AMG Boss Says Project One Could Beat Porsche 919’s Nurburgring Record

Mercedes-AMG is so confident in its upcoming Project One hypercar that it claims it could beat the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo’s outright Nurburgring lap time.

According to Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers, the Project One would be tweaked to tackle the 919’s time and would pose a serious threat. Unfortunately, the German automaker is unlikely to chase a ‘Ring record.

“Could we beat the Porsche’s ‘Ring time? We could, probably. It would be close, but I think we could. I just don’t know what we’d do it for,” he said to Car Sales.

“Theirs is a racing car that isn’t actually fit to race anywhere, in any class, anywhere. It doesn’t have any rules.

“We have to meet full homologation rules. We could do some things to the aero and take out the air-conditioner and fit some slightly different tyres and then I’d be confident about it.”

As you’ll remember, Porsche obliterated the late Stefan Bellof’s outright Nurburgring lap record in June by lapping the circuit in 5:19.546, almost a minute faster than Bellof’s time of 6:11.13 set during qualifying for the 1983 Nurburgring 1000 km.

Based around the Porsche 919 Hybrid that was retired, the Evo benefits from numerous aerodynamics modifications and delivers no less than 1160 hp. It was designed for one purpose and one purpose only; to smash lap records.

By comparison, the Mercedes-AMG Project One is a road car first and foremost. Even still, it does have some serious tech under its skin in the form of a turbo hybrid V6 powertrain the same as what Mercedes uses in Formula One.

Deliveries of the vehicle are tipped to commence in late 2019.