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- The Tri-State Area
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Official Photos and Info
It might look like a still from a video game, but what you see here is the nearly finished design of the forthcoming AM-RB 001, the joint collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing. Its makers aim to claim the title of fastest street- legal car in the world—by a considerable margin—when it arrives, probably late next year. It could create a whole new category of car in need of a fresh prefix, over and beyond super-, mega-, and even hypercars.
It’s an extraordinary-looking thing, with a tiny passenger compartment and a motorsport-style “keel” running beneath the car, and the 001’s aerodynamic mission is demonstrated by the fact that the face it presents to the wind is as much gap as it is bodywork. According to Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s chief creative officer, approximately 100 copies will be built—the final figure is still being decided—with two variants, one being fully street legal and one being track only. We’ll have to wait until later for the full shock-and-awe statistics, but the critical one comes with confirmation from the man who led Red Bull’s side of the project, chief technical officer Adrian Newey, that the track version aims to be as fast as an LMP1-class Le Mans endurance racer.
“The one that is going to be LMP1-levels of performance will be the track-only car,” Newey told us. “Then we’ll make a road version of that. Many parts will be common, but obviously it will have an interior in it and won’t have quite the big wings of the track car. There will be differences, but the cars will be closely related.”
To put that into perspective, that means that around a circuit like Silverstone in the U.K., which a McLaren P1 or a Porsche 918 would lap in around two minutes, the AM-RB 001 will have to be 20 seconds quicker. The LMP1 Porsche 919 hybrid that set fastest lap during the race there this April clocked 1.40.303. All of which bears on an ongoing debate about how to define the “fastest” car. The obvious answer is to measure top speed: The fastest car is the one that goes fastest, right? Another looks to lap times at one track or another, seeking to incorporate roadholding, braking, and accelerative performance into the definition.
Details Still Undefined
The AM-RB 001’s engine will be a naturally aspirated V-12 mounted behind the teardrop passenger compartment and will drive the rear wheels only, possibly in conjunction with a Formula 1-style hybrid system.
“The honest truth is that we are evaluating a whole load of potential solutions,” Newey says. “I have a personal favorite, but I can’t talk about that, I’m afraid. What I can say is that central to the concept is that the car should be small, light, and efficient. And if I look at things like the current fad for dual-clutch gearboxes in this type of car, they typically weigh around 150 kilograms [330 pounds] and are very bulky. That makes that type of gearbox a complete non-starter, because it doesn’t fit with the concept of the car. We’re evaluating some different ideas in simulation. We hope to draw a conclusion in the next month or so.”
Even if there is an electrical side to the powertrain, it won’t be as aggressive as those in actual LMP1 race cars.
“It’s very difficult to put a power-to-weight ratio to a LMP1 because they have a very high level of electrical power that lasts for a small period of time,” Newey explains. “We’ve heard figures as high as 1100 horsepower or even 1200 in terms of their initial acceleration on a straight, but that fades as the battery runs out of charge. They might be getting to the end with just 300 or 400 horsepower. If [this car] has an electrical contribution, it will be a much smaller percentage of the internal-combustion engine’s output. So the power-to-weight ratio will be above the average for an LMP1 car, but lower initially.”
Official Photos and Info
It might look like a still from a video game, but what you see here is the nearly finished design of the forthcoming AM-RB 001, the joint collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing. Its makers aim to claim the title of fastest street- legal car in the world—by a considerable margin—when it arrives, probably late next year. It could create a whole new category of car in need of a fresh prefix, over and beyond super-, mega-, and even hypercars.
It’s an extraordinary-looking thing, with a tiny passenger compartment and a motorsport-style “keel” running beneath the car, and the 001’s aerodynamic mission is demonstrated by the fact that the face it presents to the wind is as much gap as it is bodywork. According to Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s chief creative officer, approximately 100 copies will be built—the final figure is still being decided—with two variants, one being fully street legal and one being track only. We’ll have to wait until later for the full shock-and-awe statistics, but the critical one comes with confirmation from the man who led Red Bull’s side of the project, chief technical officer Adrian Newey, that the track version aims to be as fast as an LMP1-class Le Mans endurance racer.
“The one that is going to be LMP1-levels of performance will be the track-only car,” Newey told us. “Then we’ll make a road version of that. Many parts will be common, but obviously it will have an interior in it and won’t have quite the big wings of the track car. There will be differences, but the cars will be closely related.”
To put that into perspective, that means that around a circuit like Silverstone in the U.K., which a McLaren P1 or a Porsche 918 would lap in around two minutes, the AM-RB 001 will have to be 20 seconds quicker. The LMP1 Porsche 919 hybrid that set fastest lap during the race there this April clocked 1.40.303. All of which bears on an ongoing debate about how to define the “fastest” car. The obvious answer is to measure top speed: The fastest car is the one that goes fastest, right? Another looks to lap times at one track or another, seeking to incorporate roadholding, braking, and accelerative performance into the definition.
Details Still Undefined
The AM-RB 001’s engine will be a naturally aspirated V-12 mounted behind the teardrop passenger compartment and will drive the rear wheels only, possibly in conjunction with a Formula 1-style hybrid system.
“The honest truth is that we are evaluating a whole load of potential solutions,” Newey says. “I have a personal favorite, but I can’t talk about that, I’m afraid. What I can say is that central to the concept is that the car should be small, light, and efficient. And if I look at things like the current fad for dual-clutch gearboxes in this type of car, they typically weigh around 150 kilograms [330 pounds] and are very bulky. That makes that type of gearbox a complete non-starter, because it doesn’t fit with the concept of the car. We’re evaluating some different ideas in simulation. We hope to draw a conclusion in the next month or so.”
Even if there is an electrical side to the powertrain, it won’t be as aggressive as those in actual LMP1 race cars.
“It’s very difficult to put a power-to-weight ratio to a LMP1 because they have a very high level of electrical power that lasts for a small period of time,” Newey explains. “We’ve heard figures as high as 1100 horsepower or even 1200 in terms of their initial acceleration on a straight, but that fades as the battery runs out of charge. They might be getting to the end with just 300 or 400 horsepower. If [this car] has an electrical contribution, it will be a much smaller percentage of the internal-combustion engine’s output. So the power-to-weight ratio will be above the average for an LMP1 car, but lower initially.”
Engine: V12
Drivetrain: MR
power-to-weight ratio: 1:1, 1 bhp per kilo of weight.
Drivetrain: MR
power-to-weight ratio: 1:1, 1 bhp per kilo of weight.
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