Say Hello To The AM-RB 001: Aston Martin And Red Bull's V12 Hypercar Beast

We first found out about Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing’s budding new romance in March. Just three and a half months later, we’ve now got our first glimpse and proper details of their new baby.

And it’s a pretty crazy one. The AM-RB 001 is a naturally-aspirated V12-powered, mid-engined, lightweight hypercar – the product of a ground-breaking partnership between one of Britain’s most well-loved and luxurious brands, and one of Formula 1’s most successful teams.

The AM-RB 001 takes Aston Martin’s reputation for producing fast, luxurious and exciting cars to a whole new level. No, scrap that. A whole new universe, like nothing the manufacturer has ever done before.

With projected performance in line with the LMP1 prototypes currently speeding around race tracks in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the newly-revealed AM-RB 001 is the vision of Red Bull Racing Chief Technical Officer (and F1 legend) Adrian Newey, Aston’s Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman and Chief Special Operations Officer David King.

It’s even been said that the freer road car regulations compared to the tightly restricted world of F1 could mean it’s faster around Silverstone than Red Bull’s own 2016 RB12.

So we know it is going to be crazily fast, but the two-seater will also be extremely lightweight – thanks to a carbon fibre structure – and boasts radical aerodynamics, which produce “unprecedented levels of downforce in a road-legal car”.

Newey’s put his stamp on the design by generating a huge amount of downforce from the underfloor aero, which has left Reichman to create a dramatic and aggressive, yet elegant car body.

Aston Martin has been pretty coy about technical specifications, but we do know it will be powered by a naturally-aspirated V12 engine (it may include some form of F1-style energy recovery system to further boost power), with a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio and features an innovative suspension system to deal with all that Newey-crafted downforce.

The transmission is another Newey masterpiece developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies (again, no technical details here just yet), while the legendary F1 designer has also applied his experience and knowledge to the light, compact packaging, which Aston says provides a comfortable space for the driver, passenger and the monster V12.

According to Aston Martin, the car will have a split personality. It will be a brutal, edgy performance hypercar but also a comfortable daily driver for normal everyday use. We’d love to find out how the latter part works in reality…

Alongside the road-going beast, there will also be a track-only version of the car too. Total volume is expected to be between 99 and 150 road cars (inclusive of all remaining prototypes) and 25 track versions. First deliveries of this new hypercar will kick off in 2018.

We can’t wait to hear more details about the AM-RB 001. What do you make of what you’ve seen so far?