Stuttgart , Germany - When Mercedes-Benz
in September, it caused a worldwide stir.
As well it might; under the swoopy, slightly old-fashioned styling it has a 1.6-litre petrol V6, an derived from the one in the championship-winning Mercedes-AMG Formula One car, complete electrically-boosted turbo and pneumatic valve springs that spins to a screaming 11 000rpm.
It drives the rear wheels in tandem with a 120kW electric motor - and has another 120kW electric motor driving each of the front wheels, for a grand total of 745kW.
The whole car, built on a carbon-fibre monocoque tub, weighs in at less than 1320kg and its performance is, if you’ll forgive the pun, electrifying: 0-200km/h in less than six seconds, and a top speed of more than 350km/h.
But to really understand just how super this supercar is, watch as Daimler chief designer Gorden Wagener, exterior designer Robert Lesnik, interior designer Hartmut Sinkwitz, and AMG's Philipp Eckert and Vitalis Enns describe how it came to be, and why it looks the way it does.