Aston Martin Valkyrie


The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a limited production hybrid sports car collaboratively built by British automobile manufacturers Aston Martin, Red Bull Racing and several others.
The sports car is a product of collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing to develop a track-oriented car entirely usable and enjoyable as a road car. The car's makers claim the title of fastest street-legal car in the world for it. Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing's Chief Technical Officer and the world's most successful F1 designer aided in the design of the car.
Its main competitor is the Mercedes-AMG One. Before the start of the 2019 Formula One British Grand Prix, the car made a lap of the Silverstone circuit for the first time.

Nomenclature

The original codename was Nebula, an acronym for Newey, Red Bull and Aston Martin. The name AM-RB 001 was chosen as the final codename, and was decided since Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing had collaborated all throughout the project. AM stands for Aston Martin, and RB stands for Red Bull. 001 may be a possible reference to it being the first production car the two have collaborated on.
In March 2017, Aston Martin revealed that the car would be named Valkyrie, after the Norse mythological figure. According to Red Bull, the name was chosen to continue the tradition of "V" nomenclature of Aston Martin's automobiles and to distinguish the vehicle as a high-performance car.

Design

Exterior

A show car was initially unveiled to the public in order to give the public an idea of its design. The design was nearly finished at the time in a near-production-ready form.
The exterior of the car is extremely aerodynamic for a sports car, with an extensively open underfloor, that works on the principle of the venturi effect, that can fit an entire person, and is capable of producing of downforce at high speed. Gaps on top of the car and a large front splitter aid in generating downforce. The wheels are also designed to manage the airflow and be as light as possible at the same time.

Interior

The interior design was leaked online on 20 June 2017 and gave a preview of the car's design. The interior has no gauge cluster, but rather a collection of screens. By the left and right corners are the screens for the camera side mirrors. One screen sits at the top of the center console, which may have a collection of live vehicle information, and regular vehicle controls, but this is not confirmed. A screen is used on the race-inspired steering wheel and acts as the driver gauge cluster. Dials and switches sit beside the wheel screen to allow for easier changes without driving interruption. The seats, formed from hollow carbon fibre straight into interior perimeter, are bucket variants, and have two seat belts for each car seat.
Because of the extremely small interior and doors, each seat is designed specifically for the owner's body shape through 3D scanning. A removable steering wheel provides slightly more space for entry and exit.

Specifications

Road version

In February 2017, Aston Martin revealed most of the vehicle's specifications. The final specifications were revealed later in the year.
Several manufacturers have taken part in the Valkyrie's construction, those being Cosworth, Ricardo, Rimac Automobili, Multimatic, Alcon, Bosch, Surface Transforms, Wipac, and Michelin.
The car contains a 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 engine tailored by Cosworth, which produces around at 10,500 rpm, with a redline of 11,100 rpm. This will make it the most powerful naturally-aspirated engine ever to be fitted to a production road car, as well as the highest-revving. A Rimac-built hybrid battery system, which performs as a kinetic energy recovery system, is installed alongside the engine, producing up to. This brings the total output of the Valkyrie to, with power being delivered via a 7-speed single-clutch paddle-shift automated manual transmission constructed by Ricardo.
At the same time the power output figures were released, the weight was announced to be, surpassing the intended 1:1 power-to-weight ratio with per ton. The car can accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill in a time of 2.6 seconds.
The exhausts exit at the top of the car, near the engine, similar to those of Formula One cars and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Bosch supplies the Valkyrie's ECU unit, traction control system, and ESP. The braking system is provided by Alcon and Surface Transforms. The front and rear lights are manufactured by Wipac. The car has all-carbon fibre bodywork and is installed with a carbon fibre Monocell from manufacturer Multimatic. Michelin supplies the Valkyrie with the company's high-performance Sport Cup 2 tyres, having sizes of 265/35-ZR20 at the front and 325/30-ZR21 at the rear. The wheels are constructed out of lightweight magnesium alloy with race-spec centre-lock wheel nuts to reduce mass. In 2020, after Red Bull Racing's Red Bull Racing RB16 had its first shakedown in Silverstone Circuit, drivers Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon drove the car around the track.

Track version

The track only variant of the Valkyrie called the Valkyrie AMR Pro was introduced at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. Only 25 units will be produced, all of which have already been sold. The AMR Pro uses the same 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 engine as used in the Valkyrie road car along with the Rimac Energy Recovery System, although the KERS system will be reprogrammed in terms of its control systems. The engine will also be modified, which means the AMR Pro will have increased engine power output figures than its road legal counterpart.
The AMR Pro uses smaller 18-inch wheels at the front and rear. This is to allow the Michelin racing tyres to actually fit the car, with F1-inspired carbon-carbon brakes to aid braking performance. The air-conditioning system and infotainment screens have been removed, and have been replaced with racing counterparts. The car will be able to generate 3.3 g lateral force during cornering and 3.5 g during braking. Its top speed is intended to be higher than the road car, at. The car's exhaust will have very minimal parts to silence the engine.
The AMR Pro will have a significantly more aggressive design, with a LMP1-style rear aerodynamic fin, a large dual-element rear spoiler, and a large rear diffuser.

Production

The road car's production will be limited to 150 units at a unit price of USD3.2 million.
The AMR Pro production will be limited to 25 units at a unit price of USD9.15 million.

Resale policy

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer enlisted a policy in a Twitter post on 4 July 2017, stating that if the owner were to "flip" the car, the owner would not be provided the opportunity to buy any further special edition models from Aston Martin. This policy is also used for Ford's new GT and Mercedes-AMG's One sports cars.

Media

Car show appearances