In what is shaping up to be the most hotly anticipated debut of the calendar year, Aston Martin is all set to pull the covers off of the AM-RB 001 hypercar tomorrow, July 5, 2016. It does come with a caveat, and a very big one at that. The unveiling isn’t going to be the actual AM-RB 001 in the complete flesh, but rather a clay or plastic depiction of the actual car that Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer said is about “70% to 80% there in terms of appearance.”

The actual AM-RB 001 isn’t scheduled to be launched until 2018, which gives Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing enough time to pore over even the minutest of details to ensure that the hypercar lives up to the incredible hype it has been generating. For now, Aston Martin will be showing a full-sized model that design chief Marek Reichman described as “incredibly pure, incredibly simple.”

The descriptions are as vague as Reichman can get, although he did add that the AM-RB 001, or whatever name it ends up using, is the “lowest car that’s going to exist.” With that nugget of information, Reichman could be describing a car that’s teeming with aerodynamics. That kind of design strategy plays right into the design wheelhouse of Red Bull Racing technical chief Adrian Newey, who has played as big a hand as any in the design of the hypercar.

On the flip side, there’s still a lot of work to do before the actual car is launched. That includes the technical side of the equation, although Palmer has said that the car will have a mid-engine configuration and will feature some kind of gas-electric hybrid engine. Red Bull is also expected to use F1-derived performance technologies, possibly including performance-boosting electric motors and KERS.

Once everything is put together, the AM-RB 001 is expected to tip the scales in the neighborhood of 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds), putting it just a tad heavier than an LMP1 race car. Only 99 units will be built with the model only available in certain markets at a price in the neighborhood of £2 million to £3 million (about $2.6 to $4 million).

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Why it matters

It’s not the unveiling we want to see, but given how much work Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing still have in their hands, this is as good as it’s going to get for us. It’s an admittedly low-lying fruit, but I’m not going to lie; I’m reaching for that fruit for everything it’s worth, just as I’m sure a lot of others will do as well.

I can’t really say at this point what my expectations are ahead of tomorrow’s big unveiling. That’s because I really don’t know what to expect. Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing have done a great job keeping the details close to their chests and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the unveiling reveals a design that none of us expected.

Marek Reichman said the design is “incredibly pure, incredibly simple.” That doesn’t really offer anything in the way of details, which only adds to the drama surrounding tomorrow’s announcement. To be on the safe side, I’m not going to expect anything dramatic with the car’s design. I think that’s the best way to go about it because there will be no expectations and whatever design direction Aston Martin and Red Bull goes for won’t be met with any emotional reactions on both sides.

That said, I am excited to see what this presentation yields. We’ve talked about the AM-RB 001 long enough. Now we get to see our first look at what the hypercar could look like when it makes its official debut in the summer of 2018.