Mercedes-AMG put the Concept PureSpeed on a floating pontoon in Monaco harbour in May 2024. It is a two-seater with no roof and no windscreen. The company called it a preview of the first car in the Mercedes-Benz Mythos series. The limited series is 250 cars. The official English Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS page and Mercedes-Benz’s own media sites are the sources.
Also in this series: Mercedes Named a Mythos Series of Collector Cars, and Mercedes-AMG Will Build 250 PureSpeed Speedsters.
Monaco. A pontoon. No glass.
The world premiere sat on the sidelines of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell unveiled the car. Michael Schiebe, then chairman of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, said neither a roof nor the windscreen separates the two passengers from the elements. He called the HALO a Formula 1 feeling, and Monaco the right place for it. That quote is on the official Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team page.
Mercedes-Benz’s Dutch media site published the same concept kit: Concept Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed, first model in the Mythos series. The strictly limited series of 250 units is for the most dedicated Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts and collectors. The factory printed that number on the concept. It printed it again on the production car.
1924 Targa Florio. 1955 300 SLR. AMG ONE.
The F1 team page lists the references in order. The 1924 Targa Florio racecar. The 300 SLR that Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson drove in the 1955 Mille Miglia. The Mercedes-AMG ONE hypercar. Modern Formula 1 cars. The Mercedes-Benz NL kit adds the design language: a low silhouette, shark nose, AMG lettering in the intake, and visible carbon below rounder upper surfaces. The two scoops behind the seats recall the 300 SLR. The number 10 on the front wing marks the Mercedes that won the Targa Florio a hundred years earlier.
The HALO replaces the A-pillar. Two helmets, designed for this car, sit in the cockpit. The NL kit also names an IWC Schaffhausen clock on the dashboard. The concept book does not list a transmission. It does not list horsepower. Mercedes did not print those numbers on the concept. They arrived with the production kit in December.
The concept kit does not list a gearbox.
That is the clutch graf, and it is short because the factory left it blank. The May 2024 concept materials describe the open body, the HALO, the 250-car cap, and the Mythos brief. They do not name AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT 9G or any other gearbox. They do not mention a clutch pedal. Do not invent one. The production book later printed a wet starting clutch in a nine-speed MCT. That is a later document.
Camouflaged prototypes then ran more than 3,000 kilometres in Italy, public roads first, then Nardò, with Pininfarina as the small-series partner. Mercedes-Benz Media dated that note Affalterbach/Nardò, 28 August 2024: Prototypes of the Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed in the final stages of testing. Still 250 cars. Still the first Mythos model. Still no roof, no windscreen.
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