The Mercedes Hypercar Is Almost Sold Out Even Though No One Has Seen It

by Gabe Beita Kiser
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Is Mercedes-AMG the new Ferrari?

Mercedes has joined the ranks of Ferrari as of late with the recent announcement that it will build a hypercar in extremely limited numbers and then sell it in the seven-figure price bracket. So far, the German luxury car manufacturer has done little more than drop a few details about the hypercar and unveil a sketch detailing what the side profile could look like. However, according to Automotive News ^[1], the lack of details has done absolutely nothing to quell demand.

Just like Ferrari managed to sell out a vehicle that hadn't been officially unveiled to the rest of the world ^[2], Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers told the automotive site that it is close to selling out its allotment. To be fair, Ferrari made 709 road going LaFerraris (500 coupes and 209 Aperta models) while Mercedes is only toying with a production run of 200-300 units, but this promising news shows Mercedes that those with money have faith that it's hypercar will be a piece of automotive hardware and history worth every penny of the $2 million price tag. For that you get a steep 1,000 plus horsepower coming from gasoline and electricity. The engine is a 1.6-liter V6 from Mercedes' F1 car and it only finds its rev limiter after the 10,000 RPM mark.

To make it palatable on the road (and more importantly, to regulators), Mercedes had to lower the compression ratio and idle speed down from the F1 car's settings. Given the stylish performance monsters Mercedes-AMG has been debuting lately, we expect the tuner to raise the level of competition in this cutting edge yet small segment. "If you combine both worlds, the most efficient powertrain on the planet, which is the F1 powertrain, with the competencies and capabilities from AMG, to make a very performing hypercar, this is the pinnacle of engineering in automotive now," Moers said. "It's a birthday present." We'll learn more as the car's 2018 launch date ^[3] approaches.