What It’s Really Like To Own An F1-Powered AMG One ｜ 4K

This is a Mercedes-AMG One, one of 275 cars conceived, and I quote, to be inspired by F1 but made for the road. Now this thing has been rattling around here, Thruxton, the UK's fastest average speed circuit, for another video, which is going to be coming soon. But today we're going to use this for normal stuff and find out what an owner thinks. This is the Mercedes-AMG One versus the real world. Why is that interesting? Well, this isn't your kind of normal pop to the shops kind of hatchback because this has actual bits of F1 cars stuffed up inside it, though bits is kind of relative. The main bit is a 1.6 litre turbo V6 from a 2016 W07 F1 car, though it does have quite a lot of electrical help. It's got an electric motor attached to the crankshaft called the MGU-K, or motor generation unit kinetic. It's got another electric motor attached to the turbo to prevent lag called the MGU-H or motor generation unit heat. And it's also got two more electric motors attached to each front wheel to give it four wheel drive and torque vectoring capabilities. It means it can drive around without an F1 team trailing in its wake. But it's still incredibly complex. The V6 produces 566 brake horsepower with an 11,000 rpm redline. Astonishing brake horsepower per litre in itself. Total system outputs just under 1060 brake horsepower and an undisclosed torque figure because apparently the drivetrain is too complicated to work it out. But given the nature of electric motors, it's probably enough. It's got an F1 style monocoque with the engine and gearbox directly integrated into the structure. The body is made entirely of carbon fibre and it has some very active aero and ride height, including these rather natty wheels. Plus there's a DRS mode for that extra slippery boost of MPH when you need it on the M25. It's got a four disc racing clutch and a seven speed automated manual gearbox by X-TRACK. It's also got inboard pushrod suspension. Anyone else getting the feeling this is more race than road? A feeling that doesn't improve when you try and get in it. All you have to do is like push this flat down and then lift this door up, which is actually quite heavy. It's quite surprising. Then you kind of put your bum in here onto the seat, which is fixed into the carbon structure and then kind of wallop your legs in like that under the wheel. And then you're in. Once you're in, obviously these seats are sort of attached to the structure, so you can't move them backwards and forwards, but you can adjust the pedals with this little lever down between my legs here. And then it's got an electric steering column for this yoke, which seems a bit weird in a lightweight car. It's quite bare in here. There's not an awful lot of stuff, but there are an awful lot of buttons on the steering wheel, like in F1 car. Now, if I switch this on, put my foot on the brake and press start, it all comes to life. It appears to have the screens from a Mercedes A-Class, which is a slightly disappointing thing, but all the graphics are different and there's a lot of noises. There's gurgling and whirring and all sorts of things going on here. And then this car basically has a load of different modes for what you're doing. So if I spin this wheel on the yoke, you've got an EV mode, which obviously just drives around in EV. Then there's race safe, which is a hybrid mode, which does a bit of EV and a bit of engine, depending on what you're doing. That's what you drive it around in mostly. Then there's race, which gives you everything on and a bit of power, but not a huge amount of energy recuperation because it's got a curved system like an F1 car. Then there's race plus, which puts all the aero on, opens the louvers, puts the rear spoiler up and also drops the front of the car 37 millimetres and the back 30 millimetres. And then there's a thing called... What's that one? This is quite complicated. Oh, that shocked me then. That's race plus, which means that everything's on, the motor comes on and it gets the full curved system. It sounds a bit like a chainsaw. And then there's also an individual mode with which you can mix and match. Ah, it's very noisy. The One was originally called the Project One when it was revealed as a concept in 2017. And none other than Lewis Hamilton had a hand in the development and testing. But the production version didn't appear until five years later. Now, the rumour is that's because getting an F1 engine to do road car things is like training a pack of weasels. It became apparent that this thing might idle at nearly 1300 rpm and need an engine refurb every 30,000 miles, which is kind of hectic. So this is a super hardcore, very impractical road car that's likely a bit too much even for your local track day. So who the hell buys a car like this? Well, he does. This is Mark and this is his AMG One. So we decided to go for a little drive on real roads. No, I like to see it stinking dirty. Do I keep it dirty? I don't clean it. I like to see it dirty. But