This is Adrian Newey’s AM-RB 001 hypercar concept, which Aston Martin intends to put into limited production for use on the road and on the racetrack, which means that there are two versions of the car. The car is powered by a normally-aspirated V12 engine which is powerful enough to create a car weighing 900 kg with 900 horsepower. The racing version of the car will have additional bodywork and will be without some of the things that are required for use on the roads.
joeblogsf1 
It’s ugly but I bet it will go well.
One has to assume the large pouting upper lip reminiscent of some ethnic tribe ornament and the huge basking shark intake have amazing aerodynamic properties, hence the need for the big air slots on the sides behind the front wheels. Interesting that the side air appears to come out and some gets gobbled back up by the rear scoops. To me very superficially an Aston. But yes with all that trick aero and one to one power to weight ratio it has to go like excrement off a digging implement! Guess they could not better one to one power to weight…. left that one for next McLaren I guess? They just matched the Swedes. Thought Hyper car was one upping the others?
Is it my imagination but are all hypercars beginning to look much of a muchness these days? It bears more than a passing resemblance to Pagani Huayra. Or a McLaren (any of the current crop). Or even in some aspects a La Ferrari. Have we reached a zenith now where the law of diminishing returns has reached a point of minimal differences in shape, much the same as F1 has? Although you also have to bear in mind EU regulations – lights have to be at a certain height etc.
Form follows function but I know what you mean – a bit of a Huayra/Konigsegg clone.
Merc engine? Build at Gaydon?
Joe,
Any thoughts about the engine supplier? 900HP seems too much to come from the existing A-M double Mondeo engine, which I would guess has a fairly short life between refreshes, even in lower power point 800HP Vulcan guise. It is also too much to come from the naturally aspirated 7 litre AMG V12 engine, where I think 700HP was the most extracted in semi-road tune, without turbos.
I also hope that the new car will be 4WD or else it is a warm sunny day car only. Even lower powered cars like the Mclaren 650S get a bit interesting on a wet day or else the traction control light is forever coming on. I had a Jaguar F Type V8 on a test drive on a pouring wet day in the UK and compared with my 4WD 911 Turbo S, it was just miserable to drive.
None at all
Apparently it is going to be a brand new unit that has no resemblance to the current Mondeo derived version. Given it isn’t due for release until 2018 they have got plenty of time to sort it out. There is talk of it having a hybrid element connected to the engine to boost power up to that projected 900-1000hp. There is also talk of the car utilising electric motors for the reverse gear, with the gearbox not featuring a reverse gear due to weight saving.
Supposedly faster than an F1 car round Silverstone, many reviews of this release.
For the more tech minded Race Car Engineering has a large feature.
Whilst Aston Martin’s original press release made claims that they would be aiming to produce a car which could “rival an F1 car” (which does not necessarily mean that it would be faster than one), they have lowered their performance targets by quite some way since then.
The latest press releases have now only been making those sorts of bold claims about the “track only” version. In those releases, they’ve now been talking about having a comparable performance to an LMP1 car on a circuit (again, not necessarily faster, it should be noted).
By way of comparison, in dry conditions the best lap for an LMP1 car was a 1m40.30s by the Porsche 919 in the 2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, as opposed to the 1m29.29s lap that Hamilton set in qualifying. Even the 107% minimum qualifying time, which was a 1m37.1s lap time, is more than three seconds faster than the best lap time by an LMP1 car.
Furthermore, only the marketing department is making such grand claims of performance. Newey himself has been much more circumspect in his interviews – he has made comparisons with the power to weight ratio of a modern LMP1 car, but has been very careful not to make any claims about the outright performance of the car matching an LMP1 car.
I was expecting something elegant from Newey…sort of like the F1 supercar he penned for the Gran Turismo video game which was very swoopy and wild looking.
The bodywork was designed by Marek Reichman, and a grand job he has done too!
Apparently this is a derivative of the X1 prototype that he penned for the playstation Gran Turismo game.
They must not have gotten the memo about electrics being the future.
Aerodynamics by Newey, design by Marek Reichman and David King…
That is an extremely ugly car…
My wife wants to know if it will come in blue? 🙂
it may be fast as hell, but it’s ugly as sin.
I can’t picture it as a chic magnet. i’ll keep lusting after my dream Ferraris, GTs, and Vettes. You know… cars that are fast AND SEXY.
And when your companion sees the required seating position with knees/legs at similar angles to a F1 car they’ll quickly find an alternative method of transport.
It is an interesting project, but it appears to have sacrificed a significant amount of practicality in pursuit of optimal aerodynamics.
Probably no bad thing given the target market: there are no shortage of options for those looking to spend £2m-3m on a toy, but it means the rest of us will continue dreaming of the other alternatives!
It looks like some parts are missing in the door area.
If this is intended (an allowed) to take on the Ford GT in WEC/Le Mans, we can kiss goodbye to the top category in GT racing (cf later GT1 cars).
Well unless one lives in Europe of the USA it’s pretty pointless, as you’ll never get past 2nd or 3rd gear in anything like that…..and another reason why it’s pointless….yesterday i went to check the grass situation for cutting my far meadow, and drove over my 40acre maize field to get there and then through a small track in a wooded area to have a once over, before popping round to have a coffee with one of my best mates, a local farmer. He was going to round up 40 ish heifers for a TB check, in some meadows he rents nearby. So i ended up running my Isuzu through a very wet meadow track with his son onboard while he was in front with a tractor. I did nearly get stuck at one point but the old Trooper clambered out on its own eventually……now this RB Aston ( not really an Aston as it’s not got a hand built Aston engine ), anyway this thing would be of no use at all….whereas i can use my Trooper on dirt tracks, muddy fields, B roads, A roads, Motorways…..
I’ll bet Newey will feel like a right plumb when he realises he’s designed a turkey as far as that well known and highly coveted Farmer Hypercar Demographic is concerned.
I would still prefer a McLaren F1 any day of the week.
AMEN !
It’s a Bluebird homage. Hope this comes to pass, Aston can take it to Le Mans next year!
Shame he forgot the aesthetics shown by Gordon Murray.
I imagine that this is the car he’ll be driving at The Revival, with a GT40 body of course 😉
Would that be a GT40 body made of pre-preg carbon fibre, with a cosmetic layer of glass over the top (allegedly)?
😉
Surely not!
Although I do remember the winner of a race (no names) being asked by the scrutineers to lift the head on his car. It was loaded onto a trailer and driven away while their backs were turned.
i take it the front bumper is an optional extra which is why they’ve not fitted it for the photoshoot. this has to be the ugliest aston ever (inculding the cygnet)
My first thought was Colin Chapman must have sent the concept for this to Adrian in a dream…..