Yahoo Autos The First Mercedes-AMG One Has Arrived in the U.S.
Charlotte, North Carolina, is home to a new road course that also has a garage complex and a clubhouse.
Slated to be fully complete next spring, the Ten Tenths Motor Club and Ten Tenths Circuit are located on the grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The 1.7-mile track sits on 100 acres and is open now, and that's where we saw the first Mercedes-AMG One to reach a U.S. owner.
The debut of Charlotte's new road course, the Ten Tenths Circuit, included an unexpected guest star: a Mercedes-AMG One, the first one on U.S. soil. The One's owner was also in attendance, his not-so-secret identity hinted at by the "H One" display plate on the back of the car—Rick Hendrick, a partner in the Ten Tenths project.
Before the track went hot, Hendrick and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith explained their motivations for the project. And of course, yes, there's a business case for the road course, but part of the rationale was to create a place they could drive their own cars. Smith brought some choice machines, including a Ford GT, but referred to his own collection as "the Rick Hendrick starter pack." The portion of Hendrick's fleet parked next to the track carried an estimated value of $35 million and included the likes of a McLaren Senna GTR, a Ferrari Daytona SP3, and a Porsche 918 Spyder. But the star of the event was the one that wore a painted three-pointed star on its hood, the One.
If you're unfamiliar with with the One, let us bring you up to speed. The One is Mercedes-AMG's honest attempt to bring a Formula 1 car to the street, and its fidelity to that goal is astounding. It's a hybrid that uses a 1.6-liter V-6 with an electric turbocharger (sound familiar, F1 fans?). The engine's valves are pneumatically actuated, enabling an 11,000-rpm rev limit. Total output, including its three electric motors, is 1049 hp. The One recently beat its own Nürburgring record, laying down a lap in 6 minutes, 29 seconds. It's a larger-than-life car, and one that stole the spotlight from a coterie of legendary machines.
So, we'll let you know when we get one to test. Hey, Rick, aren't you dying to know what time your car will set at Lightning Lap?
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