then I'll spend hours and hours and hours detailing it as well. Do you do it? I do it personally. Do you find that like a zen? Yes, very therapeutic, isn't it? That's exactly what I do. And people go, well, why don't you go and have it cleaned? I'm like, because I want to see it. I ceramic cooked it myself. Oh, that's a bit more extreme. Why did you buy this? That's a good question, actually. I think it's such a rare car. And I think because it's a Mercedes-Benz, I've entrusted Mercedes-Benz to build a proper car. It's going to be reliable. It's going to be functional. Whereas some other brands, I'm not quite sure about, they haven't got the technology right. But all this is Mercedes-Benz. It works. But you know like when people say, oh, it's an F1 car for the road and it's got like bits and bobs. This has actually got an F1 car's engine. That's right. The thing is, that's something you don't get. I mean, I know there's bespoke V12s in some of the other stuff, but this is like a legendary championship winning motor. Yeah. And it's also insane because it's 1.6. That's right. 1.6? 1.6. Tiny little engine. Tiny little engine, yeah. How much do you actually get out of it? Because this thing's already got like 1,800 miles on it, hasn't it? What's it got on it? It's a bit more than that, isn't it? 1,700 miles. 1,709 miles, yes. I mean, that's more than a lot of these things will do in their life. Yeah, I think, you know, cars should be used. They shouldn't be garage queens. Okay, it's great to have a car for investment purposes. And I didn't buy it for that. I bought it to use it, enjoy it, you know, and create memories with it. Life is short. Life is all about creating memories. And for me, this car is creating memories. So who do you go out in it with? Anybody who wants to go in it. Any excuse. That's brilliant. But soon we needed a bit of coffee, because an AMG One is loud enough to tie you out from the noise and the latent adrenaline. All the people that have passed us on the road have been taking pictures and waving. The people come to you when you park it up like it's a rock star. It must be good to drive it and just bring it to the people a little bit. I enjoy it. I enjoy seeing people's reaction. But what's more important, like we just did, is to open the door and let people sit in it to share the experience, which I think is really important. And I don't think many people do that, you know, because I've got a lot of cars and I just treat my cars as cars. They're genuinely cars, aren't they? They're meant to be used and they're meant to be shared. Yeah, but not many people have let people just go and... You've just let a couple of lads sit in that. It's a three million pound car. Are you not afraid that something's going to go wrong? That you should be... What's going to go wrong? People sitting in a car. Yeah, it's not going to burn down. What damage are they going to do? Oh, they might scuff the footplate or something. That car is built to be driven. But where does that generosity come from? Why do you do that? I think when I was growing up and being a bit of... almost being a petrol head growing up and, you know, I grew up in humble beginnings in the Welsh Valleys and whenever I saw... You go to Cardiff. You know, I lived 40 miles north of Cardiff, deep in the Welsh mining town. So we've never seen supercars because there was no hypercars there. But if I did see a supercar in Cardiff... Yeah, it was a Ghia, let's go. Yeah. Then of course, you know, my jaw would drop and go, wow. And for me, that was inspiration. So if I can give that inspiration to another person, they might change their destiny for the rest of their lives. Touring? Well, you can do it in an AMG one. But the fuel tank is only 55 litres, so it's not a huge distance in one go kind of car. But Mark reckons it'll do about 20 miles to the gallon if driven normally. When you first drove it, what did you think? I didn't want to think, to be honest. You know, I've driven and owned many, many hypercars. Supercars. So I didn't really have any expectations. But after a couple of hours, I thought, you know what? This is easy to drive. Yeah. It's easy and it's comfortable. But this car weighs two hats. Yes. It's got a hat that it weighs for GT driving. And then it's got another hat that's a Formula 1 car. Yeah. And it drives like a Formula 1 car on a circuit. See, the one thing I didn't expect was it to feel so much like a Formula 1 car, like a race car. A race car, yeah. I thought they'd have dumbed it down a bit. But it doesn't feel like they have. No, no, no. I agree. It should be good, it should. So, the Mercedes-AMG One. It's not actually the fastest hypercar or the lightest or the most refined. It's an engineering puzzle, demonstration and celebration all in one. And it deserves to be with a bloke like Mark, who's prepared to actually put it out on the road with the people, rather than in some collection somewhere gathering precious dust. These things deserve to be driven. And at least one of them really is.