Aston Martin Gives You Wings

After months of speculation and teasers, Aston Martin has revealed their collaborative effort with Redbull, the AM-RB 001, at Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters overnight.

When Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer and all round F1 guru, Adrian Newey, said he wanted to create a road car, we sat up and took notice. When asked about his vision for the project, Newey said: “I’ve long harboured the desire to design a road car. The formation of Red Bull Advanced Technologies brought me a step closer to realising that ambition, but I believed we should work with an automotive manufacturer. Aston Martin was at the top of my list.”

For Newey, the goal was simple, develop a stunning road car that would decimate the latest crop of hypercars on a track, namely; the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and the Ferrari LaFerrari, without sacrificing usability on public roads.

In a statement that accompanied the unveiling, Newey said his goal was to create: “a car engineered to be entirely useable and enjoyable as a road car, but with the capability to perform like no road car before it on a race track”.

In stark contrast to the afformentioned crop of hybrid Hypercars, Aston Martin has not confirmed whether or not the V12 will be accompanied by an electric motor to provide instant power low-down in the rev range. Aston claims that the AM-RB 001 bennefits from an all new V12, dismissed rumours that it would utilise the same 5.2L twin-turbo unit from the DB11.

While Aston are yet to reveal output for the AM-RB 001, a statement suggesting that the Aston would achieve 1:1 HP to weight ratio suggests that at least 1000HP (745kW) will be needed to achieve this objective.

Straight line performance metrics aren’t the best measuring tool for the AM-RB 001, however, Aston insiders have suggested that this still won’t stop the rear-wheel-drive Aston from crushing the 0-100km/h sprint in around 2.5sec. Aston insiders have been less forthcoming with the top speed, however, we would be very surprised to see anything south of 350km/h.

A minimum production run of 99 and a maximum of 150 units has been confirmed, with 25 stripped down track-only versions set to be added to the line-up.  A full spec list including price and delivery date is still yet to be released, although Aston has said that first deliveries will take place in 2018.