Ex-Formula One driver David Coulthard has revealed that he has secured orders for both the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG One hypercars.
During a recent interview with Goodwood Road and Racing, Coulthard said that his close relationships to both Mercedes-Benz and Red Bull Racing had allowed him to secure allocations for the pair.
“I’ve got some modern Mercedes… I’ve got an order on the Valkyrie and I’ve got an order on Project One – I’m in the holding pattern for those cars,” Coulthard said. “The Valkyrie is because of Adrian [Newey] – Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, I’ve worked with Adrian – and the only reason I can afford it is because I drove his cars and won a few races. And Project One because I’m a Mercedes guy.”
“I think Valkyrie will represent something truly special from Adrian’s eye, the aerodynamics side and what have you. And the Project One will be a celebration of German engineering – somehow they’ve shoehorned the impossible engine into a road car, because a Formula 1 engine shouldn’t work in a road car,” Coulthard added.
It seems likely that the Valkyrie and AMG One will quickly become the must-have hypercars, much like the Porsche 918 Spyder, LaFerrari, and McLaren P1 were a few years ago. Production of the Aston is expected to be capped at no more than 150 units, including the track-only AMG Pro model, while Mercedes-AMG will build 275 examples of the One. Consequently, there won’t be very many people on earth who’ll be able to say they own both…
Of the two, it is the Valkyrie which promises to offer the most ballistic performance. Powering the car will be a naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine which pumps out 1000 hp, revs to 11,000 rpm and is joined by a hybrid system providing an additional 160 hp. The Aston will be very quick in a straight line, but racetracks will be its real home where it promises to offer performance to rival a Formula One car.
By comparison, the Mercedes-AMG One promises to be unlike any other Mercedes to come before it thanks to its use of a 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 hybrid powertrain from a Formula 1 car. The German marque is having some difficulty perfecting this engine for road use, but when it irons out all the issues, the car should quickly establish itself as one of the fastest road-legal production cars ever.