Valkyrie AMR Pro is a 1,014PS track special

This is the firm’s second go at a Valkyrie AMR Pro, previewed here in graphic images but said to be real enough that testing is about to start and set to be in its first owners’ hands from the end of this year. Aston says it will be make 40 of them. No price is quoted but whatever it is includes your own driving mentor and track time at an FIA-approved circuit.

The latest from Gaydon has as much in common with the on-pause racer as it does the Valkyrie road car, the Adrian Newey-designed hypercar that Aston promised would deliver LMP1 pace – but which is yet to reach its first owners.

You certainly would not bet against the new AMR Pro delivering such pace: unconstrained by racing or road regulations, the 1,014PS (748kW) track car is said to be capable of a 3-minute 20-second lap of the Le Mans 24 Hours circuit. For reference the fastest-ever lap ­– achieved in qualifying – stands at 3 minutes 14.791 seconds, completed in 2017 by Kamui Kobayashi in the Toyota TS050 LMP1 car.

Unlike the original AMR Pro concept of 2018, the new machine ditches the road car chassis and adopts the bones of the Valkyrie Le Mans racer concept which Aston, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and Newey developed under the previous management – when Aston was one of the first to commit to taking part in the new hypercar class at La Sarthe.

As such the car differs substantially: it is 380mm longer in the wheelbase and with wider tracks too, 96mm wider at the front, 115mm wider at the rear. The new aero package adds 266mm to the car’s overall length and ups the amount of downforce – to levels that Aston says exceed anything possible under the Le Mans hypercar regulations. Lateral acceleration of more than 3g will be possible, claims the firm.

More familiar is the engine: a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 that has always been at the heart of all Valkyries. It revs to 11,000rpm and delivers its 1,014PS without any electric assistance. The road car’s hybrid side has been ditched to save weight. There are more weight saving mods too, including lighter carbon-fibre bodywork, carbon suspension wishbones and Perspex windscreen and side windows.

“The Valkyrie AMR Pro is testament to Aston Martin’s commitment to pure performance and this performance DNA will be evident in our future product portfolio,” Aston CEO Tobias Moers tells us.

Hooray for that. In many ways it’s surely a miracle this car is happening at all, given how much has changed since the Valkyrie first saw the light of day in 2017: company ownership, senior management, Le Mans rules, Aston’s participation in F1, not to mention more hypercar competition than ever and an upended, pandemic-struck car market – none of this was foreseen in 2017.

Almost four years ago we wrote: “The road car may not be out yet but already Aston Martin is finalising the design of the track-only version of the new Valkyrie as things getting hotter and hotter in the hypercar stakes.”

Nothing changes but everything changes! At least the car is coming… and who cares if it is perhaps expedient use of now surplus-to-requirements race chassis?