speed single-clutch gearbox instead of a heavier and more fragile double-clutch. The brakes are carbon-ceramics of course, bringing some heat to 335-wide tires at the rear.
AMG boss Tobias Moers also told us that while currently, they only have a drivetrain and a chassis mule, they intend to start real-life testing as soon as possible. Once the development is over, AMG will aim for building one car a day in order to deliver them all by the end of 2020. With a planned run of 275, all Project 1s are long spoken for.
Longevity? 31,000 miles. Moers says the Project 1 will have a "special" steering wheel, but other then that, you will be able to just jump in it, push the button and go ridiculously fast in an instant. The Project 1 will be legal everywhere but in China. Now, feel free to imagine one doing its pole crash test.
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