Mercedes’ $2.7 Million Beast Destroys Arch-Rival’s Nurburgring Lap Record

The Mercedes F1 engine showed its prowess around the Nurburgring-Nordschleife recently. Mercedes took their hyper car AMG ONE to the ‘The Green Hell’ track in autumnal wet conditions. The car lapped the 12.94 mile (20.8 km) track in about 6 minutes and 35.183 seconds to set a lap record for production vehicles on October 28.

On the Nordschleife, the AMG One beat the previous lap record held by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS Manthey by about 8 seconds, set last year. This was still about 3 seconds faster than Porsche’s time on a shorter 12.8 mile (20.6 km) layout at Nurburgring.

Porsche hit the track in June 2021 and set the record for street-legal cars at 6:43 on the 12.94 mile layout and 6:38 on the 12.8-mile one. The AMG One set a blistering lap time of 6:30.705 on the shorter layout in semi-wet track conditions.

The German manufacturer introduced the AMG One as a production car with its Formula 1 power unit installed. It gives a total performance output of 1,049 hp with its F1 hybrid powertrain. The One uses the same 1.6 liter V6 Turbo-hybrid engine based on the 2016 Mercedes F1 power unit.

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Driver Maro Engel, who smashed the lap record, said, “That was really an unforgettable experience, I didn’t expect that we would be able to set such a lap time with these track conditions. In some crucial areas of the track, it hadn’t dried completely yet and was therefore tricky. That was a special challenge.”

The feeling of a Mercedes F1 engine in a Road Car and the Nordschleife Experience

Car manufacturers love to test their cars at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife as it gives them ultimate feedback on their car’s performance. It gives them an idea of how the car’s handling feels in normal road conditions.

When asked about the similarities to the F1-level of car performance, Engel replied, “Like Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on their race weekends, I also had to deploy the electrical energy of the hybrid drive in the best possible way. That’s not easy, especially with this length of the track.”

“In addition, the DRS function had to be used optimally. But that’s also a real Formula One feeling.”

The Nurburgring is a crazy track with different layouts that have been deemed unsuitable for modern-day F1 racing. The Green Hell track still hosts lots of Endurance racing, DTM, and GT car racing.

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Mercedes has just produced 275 models of the AMG One and has sold most of them to customers for over $2.7 million. The power of F1 in the back of your road car. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?