New Aston Martin Valkyrie gets track-focused bodywork option

Interiors can be trimmed in a wide variety of materials and textures, but most buyers so far are likely to take their cars with bare carbon interiors, with judiciously placed pads, mounted directly to the tub, providing support and comfort. 

Engine builder Cosworth says the Valkyrie’s ultracompact 6.5-litre normally aspirated V12 engine – which weighs just 204kg ‘fully dressed’ despite doubling as a race-style stress-bearing chassis member – has already yielded more than 1000bhp at 10,500rpm on the dynamometer. Cosworth MD Bruce Wood has also revealed that peak torque of 546lb ft is developed at 7000rpm. 

Combined with a braking energy recovery system (sourced from Rimac), the car should have around 1130bhp on tap. Given Newey’s early ‘1:1’ target – one horsepower per kilogram – this suggests the Valkyrie will weigh a little over 1100kg at the kerb. Acceleration figures are yet to be revealed, but in top-performance guise, the car is believed to be capable of around 250mph. 

Around 30 Valkyrie buyers have so far visited the company’s Gaydon HQ to lay down their cars’ specifications, to be fitted to their driving seats, and either to choose track pack liveries or to configure a second car for track use. Aston expects to meet the rest of its buyers through 2019 and to deliver the first cars at the end of the year, before the even harder-core Valkyrie AMR Pro appears in 2020.

Making it your own

If you’re truly, honestly intending to buy an Aston Martin Valkyrie, there’s a special process you’ll have to go through. Nestling in a special room inside the firm’s Gaydon HQ is a very complete-looking mock-up of a Valkyrie, surrounded by drawers neatly fitted with trim samples, and wall displays of little car-shaped paint samplers, to allow buyers to understand what they’re getting. 

When I called, I was met by CGI artist Stuart Boote, who effortlessly drove a super-configurator to portray my paint and spec preferences, and colour/trim designer Alka Bradford, who showed what was possible and steered me away from obvious mistakes.