Delivery mileage Mercedes-AMG One for sale
F1-engined hypercar was always the wildest of automotive dreams - now it's a secondhand reality
Even by recent hypercar standards, the AMG One is especially mad. Making new V12s or creating 2,000hp from electric motors look like secondary school homework tasks compared to homologating a Formula 1 powertrain for the road. A hybrid F1 powertrain, of course, the most efficient (and surely most complicated) petrol-electric setup on the planet. One that, in its normal usage, is supported by a team of engineers and all manner of diagnostic kit. Put into a road car to be driven by the average billionaire and returned to the dealership for a service every few months.
It was a crazy decision, but when Project One (as it was originally) was first announced in 2017 it was easy to see why Mercedes wanted to mark its success. After years of Red Bull dominance it was the team to beat in Grand Prix racing; what greater celebration of its success could there be than making a road with an F1 hybrid V6 in it? When the first production car was completed in 2022, Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius joked that the board were “drunk when we said yes” to the project, such was the scale of the operation. When a company of Mercedes’ stature struggled with it, you get an understanding of just how difficult the concept was. We’re used to cars being announced and then being put into production. It seems nobody could have predicted the challenges that would beset the One, including tougher emissions standards.
But then AMG announced the One to the world in the best way possible: with a Nurburgring lap faster than anything else. In less than optimal conditions at the end of October 2022, Maro Engel recorded an official time of 6:35.183 for the 1,063hp One, with drama all the way. There was a suggestion that more could follow in warmer, drier, conditions, though nothing yet has followed. Suffice it to say the One more than did justice to the extraordinary powertrain.
To pore over the AMG’s spec is to be bamboozled by a hypercar like the first time you read that the McLaren F1 reached 100mph in 6.3 seconds, or the Ferrari F40 could do 201mph in 1987, or that the Bugatti EB110 had four turbos. It all seems so far-fetched to be almost inconceivable, with a tiny 53.03mm cylinder stroke, six catalytic converters (with four needed to warm up the V6), 18km of electric range and a DIN kerbweight of 1,695kg. With its slightly strange looks, difficult gestation, monster performance and cramped cabin, there really is something of the spacecraft about the One. After all this time, it still feels like it can’t possibly actually exist.
But it does, with some of the 275 already for sale. There have been one or two cars pop up in the Middle East, and now there’s one in Richmond of all places. It’s real and it’s on the road and someone can buy it; the supercar that almost felt supernatural because it seemed almost intangible is now in a dealership in south-west London. Like many, it’s in silver paint with the Mercedes star livery; the black leather Nappa has turquoise contrast stitching. The advert doesn’t make clear yet whether it’s been registered, though presumably everything is in place for this to gain numberplates and pay VED on its 198g/km for the next owner. It’s on delivery mileage, to all intents and purposes brand new. Which is not something you see every day.
As for price, it seems unlikely that an owner would sell up for less than the original price (before options) of £2.4m. A One was for sale last year in the Middle East for £4.3m, so you’d have to assume a figure somewhere between those two and probably nearer the latter. After all, it’s hardly like another will come up for sale anytime soon, and nobody - least of all Mercedes - is going to attempt such a wildly ambitious, gloriously silly hypercar project ever again. It’s One for the ages, you might say. And presumably ULEZ compliant, too, so there’d be no worries about driving it home…
I would appear like all the owners just bought them and put them in storage??
I would appear like all the owners just bought them and put them in storage??
I would appear like all the owners just bought them and put them in storage??
Having seen and heard these in metal, they are exteremly underwelming to listen to.
If you are a sheikh and already have a garage full of great sounding hypercars, with proper supercar engines (nothing less than a V12 will do), then sure I understand buying one of these to add to your collection.
I would appear like all the owners just bought them and put them in storage??
They leave me cold I'm afraid, I've no desire to even see one in the metal.
Having seen and heard these in metal, they are exteremly underwelming to listen to.
If you are a sheikh and already have a garage full of great sounding hypercars, with proper supercar engines (nothing less than a V12 will do), then sure I understand buying one of these to add to your collection.
Other than that, I wouldn't say no to high revving engine.
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