Nurburg, Germany - Given that the Mercedes-AMG One is essentially a Formula One car for the road, it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that the hypercar has broken the Nurburgring record for the fastest production car lap.
Still, a 6 minute and 35.183 second lap time is still hugely impressive, beating the Porsche 911 GT2 RS with Manthey tuning by around eight seconds.
DTM driver Maro Engel achieved the new ‘Ring record for Mercedes-AMG on October 28, at 17:15. Although he had already set a new best stime beforehand, Engel was not satisfied and as track conditions were improving by the minutes, he took one last opportunity before the track closed for the day. You can watch some of the action in the video below.
“That was really an unforgettable experience. I didn’t expect that we would be able to set such a lap time with these track conditions,” Engel said after the record lap. “In some crucial areas of the track, it hadn’t dried completely yet and was therefore tricky. That was a special challenge. We tried to find the optimal deployment strategy during the pre-tests.
“Like Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on their race weekends, I also had to deploy the electrical energy of the hybrid drive in the best possible way. That’s not easy, especially with this length of track. In addition, the DRS function had to be used optimally. But that’s also a real Formula 1 feeling.”
The Mercedes-AMG One is based around a carbon-fibre monocoque, and features a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain that produces 782kW in total. The petrol-powered component is an F1-derived 1.6-litre V6 turbo that revs to a dizzying 11 000rpm, while contributing 422kW to the tally.
Mercedes-AMG says the One will surge from 0-100km/h in just 2.9 seconds, with 200km/h coming up by the seven second mark.
Mercedes-AMG Board Chairman Philipp Schiemer said he was proud of his colleagues who never gave up and continued to push the dream of this vehicle.
This success is the well-deserved reward for their hard work. Even though the AMG ONE is certainly more at home on a Grand Prix circuit than on the Nordschleife – as is so often the case with this project – we’ve simply gone one step further. We’re the first ever to have taken on the challenges of the Nürburgring with a super sports car. That’s also what makes this project so unique and I’m very happy about this fantastic lap time," Schiemer said.