Somewhere within the relationship between promises and hindsight probably lurks a human truth that could rid our species of its more worrying traits. It might be presented something like this: don't overpromise, because when you fail to deliver you will be left with two potentially paralysing choices - hold your hands up and say you were too ambitious, but that the potential glory was worth the risk of failure. Or just try to blag your way out of it. Most of us defer to the latter. What does this have to do with a Mercedes sports car? Bear with me.
Until very recently I had no expectation of ever driving the AMG One. Since upsetting the previous boss I've been off the Christmas card list and would be lying if I said this worried me at all. The brand is still capable of brilliance but has recently regressed to the kind of crowd-pleasing that undoes its amazing history. Then a WhatsApp message arrived from the editor saying we had five hours with the car and this could be used to make a film for the television show and a story for the magazine. The message made me smile - I have been fascinated by the One since it was first announced. A genuine attempt to put the fiendishly complicated Mercedes Formula One powertrain into a road-legal supercar.
There was a dash of JFK's "we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard" about the Mercedes announcement back in 2017, and I loved that. I still love that sitting here wondering how best to explain the confusing day I spent with the One. But there is also the suspicion that the individual who made the decision to announce a road car with an F1 engine hadn't asked the people who actually designed the Formula One engines if such a project was even possible before making that public utterance. Given the use of a time machine, I'm not sure that individual would make the same decision again.
この記事は Top Gear の October 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Top Gear の October 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
HEAD TO HEAD VANTAGE vs 911 TURBO
For as long as we can remember the Porsche 911 has been the default best sports car money can buy. Does the new Aston Vantage represent a changing of the guard?
BOSS LEVEL:PART TWO
In a world exclusive, three makers of the world's most powerful hypercars are cordially invited... to drive each other's creations
THE THEORY 0F EVOLUTION
Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar's future, or gone mad?
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
The Jesko Attack drives like a conventional supercar. Brakes like one, turns like one, grips like one. But it doesn't accelerate like one.
STIC LAPS are back!
It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.
URBAN OUTWITTERS
Does the solution to city motoring lie in designs from the past with powertrains from the future? TopGear goes in search of answers... at rush hour
FUTURE FERRARIS
If you thought Ferrar's past was colourful, wait until you see what it's cooking up next. The future's bright, the future's rosso
DIRTY DOZEN
Ferrari's new super GT makes no secrets about what's under the bonnet, but can it swallow five countries in just a few hours? Better get on with it...
MYTH BUSTER
\"ADAPTIVE DAMPERS ALWAYS NEED TO ADAPT\"
The S2000 from a parallel universe
Meet Evasive Motorsports’ Honda S2000R, the car the Japanese firm should have built itself
