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Oluwafemi Awodele
1 month ago
Overview
Next up, one of the year's all-star, the flagship of Aston Martin's new line of very very fast pure breed super race cars, named aptly in Norse mythology
Aston Martin Valkyrie
What is it?
Aston Martin’s F1 car for the road. With a little help and motivation from Red Bull’s F1 guru Adrian Newey. Announced in 2016, driven in 2023. The longest gestation of any car we’re aware of. And, behind the scenes, probably one of the most fraught. But it’s made it, with the promised package mostly intact.
And what was the promised package?
A tiny teardrop carbon passenger cell with an all-new 6.5-litre naturally aspirated 65-degree V12 hard mounted to it and out back a clever gearbox integrating an electric motor. That draws power from a 1.8kWh battery pack supplied by Rimac. The powertrain is a stressed member with the suspension hanging off it, saving weight and allowing Aston to originally claim a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio.
That’s slipped. The V12 and e-motor still deliver a combined 1,139bhp, but weight has risen in the face of regulation, legislation and rumoured cost-cutting. It’s now 1,270kg before fluids are added. But still, one thousand, one hundred and sixty horsepower.
Downforce is the talking point, 1,000kg of it, delivered surreptitiously by using the under surfaces more than the top sides. The venturi tunnels are something to behold. The whole car seems to float above the road, perforated by empty spaces. From some angles you can see straight through it.
Give me some interesting factoids.
The central rear brake light is mounted on a spar above the air intake. It meets all necessary brightness laws, despite being very small. But it should have been even smaller. The other legal requirement is that it needs to carry the EU logo and that didn’t fit on the light, so it had to be enlarged by 1.8mm.
At the other end of the car is the famous winged badge. It could have been a sticker, but Aston wanted it to be metal. It’s made from etched titanium and is just 40 microns thick. Thinner than a hair follicle and 99.4 per cent lighter than the standard Aston badge.
Read more: https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/aston-martin/valkyrie
