10 Things We Learned About The Aston Martin AM-RB 001 Hypercar

Today the covers were taken off the brand-new, incredibly bonkers Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing hypercar – codenamed the AM-RB 001.

I was at Aston’s Gaydon factory for the reveal and while some details of the mad machine’s specification were kept under wraps, we still learned plenty of cool details about the car.

1. A lot of interest

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer was keen to stress that no more than 150 of these AM-RB 001 hypercars will ever be made. The planned production figure will be between 99 and 150, including special editions, track versions (of which there will be 25) and prototypes.

But one interesting figure Palmer revealed is that there have been 370 expressions of interest for buying one of them, despite the fact no one outside Aston has seen the car up until now.

2. Hitting the road

The aim is for deliveries of the car to begin in 2018 but Chief Special Operations Officer David King admitted a more realistic expectation will be early 2019. He also let us know when we will first see prototypes out on the open road, which will be in late 2017.

There’s also a certain smiley Formula 1 driver who is desperate to try it out: Mr Daniel Ricciardo:

“Today is the first time I have seen it. I had seen some brief sketches but nothing close to what I am seeing now. I am pretty excited; I would love to participate in some development if I could. I still can’t believe it is going to be on the streets, it looks like a pretty amazing car.”

3. Track version with LMP1 performance

We’ve already heard some possible performance comparisons between the AM-RB 001 and Formula 1 cars, as well as LMP1 prototypes. All-round design genius and F1 legend Adrian Newey explained that while the performance of the road-going version will be pretty bonkers, the track-only version will match LMP1 beasts for speed:

“It is capable of extreme performance when you want it to, probably by taking it to the track, and it is equally comfortable if you are stuck in a traffic jam. In its road-going guise its performance will be very high. Go to the next level, which will be a small production run we put on the end of track-only specifications, then that should be in the LMP1 type area of performance.”

4. The V12 engine

Palmer explained that Aston Martin knows V12 engines well and this one is brand-new, “ground-breaking”, incredibly small and bespoke to the mid-engined AM-RB 001. It follows the design principles and aims Newey and the design team wanted. Few details have been revealed but on the engine decision itself, Newey explained:

“This is hopefully the ultimate expression of performance. So yes, for all the emotive reasons this is a V12. Because it was a clean sheet of paper, we could choose whatever we wanted. They [Aston Martin] did do studies on V6 twin-turbo, V8 single turbo, V12 normally aspirated.

“Weight and packaging are large factors, the car is tightly packaged and while a turbocharged engine initially always looks attractive because the engine is so small, you then have lots of extra bits and pieces. The engine that gave the most performance in terms of the overall package was a normally aspirated engine and with the power output we wanted, we had to go with a V12.”

5. Light and simple

The words “light” and “simple” were mentioned a hell of a lot during the launch and following Q&A session, alongside the just as frequently used “compact”. Incredibly the car will weigh under 1000kg and have a power to weight ratio of 1:1, which is 1bhp per kilo of weight (so around 900-1000bhp, then?). Newey said:

“We have tried to keep it simple and light. The target is to keep it under 1000kg, that is a difficult and obviously self-imposed target. So I am very keen that we came out with a small, compact, light car that hasn’t gone in the direction of one or two of its rivals.”

6. It’ll cost a lot

Naturally, as it’s a crazy, high-performing hypercar with incredible looks and jam-packed with incredible technology and design, the AM-RB 001 doesn’t come cheap. The 370 interested people clearly have some cash to splash as the car will be priced between £2-3million, depending on spec, options and costs to produce. Plus, it won’t be named the AM-RB 001. That’s just a codename. A proper name hasn’t actually been decided yet; what do you think it should be?

7. Hybrid or no hybrid?

There’s been plenty of speculation as to whether the AM-RB 001 will have a hybrid element, possibly like the Energy Recovery Systems of F1 cars. That gossip will have to continue for now because the Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing gang refused to comment on that, but with the projected 1:1 power to weight ratio, expected 900+ bhp performance figures and comparison of LMP1 speeds, you’d think there would be some element of hybrid involved. The fact they are being so coy about it also makes you think they have something to hide…

8. As a race car?

Newey admitted during the Q&A that there simply isn’t a motorsport category out there at the moment that would fit the AM-RB 001 but he speculated that things could change in the future and opportunities could appear, like they did previously with the McLaren F1 supercar. He also mentioned the one-make BMW M1 racing series that used to exist and returned as part of the F1 Austrian GP warm-up this year. How cool would an AM-RB 001 (or whatever they end up calling it) series be? We’d definitely watch it!

9. Road vs track

As previously mentioned there will not only be a road car version. There will also be an edgier, more aggressive track-spec AM-RB 001 made in even more limited numbers. Palmer said “visually there is not a great deal of difference” but the track version will have more downforce and be “quite a bit” lighter. Aston really wanted people to recognise both specs as the same car, but the track one is obviously more hardcore (and very close to LMP1 performance). Hardware wise they will be very similar too.

10. RBR partnership will influence future Astons

With the scale of this new relationship between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, Palmer said it will be inevitable that influences from the AM-RB 001 project and from RBR will be seen in future models by the British manufacturer:

“You can’t go through an exercise like this, working together on a car for what will probably be the best part of three years, without it influencing you in some shape or form. Whether it be Marek [Reichman] on the design side or David [King] who produces all of our special versions.”

Reichman added:

“Absolutely, it has to just by the nature of what it is and how extreme the car is. We have our core product, sitting on the periphery of that we are always creating special projects. This is very much part of that and it will influence those core products, we are learning so much about aerodynamics, materials, re-evaluating the packages.”

King also chipped in:

“If you look at One-77 we launched and produced some years ago and look at how that has gone on to influence the design and engineering of some of our cars, and likewise the Vulcan. We learned a lot from that over the last 18 months. The fascinating thing about working with Adrian and his team is that they are stretching us out of our comfort zone. What we know how to do is making sports cars for the road and that is a great challenge for us, we need to embrace that every little bit of this car has got to be beyond what has been achieved before.”

It’s a truly remarkable car and we can’t wait to find out even more details. Let us know your thoughts on the AM-RB 001 below!