Automakers have consistently relied on racing-inspired developments to enhance the performance, efficiency, and marketability of their consumer-market cars. The Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Toyota Camry are among NASCAR’s most successful models, and both have also enjoyed long production runs as street-legal cars. Formula 1 has traditionally made international stars of its top drivers, and the automakers that compete for that championship are among the world’s elite. Mercedes has been the most recently dominant works team, winning a record eight straight constructor’s championships from 2014 through 2021. Red Bull has won the last two titles, with Honda engines providing the speed that has also propelled Max Verstappen to the past three driver’s championships.
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Ferrari has competed as a works team in F1 since Alberto Ascari finished second in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, and is the only team to have raced every year since that inaugural season. Ferrari’s 16 constructor’s championships are more than any other team’s total, although the Scuderia hasn’t won since 2008. Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull have all worked to bring Formula 1 engines to production cars, although those cars were all very exclusive and very expensive.
The Aston-Martin Valkyrie looks track-ready
The Aston-Martin Valkyrie wears the badge of a British Formula 1 team, but the car was developed in partnership with one of Aston-Martin’s rivals, Red Bull Racing. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey joined forces with Aston-Martin CEO Andy Palmer and marketing chief Simon Sproule to build the hypercar after — as legend has it — the four men conceived it over multiple plates of bangers and mash. The Valkyrie’s 6.5-liter V12 was developed by F1 stalwart Cosworth and produces over 1,000 horsepower. In case that’s not satisfying to your right foot, an electric motor adds another 141 horses and brings the Valkyrie’s engine technology in line with F1’s hybrid powerplants.
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The body is made entirely of carbon fiber to save weight, and Aston Martin’s engineers chemically etched a 40 micron thick badge into the front of the car because the standard metal one added unnecessary weight and interfered with the car’s aerodynamics. Periscope optics were used for the brake lights to keep the profile sleek, and the company employed a supplier for NASA’s space shuttles to design the 594-gram single-blade torsion bar windshield wiper. The Valkyrie is capable of pulling 3.5 g on the skidpad, tops out at over 200 miles per hour, and produces enough downforce to destroy ordinary tires. 150 Valkyries were produced, plus 85 removable-top Spider versions and 40 AMR Pros for closed courses only. They all sold out quickly, at a minimum price of $3.5 million.
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The Mercedes-AMG One uses F1 championship-winning engine tech
During its record-setting run of eight straight constructor’s championships, Mercedes began developing its own F1-inspired street-legal hypercar. The AMG One was first shown as a concept at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show and was developed with the assistance of seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes-AMG One’s hybrid powertrain has a turbocharged 1.6-liter gas-fueled V6 engine and four electric motors to boost output beyond the 1,000-horsepower mark.
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Two motors drive the front wheels, one powers the turbocharger, and another is mounted between the engine and transmission. Mercedes has implied that this is the first true F1 engine to be approved for use in a production car, but the One was never made available in the United States. The company sent a letter to prospective buyers, telling them it wasn’t going to make any changes to the car to appease regulatory agencies. Fox News reported that the letter stated that “in order to preserve the unique character of its Formula 1 powertrain, we have concluded that meeting U.S. road standards would significantly compromise its performance and its overall driving character.” 275 were built by hand for lucky customers elsewhere in the world, and they sold out quickly despite a price tag of $2.8 million.
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Ferrari built 349 F50s from 1995 through 1997
The recent efforts by Aston-Martin and Mercedes to put Formula 1 engines to use in production cars harken back to the 1990s, when Ferrari made its own F1-based street machine. The F50’s 4.7-liter V12 engine produced 513 horsepower and was adapted from the 3.5-liter racing version in an attempt to bring the torque and power peaks down from their spots near the 12,750 rpm redline. The production F50’s engine maxed out at a more reasonable 8,500 rpm and made its peak horsepower numbers right at that speed.
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Like Aston-Martin’s and Mercedes’ F1-bred production cars, the F50 borrowed plenty of other features from its F1 brothers. The engine was bolted directly to the chassis and the pushrod double-wishbone suspension had electronic dampers. The rest of the F50 was fairly primitive, with manual brakes and steering and an old-fashioned six-speed stick shift. It could sprint from 0-60 in just 3.8 seconds and hit a top speed of 202 miles per hour. Only 349 were made between 1995 and 1997. The F50 has become one of the most coveted cars in the world, and a low-mileage example sold in 2022 for almost $5.4 million.
A championship-winning Porsche engine was adapted for the Carrera GT
McLaren F1 drivers Niki Lauda and Alain Prost won three drivers’ and two constructors’ championships between 1984 and 1986 with Porsche engines, but it was a less successful F1 powerplant from a few years later that eventually made its way into a production car, albeit after a couple of intermediate steps. The Carrera GT’s 5.7-liter V10 was developed from the ashes of Porsche’s 1990s engine supplier arrangement with the Arrows team, a partnership that failed to bring the success of Porsche’s earlier involvement with McLaren.
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Later in the decade, that F1 engine was modified for use at the 2000 24 Hours of LeMans, and the LeMans engine was tweaked to meet noise and emissions regulations for the production version of the Carrera GT. It produced more than 600 horsepower and could get the 3,146-pound coupe from 0-60 in just 3.5 seconds. Top speed was over 200 miles per hour, and Porsche made about 1270 examples before moving on from the Carrera GT in Spring of 2006.
[Featured image by Brian Snelson via Wikimedia Commons|Cropped and scaled|CC-BY SA 2.0]
The Renault Espace F1 was an 800-horsepower concept minivan
The Renault Espace F1 never made it past the concept stage — and isn’t even a car– but it’s so remarkable we had to include it on this list. The Espace minivan was a decade old when Renault decided to mark that anniversary by gracing it with the same 3.5-liter V10 engine Renault was supplying to the Williams Formula 1 team. It produced 800 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque, which got the Espace F1 from 0-60 in an unholy 2.8 seconds.
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Its Top speed was 194 miles per hour, but the Espace F1 never made it to the production stage. The beastly mid-engined minivan wouldn’t have worked terribly well as a family hauler or grocery-getter. It had four seats but lacked sliding doors or any of the other family-first features of the era’s popular vans. it’s currently on display at the Matra Museum in France, and you can drive a virtual version in the 1999 PlayStation game Gran Turismo 2.
