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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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