Music star will.i.am has partnered with Mercedes’ high-performance division to produce a bespoke two-door coupe.
Mercedes-AMG is set to reveal a new sports car created in collaboration with will.i.am, a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas. Teasers suggest it will be called the ‘will.i.AMG’.
Mercedes says that the project will facilitate “inner city school engineering programs”, and the car will be revealed in full on 5 May.
Mercedes has released a video and two images to tease the bespoke creation, which will be far more extravagant than any current AMG model. The car’s long-bonnet profile is reminiscent of the AMG GT, with a smooth, tapering roofline. The details are less conventional, however – the sports car-like concept looks to adopt the bluff front end design from the brand’s G-Class SUV.
Like that car, this one-off AMG has a flat front surface and a pair of round LED headlights. The clamshell bonnet has a central crease that splits in two over the roof, And there are more hard creases along the car’s flanks.
The doors are particularly striking, with a rear-hinged design similar to that of the Rolls-Royce Wraith. The wheels appear to be diamond-cut five spoke items, not dissimilar to AMG’s famous ‘monoblock’ rims, and there’s a pair of slim LED tail-lights at the rear.
Given its two door sports car silhouette, the new model could share its platform with the Mercedes-AMG SL, which will also underpin the next generation of the AMG GT. Either way, the use of AMG’s ubiquitous 4.0-litre V8 is likely.
In the SL 63, the twin-turbocharged motor produces 430kW, although AMG has just released a hybrid version of this powertrain in the GT 4-Door 63 S E-Performance, which produces a maximum of 611kW and can run on electricity only for 12km.
We already know there’s a plug-in hybrid SL on the way, so the size and likely underpinnings of this new AMG concept means it has potential to package AMG’s petrol-electric powertrain.
We’ll find out in a few days time when the German brand and the music mogul reveal the car in full.
Yousuf Ashraf