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Aston Martin has taken the wraps off the new Valkyrie AMR-LMH racer in its full competition liveries before it hits the track. Entering both the global WEC and American IMSA championships, the V12-powered racer is quite the signal of intent for the brand, joining another international motorsport campaign alongside GT3 and F1.
Launched with two liveries for each of its racing series, the European-led WEC contender will feature the traditional Aston Martin Racing Green, with the American IMSA racer switching to blue. In both cases, this is the only entrant in the class which features a direct connection to a road car, with the Aston programme initially created under the old Hypercar regulations that insisted on a road-going variant to homologate the racer.
After these regulations were scrapped, Aston Martin retained the road-car programme despite pulling out of the WEC. But thanks to a huge growth in support from most of the world’s supercar manufacturers, Aston has relaunched its endurance racing campaign with the car that was always meant to race against Ferrari, BMW, Porsche and more.
Adrian Hallmark, Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin Lagonda, said: “This is a proud moment for Aston Martin. To be returning to the fight for overall honours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans exists at the very core of our values and marks a key milestone in our motor racing heritage. As the only hypercar born from the road to challenge at the top of sports car racing in both the WEC and IMSA, the Valkyrie is an embodiment of our enduring sporting ethos – one that has defined the brand for more than a century.”
The Valkyrie AMR-LMH has been designed and engineered by the Aston Martin Performance Technologies in-house racing team, The Heart of Racing. In order to be ready in time for the 2025 WEC season, the development schedule has been fast-tracked with test cars already spied lapping international circuits, not to mention at Aston’s Silverstone-based R&D centre.
Under the bodywork will sit a lean-burn version of the road car’s Cosworth-built naturally aspirated V12 engine. In road specification, the engine is actually far too powerful to comply with the rules, so has gone through a combination of de-tuning and adjustments.
It will make this one of only two teams running a naturally aspirated combustion engine in the series, and the only LMH car not to utilise a hybrid drive element. Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James said: “The first runs for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH have been an immensely proud moment in the programme. The birth of this project has been a couple of years in the making, so to get it to the track and to see it going around in the flesh, feels momentous for the team.”
Autoexpress.uk