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Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing Take the Wraps Off the AM-RB 001 Hypercar

At first glance, the AM-RB 001 looks as if its designer penned a mashup between a bottom feeder and a Formula 1 car. The thing is, the oddball design isn’t just for show. For all intents and purposes, this here is styling for the sake of aerodynamics.
Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercar 11 photos
Photo: Aston Martin
Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercarAston Martin and Red Bull Racing AM-RB 001 hypercar
Before we go any further, let me talk you through the highlights: all-new and high-revving naturally aspirated V12 mounted in the middle, two seats, lightweight carbon fiber construction, and a power-to-weight ratio of 1:1. Don’t know about you, but the latter is the most mind-boggling peculiarity of the car.

Thanks to the genius of Adrian Newey, who earns his bread by filling the role of the chief technical officer at Red Bull Racing, much of the downforce is generated by the Formula 1-inspired underfloor. This artifice, in turn, left Aston Martin EVP and chief creative officer Marek Reichman to go wild with the body shell.

Slated to be built at Gaydon in the same facility where Aston Martin made the One-77, the AM-RB 001 will be built in very limited numbers: between 99 and 150 road-going cars "inclusive of all remaining prototypes and 25 track-only versions." With deliveries commencing sometime in 2018, there’s still a helluva lot of R&D work to go into this car until the AM-RB 001 will be ready for production.

A big question mark is nagging me, though. Here’s an excerpt from Aston Martin: “The transmission is a clean-sheet design conceived by Newey and developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies.” Dear God, please don’t let it be a CVT! Sorry, I was just kidding. To my ears, that line suggests that the AM-RB 001 will be gifted with a Formula 1-inspired transmission.

As per the Formula 1 website, cars that compete in the king motorsport “use highly sophisticated semi-automatic, seamless shift gearboxes... when another gear is selected the shift is completed ‘seamlessly’ (via a clever a system which uses two shift barrels), meaning the driver suffers from no loss of drive. As such, gear changes are not only significantly faster than they were with the traditional gear lever and clutch pedal approach.” So to speak, a dual-clutch is probably out of the question.

It remains to be seen if this speculation pays dividend or if the AM-RB 001 will actually employ a sequential transmission just like the Pagani Huayra does, but one thing is certain: the AM-RB 001 will be a truly groundbreaking machine. The best thing about this hypercar is that you won’t scrape it when driving up inclines or pulling out of the driveway. I mean, just look how high off the ground that lip spoiler is!

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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