Mercedes-AMG ONE Delayed Due to Emissions Test Fail
Engines that idle at 5,000 RPM pump out lots of emissions. Thus, the Mercedes-AMG ONE faces a nine-month delay.
On paper, the forthcoming Mercedes-AMG ONE sounds almost too good to be true. Take an honest-to-goodness Formula One engine, stick it in a road-legal hypercar, and sell it to the general public. But there is, in fact, a reason why every F1 manufacturer hasn’t already done the same thing, it turns out. Taking an engine that’s designed to produce maximum performance on the track requires a little more finesse on the street.
Or at least the ability to conform with modern-day emissions laws. Though the Mercedes-AMG ONE is scheduled to debut in 2020, the development team has hit a snag, as AMG boss Tobias Moers revealed recently to Top Gear. Well, several snags, to be honest. But the biggest one is figuring out how to make an engine that (in race form) “idles” at an incredible 5,000 rpm work in normal cruising conditions.
“Getting a stable idle at 1,200 rpm, that’s challenging,” Moers admitted. “To give you a simple example. You have leakage in the throttles in Formula One and nobody cares, because it runs at a 5,000 rpm idle. At a 1,200 rpm idle, you have to meet the emissions regulations. You need a stable, proper idle. If it’s unstable, your emissions are unstable.”
It’s not like Moers expected the development of the Mercedes-AMG ONE to go smoothly, of course. But this seemingly simple problem proved rather difficult to overcome. Thus, he says that “we lost maybe nine months or so” due to the issue. But the M-B team has been in constant contact with customers, who don’t seem to mind.
“You know what they tell me?” Moer said. “’Make sure that the car works. Because of what we experienced in the past with hybrid cars, take your time.’”
Quite honestly, we’d be willing to wait even longer for what amounts to a street-legal Formula One car.
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