Picture Aston Martin and your mind wanders off to Sir Sean Connery and his DB5. This is not that type of Aston as it is something a lot more extreme.
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For many years Aston Martin has focused on GT cars including the DB9 and the DBS while the Vantage was more of a brutish muscle car with typical tourer pretentions. Nothing screamed race car from the Aston Martin line-up but all that changed when the Valkyrie was announced.
Aston Martin Valkyrie: Brutish muscle car
The Valkyrie is an extreme hypercar with outlandish performance being mixed with aerodynamics mostly seen with racing cars. Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and project partner AF Racing have been perfecting this recipe for many years. Now the Valkyrie is complete, with many of the 150 production run customer cars being delivered.
F1 thrills and chills
It is opposite to the Chiron and focused on delivering F1 thrills on the road. That and infusing strict racing car ethos beneath a road car design. It is hard to believe that the Valkyrie is indeed a road car though. It sure does look stunning with its sci-fi styling. Adrian Newey‘s design masterpiece is all about form following function with downforce and aerodynamic efficiency governing those admittedly gorgeous lines.
Everything is about saving weight. That even includes the badge, which is not your regular one. Instead it is a chemical etched aluminium badge just 70 microns thick. The underfloor venturi tunnels and the plethora of wings plus vents creates an alien-like design. It’s also being quite striking. Nothing looks like this. It makes every other hypercar look somewhat staid.
It is hard to believe that the Valkyrie is indeed a road car though … sure does look stunning with its sci-fi styling.
Aston Martin Valkyrie: Top speed of 220 mph
The interior similarly is as close as it gets to an F1 car with precious little room along with a racing car like atmosphere. Ergonomics and comfort are secondary here with little regard to actual space.
Not that it matters as owners would be excited to be on-board their new toy and key to the appeal of the Valkyrie is its engine. A canopy style windscreen is your view as the electric motor jostles with the 6.5-litre V12. Total power on offer is a stratospheric 1140 bhp and 682 lb ft at 7000rpm. Performance claims are nothing short of bewildering since the Valkyrie dispatches 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds while the top-speed is 220 mph.
Aston Martin Valkyrie: An extreme hypercar
The Aston Martin Valkyrie then is a $3.25 million hand-built carbon-fibre rocket ship and maybe is too extreme for the roads. But it opens a new segment of hypercars along with the AMG One. With only 150 cars being made and there also being a Spider version, it is no doubt the most extreme hypercar right now while also elevating Aston Martin as a brand with serious potential as a rival to other supercar brands.
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Somnath Chatterjee grew up around cars and most of his childhood was spent obsessing over supercars. Years later he decided to start writing about them and hasn’t looked back since. While he has had his fair share of cars, the world of automobiles never ceases to amaze him. Travelling all over the world to drive them along with sharing that experience is what ultimately keeps him going. He hopes to drive a Ferrari 288 GTO someday because, well, do you really need a reason?
