Despite deliveries of its new Valkyrie still being a work-in-progress, Aston Martin has gone ahead and revealed a beastly track-only special edition model — the Valkyrie AMR Pro.
The road to this reveal has been an interesting one for Aston. It first unveiled a Valkyrie AMR Pro some three years ago, although that car was merely a showy design proposal. This thing is going to be made for real.
A lot of its improvements stem from Aston Martin’s decision to cancel its competition in the Le Mans ‘Hypercar’ class. It’s decided that it may as well use the investment and know-how from that project (helped in part by Red Bull and Multimatic) on something it can take to market.
As such, the AMR Pro gets a “race optimised” chassis with much more aggressive aerodynamics front and rear. The chin spoiler attached to the nose is much longer than on the standard Valkyrie, and the rear spoiler taller and more shapely.
The wheelbase is 381mm longer, and the staggered track around 100mm wider. All the wild aero is said to add up to around 3,600kg of peak downforce. And, Aston Martin has said that the car should be able to lap Circuit de la Sarthe (where the 24 Hours of Le Mans is held) in just 3min 20sec — almost line-ball with the quickest LMP1 cars.
And, it does this without any hybrid system. No, unlike the standard Valkyrie the AMR Pro is a pure internal combustion engine machine. Under its rear hatch sits a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre Cosworth V12 engine, producing 764kW of power and capable of revving all the way up to 11,000rpm.
The powertrain is interesting to compare to that of Gordon Murray’s T.50 hypercar. It too utilises a Cosworth-built V12 engine, although at 3.9-litres it packs less capacity. Still, in its most extreme ‘Niki Lauda’ trim, it produces 540kW of power — a deficit of over 200kW.
As you might suspect given the extreme nature of the aero, the AMR Pro is not designed to be road legal. Instead, not unlike the sledgehammer-like Vulcan, it’s intended to be a track-only plaything for those addicted to speed and split times.
“The entire Aston Martin Valkyrie programme has been an extraordinary adventure in engineering. As an expression of the passion and expertise that can be found within Aston Martin and its closest technical partners, Valkyrie AMR Pro is a project beyond compare, a true ‘no rules’ track-only version,” said Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers.
Production of the first Valkyries is said to be imminent, with 150 builds on the cards. The AMR Pro has a more humble production run scheduled, with just 40 planned for the production line. Those who opt to buy one will get the chance to attend a “bespoke track day experience” with Aston Martin, which includes driver training and your own set of overalls.
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