One of the stars at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show was the super expensive, F1-derived hypercar Mercedes-AMG Project One. The $2.8 million hypercar is stuffed with all the tech that Mercedes has developed to dominate in Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsports tech.
The Project One relies on a 1.6-liter V6 engine and a few electric motors. Yet it tops out at 217 mph and goes from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.6 seconds. The engine makes roughly 700 horsepower, largely because it cranks at 11,000 rpm. The hybrid system produces around 1,000 horsepower.
As one would expect, the BMW fans took notice of the supercar in Stuttgart and been demanding a similar project from BMW. And according to BMW, the issue is not whether they have the capability to build it, but rather the need for the hypercar in this market.
“We would like to do a standalone car and we could do it – but today there is no requirement from the market to do it,” BMW M development boss, Dirk Hacker, told Autocar. “As a company, we are more focused on future mobility than digitization than building a hypercar, to be honest, but if we came to the decision to do a super sportscar, then we could do that.”
Hacker conceded that an electrified halo car could have some appeal, but stressed that any such hypercar would be some way off production.
“Formula E could be interesting for us [M Division]. M cars have roots in racing,” he said. “It will be an interesting challenge as more OEMs get involved and there could certainly be the opportunity for some input from our engineering department in the series.”
So if a hypercar is out of the question for now, a halo electric vehicle might be something you could see in the future.
