What on Earth is that thing?!

It's called the AM-RB 001. And it's going to be a quite astonishing hypercar by the time it hits the roads - yes, the roads - in 2018. From the initials, you might be able to work out the two companies that have teamed up to create it.

Well, it's Aston Martin, but RB...?

Look at the 001 again and you'll notice it looks something like an F1 car with additional bodywork draped over it. Indeed, you'll also see a dark blue F1 car in the background of various pics. Can you guess now?

Red Bull?

Correct, or rather Red Bull Advanced Technologies, a division of the F1 company. Three men are at the forefront of the development of this monster and they are Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey, Aston Martin's VP and chief special operations officer David King and Aston's chief creative officer Marek Reichman. Newey did the underfloor airflow and hugely advanced, F1-derived suspension set-up, Reichman styled that glorious, swoopy bodywork and King - and his team at Gaydon - will be charged with putting together a handful of road-going and track-only examples in the same facility in which the One-77 hypercar was built.

Can you split down the road and track numbers?

Between 99 and 150 AM-RB 001s will be road-legal, while another 25 will be for the circuit alone. And each of those 25 is said to have performance that is 'in line with that of today's LMP1 Le Mans sports prototypes'. Sweet. Lord.

Have you got any of the technical details yet?

A few. The AM-RB 001, a two-seater within, has a lightweight carbon fibre structure and is bespoke from the ground up, sharing nothing with any other Aston Martin product. A mid-mounted, naturally aspirated V12 - likely to be a derivative of the engine seen in the One-77 and Vulcan machines - should have enough terrifying thump to give this thing a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio. Can you imagine the speed the 001 will possess?

And when does it go on sale?

First deliveries to the lucky few will begin in 2018. As for the price? We have no idea, but if you have to ask...

Matt Robinson - 5 Jul 2016