Aston Martin and Red Bull AM-RB 001 hypercar revealed

Aston Martin has unveiled the AM-RB 001, the hypercar built in collaboration with Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing. The fastest and most advanced Aston yet, the AM-RB 001 is also the first road car to be created by F1 designer Adrian Newey.

It has been mentioned that "between 99 and 150" road cars will be built, as well as 25 track cars. In its track specification, the AM-RB 001 will, Aston boss Andy Palmer maintains, be capable of lapping the Silverstone race track at the same pace as an F1 car in race trim.

The partnership has been led by Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey and Aston’s Marek Reichman (design director) and David King (special operations chief). Every component on the car is bespoke and advanced materials have been used throughout.

Newey’s influence is most evident on the car’s underbody, which is shrink-wrapped to the underside of the driver compartment at the front and the engine bay at the rear. Front and rear diffusers provide downforce and channel air for ‘ground effect’ aerodynamics.

The final production car is likely to be about 1,900mm wide and less than a metre tall. The definitive car is likely to grow slightly and feature some changes because the technical package is still being honed.
The two-seat hypercar adopts a reclined, feet-up driving position based on an F1 car. Further enhancing the aerodynamics is the absence of door mirrors. The AM-RB 001 will instead use rear-facing cameras that project an image onto a screen on the dashboard. The car also features gull-wing doors and a removable steering to make entry and egress easier. The interiors will be revealed at a later date.

From the cabin rearwards, the car has “an F1 layout” for its cooling, engine and transmission systems. A “high-revving, high-capacity” V12 provides the power. The mid-mounted, naturally aspirated unit is bespoke and bears no relation to the company’s new twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12, with Aston being tight-lipped on the motor’s output though it did maintain that the idea was to achieve a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio.

The car also gets an F1-inspired kinetic energy recovery system to harvest energy from braking though Aston has again not iterated if the motor will augment the engine’s performance. The manufacturer has, however, claimed that the car does not get a reverse gear.

There will be some slight visual differences between the road and track cars, with the track version having wider front wings, bigger tyres and a bigger rear aerofoil.

Under the skin, there will be some more significant changes to the running gear along with the possible use of carbonfibre suspension. The car will have switchable driver modes, including an extreme track mode, with suspension that can be lowered.

The first prototype will begin testing in the middle of 2017. The task of engineering the AM-RB 001 will be shared between Q, Aston Martin’s special projects division, and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, with production taking place at Gaydon.

The AM-RB 001 is scheduled to reach owners in 2018. Palmer revealed that “more than 300 expressions of interest” had been received for the car, after it was shown to a select group of potential customers in Monaco earlier in May this year.