The Aston Martin Valkyrie Is the Only Road Car-Based Hypercar Going to Le Mans
The Valkyrie started life as a Red Bull-era Adrian Newey project. It's hitting the track as an Aston-era Newey project. The post The Aston Martin Valkyrie Is the Only Road Car-Based Hypercar Going to Le Mans appeared first on The Drive.
This is the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar that will race at Le Mans, and it looks absolutely sick.
Aston Martin’s factory THOR team—that is, The Heart of Racing, not the god of thunder—will go for an overall win with the Valkyrie, the first time the brand has done so at Circuit de la Sarthe since 1959. The Valkyrie also happens to be the only entry in the hypercar class in both WEC and IMSA in 2025 to be based on a road car.
Interestingly, the Valkyrie was first conceived by Adrian Newey as a Red Bull Racing project in the late-2010s, back when Aston was that team’s title sponsor. Since then, Aston Martin returned to Formula 1 itself as a revamped Racing Point and then poached Newey in a rumored $200 million contract last year. Such is the incestuous nature of F1.
The Valkyrie is powered by a 6.5-liter V12 built by Cosworth that revs to 11,000 rpm and makes over 1,000 horsepower, but in race form, it’ll be limited to 680 hp to adhere to class regulations. It’s built on a carbon fiber chassis, double wishbone suspension all around with pushrod-actuated torsion bar springs, and adjustable dampers.
Three Brits—Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, and Ross Gunn—will be piloting the green No. 007 Valkyrie in what may be the most British vehicle on the grid. Marco Sørenson and Alex Riberas from Denmark and Spain, respectively, will drive the No. 009.
With over 9,000 test miles under its belt, Aston sounds like it’s taking this year’s on-track Le Mans aspirations pretty seriously, but we’ll see how it all shakes out when the green flag drops in June. If it were a beauty contest, though, the Valkyrie may already have a win in the bag.
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The post The Aston Martin Valkyrie Is the Only Road Car-Based Hypercar Going to Le Mans appeared first on The Drive.
