A MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1W03 Formula One car made its debut at the annual Race the Runway event in Scotland yesterday in spectacular style as it recorded a terminal speed of 192.6 mph on the auxiliary runway at Edinburgh Airport.
Driven by former Formula One and Le Mans racer Anthony Davidson, the F1W03 chassis lined up on the start line as passenger aircraft taxied just yards away. He accelerated from a standstill to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, 124 mph in 5.7 seconds and 186 mph (300 km/h) in 14.9 seconds before reaching 192.6 mph in 20 seconds.
Race the Runway is run by and benefits the Prince and Princes of Wales Hospice in Glasgow. The event invites owners of high performance cars – not just Formula One machines – to participate in a series of drag races in return for a donation to the Hospice. For the second year Mercedes-Benz sponsored the event with examples of the A 45 AMG, C 63 AMG Black Series, the E 63 AMG S Estate, the GLA 45 AMG, the new S 63 AMG Coupé and the SLS AMG Black Series all taking part along with privately owned cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Nissan and Tesla. In total, 32 cars competed – a record number for the event.
Of the Mercedes-Benz road cars at Race the Runway, the 631 hp SLS AMG Black Series achieved the highest top speed, hitting 161 mph.
The chassis used for the event was from the 2012 season and raced in the German, Hungarian, Belgian, Italian and Singapore rounds of the Formula One World Championship. Designed and built at the home of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS in Brackley, the chassis is powered by a mighty naturally-aspirated V8 engine created by the engineers at Mercedes HighPeformancePowertrains, based in Brixworth.