Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, spends 2 days each week driving AMG models to “have an understanding how (the cars) need to feel, the ins and outs with throttle response and sound and such things as that, so this is my passion, yeah.”

Having a desire for the appearance of a car is a thing a lot of us share; the ability to access the resources and authority to create the experience? Well, that’s rare. But when you stay at home rarified air, you will want to breathe it in and make the best than me?

Moers does except. Since his promotion to CEO of AMG in October 2013, sales have raised from 32,000 to simply under 132,000 last year. And that’s using a wide variety of products from the C43 sedan, something Moers enjoys to call “entry performance” to the AMG GT R, the bonkers 577-hp coupe. What binds most of the cars together is Moers need for each to properly represent the emblem, “what drives me most is that often every car we bring to the marketplace matches our portfolio and it’s a good ambassador, in connection with the line of AMG.”

Detroit Auto Show

Mercedes-AMG ups its EQ with 2019 CLS53, E53 Coupe and Cabriolet at NAIAS

It wasn’t all Gelandewagen talk for Mercedes Sunday night before the Detroit auto show. The corporation also introduced the new “53” designation with the CLS, E-Class Coupe and E-Class …

And that has a tendency to move together with new technology: AMG announced its 53 series just well before the American International Auto Show first coming to the U.S. in the CLS and E class coupe and cabriolet. The 53s includes a better 6-cylinder engine, and also a 48-volt system that provides an additional boost and provide a road to the concept of AMG hybrid cars.

But the earliest true hybrid from AMG, is Moers’ baby: Project One. “As i was promoted to CEO in October 2013, I traveled a great deal to meet customers. I was thinking, initially, we’re not the quantity of brand to have a hypercar, to tell the truth. However was approached by customers: ‘when think you’re doing something of that nature?’ … following that, I thought, OK, if we’re intending to conduct a hypercar, it’s probably going to be something. Not another V8 or V12. It should be more sophisticated, knowing quite well that your future might be, especially in the performance segment, electrified powertrains.”

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Car Reviews

Gallery: Mercedes-AMG GT R first drive

In October 2015, Moers asked his head of powertrain, Andy Cowell, in case the Mercedes Formula 1 engine may very well be made into a street-legal powerplant. Cowell told Moers, “deliver 8 weeks.” On a monthly basis later, Cowell said yes, and very subsequently, Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche greenlit the work.

To result in the conversation from race to street engine, AMG started with the 2015-spec engine, lowered the compression ratio plus the revs (still a shrieking 11,000 rpm) and fussed around while using calibration to satisfy emissions regulations and improve smoothness, “because (Formula 1) don’t have any demands on (noise, vibration and harshness),” Moers said that has a chuckle. But, fundamentally, it’s a similar lump that pushes Lewis Hamilton around.

To match the claims of a at least 1,000 hp, it’s not only the 1.6-liter turbo V6 plucked from Mercedes AMG Top rated Powertrains in Brixworth, England, even so the entire hybrid system. About the two motors about the front axle, Moers said, “even around the front axle we run two electric motors from the Formula 1 car. Each one of these isn’t big, maybe a diameter a little bit more over a coffee cup, yet it’s 120 KWs (161 hp) and revs nearly 50,000 rpm; there’s no motor unit in the industry that could rev up that top. As well as battery technology is due to Formula 1 one-to-one. We add (battery) cells to raise capacity, we can easily run about 20 or 30 kilometers purely electric driven.” Total power? Moers thinks, “somewhere in 1,050 and 1,100 hp.”

Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 1Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 2Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 3Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 4Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 5Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 6Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 7Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 8Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 9Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 10Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 11Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 12Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show Photo 13

Next Gallery: Larger than ever BMW receives a three row with Concept X7 iPerformance »

Frankfurt Motor Show

Gallery: Mercedes Project One at Frankfurt motor show

Aside through the powertrain, other nods for your Formula 1 ancestry are derived from a carbon-fiber monocoque, the engine in the role of a structural member of the frame and, however, other carbon-fiber bits throughout. Unlike an F1 car, Project You might use 8 or 9 active aerodynamic devices to regulate airflow. To paraphrase, it’s an F1 car unburdened by of F1’s rules. For those who see this and think, wow, I’d plan to purchase one from somewhere of the people, you're far too late. AMG is simply building 275 ones, 55 headed for the U.S., and regardless of the odd 2,275,000 euro sale price, they’re all spoken for.

But what happens I want? I’d prefer Moers’ job. To become anyone to see the Project One inch mind, before it is operational. Or to insist upon a drift mode as part of your all-wheel-drive E63S. Or employ a 48-volt electrical system to spin up turbochargers faster. That sounds heavenly. Many men and women say, “I’ve got the most job on earth.” I’m convinced all of them would change their mind when they knew how Moers spends his 9-to-5. 

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