Breaking Limits & Records: Record Drive | Episode 1
The founding fathers of AMG, Aufrecht and Melcher, used to say: You can’t make a Mercedes better, but you could make it different. This different is driving performance and that is what AMG has stood for all these decades. Now, AMG is writing a new chapter. Our concept car is now becoming a record car. Eeeh, this is quick! From time to time, we at Mercedes-Benz launch tech programs. For Mercedes and AMG, it is always pushing the boundaries. We thought it would be a great idea to implement our AMG.EA powertrain in this program. The main goal of the CONCEPT AMG GT XX is to run one time around the world – not in 80 days, but in 8 days. I asked my team if they can make a rough simulation and the result was 10 days. The circumference of the earth is 40,070 km. When we want to achieve this within 8 days, we have to run more than 5,000 km per day. And this constantly over 8 days, including charging. A record attempt that will put electric performance into a whole new dimension. Mercedes-Benz has such a long racing history, a fantastic AMG history. We really combine the passion of AMG with the history of the company. And this goes back to the 1970s, when we broke so many world records with the orange C111. The attempts took place from 12th to 14th June in Nardò, in southern Italy. Due to its geographical location, the 12.6 km circuit offered ideal climate conditions. They broke all sorts of records with that car. Here we are now, 50 years later, with a car that kind of looks the same, but has 50 years of progression and technology. I am George Russell, a Formula One driver of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team. Here at the famous Nardò ring, Mercedes has set several long-distance records before. We aim for a 24-h record, achieving the furthest distance ever covered with an EV. We aim for a 10,000 km record, covered in the shortest time ever by an EV. We aim for a 25,000 km record, covered in the shortest time ever by an EV. We want to drive around the world in 8 days, so we are doing over 40,000 km. In 8 days around the world, that is the target. Big ambitions always race against the clock. It is a bit like finishing your thesis in college. You are still writing the night before it is due, but the important thing is: You get it done. That is what we are doing too. Right up until the very last minute before the record attempt, we will be fine-tuning every little detail. Because that is what you do when you are chasing records. The next three months will be incredible, full of work. There is lots of engineering work to be done. I would say day and night from the team to make sure we can hit the record. But reality usually throws obstacles in our way. Wow! What a challenge! We are stressing the hardware incredibly hard on the car, on the charging systems. We are working the drivers really, really hard. We are trying to work out how will we make the optimal strategy. What do we need from each of the teams? So, from the excitement and the anticipation of a great challenge, it quickly turned into a huge jobs list of all the things we needed to do to try and give ourselves the best chance of a successful mission. The timeline was incredibly aggressive. The easiest thing to do is lose time and be conservative. Can we really beat our competitors in such a wide dimension? Can we really afford to take the most important engineers, guys from the workshop, project managers, put them into a project like this while at the same time developing AMG.EA at full speed? Because we do not take all this effort to just go on the track and beat them by a little margin. This program is immensely important for our upcoming electric platform AMG.EA. Because it uses the same drivetrain technology that will arrive in the market as early as next year. When Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz invented the car, they were pioneers. They were thinking in completely different dimensions. They did not pick up a horseshoe and say: “How are we going to make this lighter and make the horse run faster?” Their thinking was: Let us get the horse out of the equation and start a whole new industry, invent a machine that truly changes the world. That mentality is part of the DNA of this company. It is certainly part of the DNA of the AMG team. So, that is what we do. We take very, very, very difficult tasks. We almost write down an ambition that is impossible to fulfill and we prove that it can be done. But then we also take it to the road. So, you just can’t stop us. Here, you are getting a glimpse into the most secret area of that company. As we only have a little bit more than two months left now, time is running. Check where he is. This is crucial.
CONCEPT AMG GT XX: Pushing boundaries has always been in the DNA of Mercedes-AMG. Now we’re headed towards a new achievement: record-breaking performance.
In this four-part series of Record Drive, we uncover the vision and challenges behind a record unlike any other: driving around the world in under 8 days, more than 5,000 km per day, stopping only to charge.
What does such a record demand from the car, the battery, and the people behind it? One thing is certain: it takes relentless engineering, day and night, to make the impossible possible.
The ambition is clear: to push performance into a new dimension and show what Mercedes-AMG Electric Architecture is truly capable of.
Stay tuned – the clock is ticking.
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