After its world debut at the Geneva Auto Show last March, Aston Martin has kept its One-77 supercar under wraps, until now. Making its U.S. debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, we had a chance to get more familiar with the car at a private event the night before.
When Aston first announced that this flagship supercar would have carbon chassis and an aluminum body we thought perhaps the PR folks had reversed the order of what they meant to say. But they didn’t.
Feeling like a pure-bred track car, the carbon chassis is exposed as soon as you open the door with carbon side sills and carbon floors. In fact, the driver sits surrounded by the light-weight material. The carbon fiber monocoque, as it’s called, is the same sort of carbon frame used in a Formula 1 car. Aston Martin has combined this high-technology chassis with traditional coachbuilding practices including hand-rolling the aluminum body panels. All this light weight material helped to keep the supercar’s weight down to just 3,300 lbs.
Significant attention was paid to the vehicle’s aerodynamics, and one of Aston’s product experts let us in on an interesting bit of technology found just behind the front fender. Air ducts found there will actually close mechanically at high speeds (around 150 mph) to help reduce lift. Along with a subtle front splitter and massive rear diffuser, the One-77 will gets hidden rear spoiler that pops up at speeds above 100mph.
The motorsorts technology continues elsewhere in the One-77 with a suspension setup similar to a true race car, with horizontal shocks, as opposed to vertical ones. Aston even designed the rear of the car so this setup is visible through the rear glass.
Amazingly, while the One-77 doesn’t look excessively large, it is actually 2 meters wide (5.56 feet). That is wider than a Lamborghini Murciélago!
Additional racing technology can be found under the hood, where a 7.3-liter V12 engine, topped off with carbon fiber intake manifolds, makes an incredible 750hp.
As the name suggests, just 77 versions of the One-77 will be hand built at a cost of $1.8 million.
GALLERY: Aston Martin One-77
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