This happens if the V-6 is stopped six times in a row before reaching optimum temperature.
Mercedes-Benz
July 22, 2024 has 3:17 AM ET
Putting a real F1 engine in a road-legal hypercar was no easy feat for Mercedes-AMG, but they finally did it. The One hypercar was unveiled in September 2017, and after many technical hurdles, production began in August 2022. F1 champion Nico Rosberg ordered his in 2018, but had to wait six years to get his hands on it. A new video reminds us just how temperamental this F1 is for the road.
You’ve probably heard about the need to service the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine every 50,000 km. But that’s not all, because the AMG One’s starting procedure must be followed to the letter. Nico Rosberg made the mistake of turning off the car prematurely before the engine reached its optimum temperature.
If he had done this six times in a row, Mercedes would have bricked the car, preventing him from using it again. And then? The One owner would have had to call Mercedes and have someone from AMG come over with a laptop and unlock the car. Talk about first world problems…
It takes 5 to 8 minutes for the combustion engine to reach optimum temperature if the car is stationary. When driving, the waiting time is reduced to 2 to 5 minutes. It is worth noting that the hypercar always starts in fully electric mode. The combustion engine only kicks in when the catalytic converter reaches 480 °C, a process that takes between 60 and 90 seconds. During this time, the AMG One effectively behaves like an electric vehicle.
Once the combustion engine is running, the fastest production car on the Nürburgring gets incredibly loud. So much so that Mercedes-AMG ships the hypercar with noise-canceling headphones, as some might find the 120 decibels overwhelming. The noise was even louder during the development process, but the engineers eventually managed to make it a little more civilized. No fake engine noise is emitted from the speakers. It’s all mechanical.
Mercedes-AMG technical director Jochen Hermann told Rosberg that fine-tuning the software was the most difficult part of the lengthy development process. We know from previous statements by company representatives that lowering the engine’s idle speed from 5,000 rpm to the F1’s 1,250 rpm was also a huge task.
Hermann admitted that the AMG One was the most complicated car to develop in Mercedes’ history and that he believed it would never be replicated. The German marque has already ruled out producing another F1-powered road car due to stricter emissions regulations. Only 275 examples of the AMG One are being built by hand and Nico Rosberg is not the only F1 driver to have signed his name on the dotted line. David Coulthard is also on the list.
As if the AMG One wasn’t special enough, Nico’s features a black three-pointed star on the front that required 16 coats of paint, all applied by hand.
Learn more