Mercedes AMG One: the super sports car is on fire

Only 275 units were planned – but one thing did not reach the customer: a Mercedes-AMG One worth several million euros burned on the autobahn.

Ashes and burned rubber – nothing more remains of the million-odd Mercedes. The unique sports car had not even arrived at the customer when it caught fire on the highway.

A message on Twitter shows what is left of the sports car.

The Mercedes-AMG One – with the same engine as Lewis Hamilton’s F1 car – was being driven on the M6 ​​motorway in Staffordshire (central England) when the fire broke out. This has been reported by the British newspaper “The Sun”.

Mercedes confirmed the fire to the newspaper. “We are aware of this incident,” said a spokesman. “Fortunately, as far as we know, no one was injured.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. “At the moment we do not know what caused the fire,” the spokesman said. According to reports, the battery of a hybrid sports car can catch fire. Another hypothesis: The fire started due to the brakes of the truck in which the Mercedes with a capacity of 1,063 hp was being transported.

AMG One should go to the numbered and selected customers by the end of 2020. But production only started last year. A simple reason for the delay: the developers almost failed in their own right. A Formula 1 racing car is a car like no other. And transferring its technology to a production model is almost impossible.

A very complex engine, for example, is assembled in England at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, where Formula 1 engines are also built. The final assembly of the car takes place in Coventry at a dedicated plant. The sports car is then tested at a nearby race track. It is then removed by a test driver.

Finally, the sports cars are transported by truck to the Mercedes-AMG headquarters in Affalterbach and handed over to the customer there. The fire has now broken out at one of these many stations.

Only the AMG 275 was to be built. Now it is already clear: There will be 276 – at least.