Mercedes-AMG is setting its sights on lofty goals with the Project One hypercar. The German automaker revealed its plans for the hypercar at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, and at least one of those plans involves becoming the fastest car to ever lap the Nurburgring. Notice that we didn’t write “production car” in that previous sentence? That’s because AMG isn’t settling for that piece of the pie. It wants the whole pie, including becoming faster than the Porsche 956 race car that Stefan Bellof used to lap the ‘Ring in a staggering 6:11.13.

As far as ambitions go, Mercedes-AMG is definitely shooting for the stars. Company boss Tobias Moers believes that not only is it possible for the Project One to beat the overall lap record at the world’s most famous race track, but it’s also actually possible to do it with very minimal tweaks to the overall composition of the current hypercar. In his mind, the most important thing to eclipse the record is to “find the right driver,” an important piece to achieving that goal, no doubt, but has nothing to do with the car itself.

That’s a serious proclamation of the Project One’s physical makeup and capability, but Moers may actually be on to something here. Speaking in Geneva, the AMG chief admitted that the Project One can generate as much as 1,488 pounds (675 kilos) of downforce at speed. That’s literally a little over half the overall weight of the 2,866-pound (1,400 kilos) car. With that kind of capability, it is “reasonable to expect,” as Moers told Autocar, that the Project One is capable of achieving something that no car in the last 35 years has ever done.

Throw in the fact that the Project One has a 1.6-liter, turbocharged, V-6 engine and four electric motors powering it and you have the makings of a car that’s capable of achieving great things. That powertrain, mind you, is capable of producing close to 1,100 horsepower. All that power is sent to all four wheels courtesy of a quick-shifting automatic gearbox. If it’s ever possible for a car to finally unseat the iconic Porsche 956 race car as the fastest car to ever lap the Nurburgring, would you put your money on the Mercedes-AMG Project One?

Given what it’s reportedly capable of, it’s going to be interesting to see how it does on once Mercedes-AMG finds that right driver. At the very least, we could be in for quite a spectacle. It’s very rare these days for a car that costs $2.6 million to have that kind of expectations on its shoulders. Here’s to hoping that we get to see that run sooner than later. The 956’s record has stood long enough. It’s time another car takes that top step on the podium.

References

Mercedes-AMG Project One

Read our full review on the 2020 Mercedes-AMG Project One.

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