Skip to main content

Fast Friends Aston Martin And Red Bull Racing Reveal AM-RB 001

Photo Credit: Aston Martin The Americas


Long regarded as the most prestigious form of auto racing, Formula 1 has been known for creating legends. Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, James Hunt, Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher are among a few that transcend the borders of motorsport to be seen as sport stars based on their mastery inside the global open wheel series. As impressive as driver instinct and physical nature impacts auto racing, finely-tuned machines have provided the basis for legacies. Teams looking for the competitive edge have developed technologies and philosophies becoming the foundation for most supercars. Fuel injection, mid-engined configuration, carbon fiber construction and semi-automatic transmissions.

The technology transfer of Formula 1 cars to road cars has also been accompanied by the teams of the sport. While manufacturer involvement is a cornerstone to Formula 1, the reversal trend has always been popular. The story was that Enzo Ferrari began building production cars in order to fund his Formula 1 and other racing activities he enjoyed so much. McLaren has a long-stemming relationship to production cars that started with modified Ford Mustangs in the 1980s but has reached critical mass with their own supercar company. In 2011, Williams F1 was to be partnered with Jaguar’s aborted production of the C-X75 supercar. A recently-announced teaming between four-time world constructor champion Red Bull Racing and an over one century-old British sports car company Aston Martin has now resulted in a new hypercar fusion of motorsport/road car technology called the AM-RB 001.


Photo Credit: Aston Martin The Americas


Collaboratively developed between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing personnel, the limited production AM-RB 001 high-performance vehicle’s development was presided by the three individuals. From Aston Martin, executive vice president and chief creative officer Marek Reichman as well as the Chief Special Operations Officer David King worked with legendary Formula 1 car designer and Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey. Newey has built world championship cars for Williams F1 team, McLaren as well as Red Bull Racing and was involved in the March IndyCar chassis in a career spanning more than 30 years. From the collective expertise, the AM-RB 001 came to form as a V-12 powered, mid-engined two-seat dream car touting incredible aerodynamics and a mind-boggling power-to-weight ratio.


Photo Credit: Aston Martin The Americas


The AM-RB 001 lightweight carbon fiber construction is described as exhibiting a level of aerodynamic performance uncommon with production road cars. Downforce is optimized with the hypercar’s underfloor derived from Newey’s Formula 1 design experience. The aesthetics of the AM-RB 001's form and function shape is among the most extreme uses for the wings badge. The two-passenger cabin compartment is tightly wrapped into the center of the vehicle.

Mechanically, the AM-RB 001 hypercar’s momentum will be extracted from a naturally-aspirated V-12 engine. While performance specs have not been mentioned with the AM-RB 001 initial debut, the mid-mounted powerplant is said to preserve a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio (equating to 1 horsepower per single kilogram of vehicle weight). Little concrete news has also been announced in regards to the suspension and transmission of the car but the collective behind the AM-RB 001 teases both aspects will draw on Adrian Newey’s skill to create an innovative setup.

Photo Credit: Aston Martin The Americas



Production of the AM-RB 001 is slated to start at Aston Martin’s Gaydon production facility for 2018 with between 99 and 150 road legal examples for a price not yet determined. For what is guaranteed to be an obscene amount of money, the sticker price is unlikely to be an obstacle for ultra-rich buyers of finely-crafted rolling engineering marvels. There is also 25-vehicle release of the AM-RB 001 earmarked specially as track-only models.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Review

Photo Credit: Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. untitled A companion to the NTT IndyCar Series finale weekend on the streets of Long Beach, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship staged a 26-car race on Saturday consisting of DPi, GTLM and GTD class machines. With the conclusion of the 1-hour, 40-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach sports car event, the overall winner was the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac shared by the driving duo of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani. The victory was a decisive weekend for the Whelen Engineering Racing team that had scored the pole position and went on to take the checkered flag with a 10.95-second gap over the #01 Cadillac fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing with Kevin Magnussen and Renger van der Zande. Corvette Racing enjoyed a dominant outing in the GTLM category. Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R beat the #3 car shared by Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor. Only three GTLM class vehicles ran at Long Be

Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton Quickest In Qatar Qualifying

Photo Credit: LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. Saturday’s qualifying for the inaugural Formula 1 race in the Arab nation of Qatar has assembled what is certain to be a dramatic opening lap showdown between this season’s title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. In setting the grid for Sunday’s 57-lap main event on the fast, high grip 5.380-kilometer Losail International Circuit, it was the driver of the #44 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team race car that took honours. Lewis Hamilton’s pole-winning lap time of 1-minute, 20.827 seconds in the final Q3 session putting a cap on a time trial where the seven-time World Drivers’ Champion handily controlled through the three sessions. Joining Hamilton on the front row of the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix will be Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing machine. The Honda-powered entrant was 0.455 seconds slower than the rival Mercedes race car. With the race at Losail being the third-to-last event on the 2021 Form

Ignition for the Integra: Acura's New 2023 Sport Compact

Photo Credit: American Honda Motor Co., Inc. untitled In August, Honda’s luxury car brand Acura shared an intriguing teaser image accompanied by the revelation that a classic sport compact name would return. Included in a rather familiar close-up promotional shot capturing a headlamp and part of the Diamond Pentagon grille, the key focus was a nameplate reading “Integra”. A rear image of a five-door hatchback shape dropped in late September while a picture of a six-speed manual shifter released in mid-October clearly as a means to tantalize a modern premium sport compact crowd. After a 20-year hiatus, the Integra is once again part of the Acura lineup. A five-door hatchback touting a coupe-like shape, the 2023 Acura Integra will give entry-level luxury car buyers a strong taste of performance attitude. As was the case with the previous Integra models, the Honda Civic platform serves as the basis for this latest premium compact. While the new Civic hatchback’s silhouette i