Aston Martin's AM-RB 001 hypercar has a Red Bull under its skin
Aston Martin is partnering with the Formula One gurus from Red Bull Racing to produce a new V-12 hypercar said to be as fast as the quickest cars at Le Mans.
The hypercar wars continue, and while Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren went to great lengths to add some cutting edge drivetrain technology to their Laferrari, 918 and P1, respectively, Aston Martin is perhaps keeping things a bit more simple with its new ultimate performance machine: the AM-RB 001.
The AM stands for Aston Martin, of course. And the RB is for Red Bull, more specifically Red Bull Racing, the Formula One team that won four consecutive championships from 2010 through 2013. But, where RBR focuses on the track, this will be its first road-going design, giving technical design guru Adrian Newey the chance to stretch his proverbial legs a bit and design a car unrestrained by competitive rules and regulations.
The car predictably contains no shortage of Formula One technology, starting with a fully carbon fiber construction that saves weight and adds massive strength.
This also allows for great freedom of design, and Newey has apparently grafted it with an under-floor diffuser that produces a huge amount of downforce -- though the initial release doesn't state exactly how much.
With much of the downforce coming from below, the body itself is free of big wings and other aerodynamic appendages, and so is a shapely, decidedly futuristic-looking thing.
Mounted in the middle of it is an Aston-produced V-12 engine. Yes, a plain ol' V-12, apparently augmented with some sort of hybrid system. No specific figures are given, but it is presumably an evolution of the 7.3-liter lump used in Aston's last hypercar, the One-77. In that form it produced a very healthy 750 horsepower. Expect a bit more here.
The company also didn't quote a weight for the car, but did state that it will offer a one-to-one power-to-weight ratio. That is, one horsepower per kilogram of weight. That's a rare feat, most notably achieved by the Koenigsegg One:1 hypercar -- a twin-turbocharged beast that cost somewhere between $2 million and $3 million.
And that's the final figure not disclosed by Aston: price. The company did, however, say it will only be producing between 99 and 150 examples of the AM-RB 001, including 25 even more hardcore examples that will be track-only.
First deliveries will occur sometime in 2018, and the car will be produced in England, at Gaydon, where the One-77 was formerly bolted together. Best get your order in now as these will sell out quickly -- if indeed they haven't already.
