Complex, high-tech powertrains are always going to be a bit of a pain.
Mercedes-AMG may be very proud of its ONE halo hypercar, what with its immensely-powerful 1000bhp petrol-electric hybrid powertrain (that’s 740kW, by the way) and its 11,000rpm redline. But such an accomplished engine will come with its own special set of difficulties, as AMG boss Tobias Moers has revealed.
Those difficulties weren’t explored in details, but the result of them is clear. Moers and his team didn’t think it was worth keeping a secret, neither from ONE’s customers or from UK publication TopGear.
“We have a delay [with AMG ONE]. It’s not a secret – I talk openly about it with our customers, and now with you. There were some adjustments to be made on the powertrain. There are various challenges [with the powertrain]. Many, many diverse things that we have to get an understanding of, together with HPP (Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains). What would be the next step? What is the improvement? If we do a change in that perspective, what is the outcome? Things like that.” — Tobias Moers, CEO, Mercedes-AMG
The 9-month delay hasn’t really bothered customers though, it seems. Moers said that ONE’s customers were more concerned with ensuring that the car and its high-tech hyper-engineered drivetrain worked well and worked reliably. “Because of what we experienced in the past with hybrid cars,” they told Moers, “take your time.” A forgiving bunch, then. Probably helps when you have at least one other hypercar to satiate you in the meantime…
Moers also went on to talk about some of the specific issues that comes when you take a highly-tuned engine from a racer and put it into a road car. While it’s all well-and-good that the engine can rev to 11,000rpm, it has to idle at a sensible number. In Formula One, that sensible number is 5,000rpm. Emissions regulations for road cars says it has to be 5,000rpm. This was likely a huge issue for Mercedes-AMG, but at least heat wasn’t an issue.
“Heat [generated at idle] is not the problem. Getting a stable idle is challenging. To give you a simple example: You have leakage in the throttle in Formula One and nobody cares, because it runs at a 5,000rpm idle. At a 1,200rpm idle, you have to meet emissions regulations. You need a proper, stable idle because if it’s unstable, your emissions are unstable.” — Tobias Moers, CEO, Mercedes-AMG
Moers reassured TopGear in the interview that the ONE Project was back on track, and that customers had been updated accordingly. It’s clear though that AMG was not messing about with their claims that the AMG ONE would truly be a racing car for the road, as throughout the interview this writer got the impression that if it were any more pared back, it’d be an open-wheeled vehicle with a ‘halo’ on the top. The ONE promises to be a truly visceral experience, and we absolutely cannot wait to see it, and maybe experience it in the flesh.
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