Yahoo Autos Aston Martin Hypercar development gaining pace
The 2025 Aston Martin Valkyrie FIA WEC and IMSA program is moving forward at a fast pace, with early systems testing with a mule car underway and full-track testing set to get going soon.
The program, which is being worked on by Aston Martin Performance Technologies and American IMSA and WEC GT3 team Heart of Racing, has been running to schedule and is set to ramp up in the coming weeks.
Ian James, Heart of Racing’s team principal, gave more detail on the test program and its targets to RACER last weekend, confirming that a “further developed” mule car will be ready soon for AMPT and HoR to utilize as it edges closer to the actual Valkyrie LMH hitting the track for performance and endurance testing.
“We’ve had a mule car out running already, which is basically an AMR Pro car with some Hypercar calibrations. And in about six weeks we will have a further developed car with more of the suspension and control units from the Hypercar in it,” he says.
This development comes in the wake of the Heart of Racing team setting up a base in Brackley, England next to Multimatic Motorsports Europe’s facility. This new set-up is a key part of the operation moving forward.
“We are going to collaborate with Multimatic on some of the operational side of it for WEC,” he continues. “I think George Howard-Chapell (Multimatic’s motorsport business director) will be involved in the project.
“I’ve had a relationship with Multimatic for many years. I really respect what they do and what Larry (Holt) has achieved there.
“So we will work closely with them. There’s a core group there that was involved in the Ford GT program up in Brackley. We will build that from probably five or six core people to around 40 come the start of next year.”
Among Heart of Racing’s current staff, there are a select few dedicated to delivering the project, adding to the personnel from Aston Martin and Multimatic who are collaborating in the background.
While Heart of Racing is overseeing all areas, the division of labor was made clear by James to RACER. AMPT is responsible for design work and Multimatic is building the car alongside it.
“We’ve got our own driver-in-the-loop simulator now in Arizona, we’re getting the Valkyrie model on there. We are working on the backside of it, on the engineering side,” he says.
“It really is a collaborative effort and we will get more and more involved as it gets to officially running the Hypercar in the middle of the year.”
When the Valkyrie finally hits the track in anger, it will be almost six years on from Aston Martin’s first planned Valkyrie Hypercar program.
So much has changed since Aston Martin’s original announcement: the LMH-specific regulations have been revised, LMDh-LMH convergence was announced and has been delivered and a fleet of manufacturers have since joined the ruleset.
With all that in mind, what will the 2025-spec, non-hybrid LMH Valkyrie, with its race-optimized carbon-fiber chassis and modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, look like when it hits the track?
“I think it’s a general progression (from the original concept),” James explains. “But because the ruleset changed the aerodynamics had to be redone. We have an AMR Pro and we’ve put many thousands of kilometers on it, so we’ve learned quite a few little bits from that.
“Multimatic has the test car for that for the factory. But a lot of the car has been generated in the last six months. The DNA follows what it was originally going to be but it’s definitely a different animal.
“It (the final race car) will look like a Valkyrie from 100 feet away. It will look similar to an AMR Pro, but when you look into the details they’ll be distinctly different.
“Performance-wise, the AMR Pro is ridiculous in terms of the downforce and horsepower it has, so we won’t get anywhere near that. With the AMR Pro we do a lot of track days and corporate days in it. With a 250-pound passenger and me driving it at a 10th of its capability, we can lap quicker than the GTP pole at Laguna Seca. That’s how crazy it is.”
There is still plenty of work to be done before the car is ready for competition. But James is energized by the project, which Heart of Racing is working on alongside its ambitious two-car GT3 efforts with the new Vantage in the FIA WEC and IMSA.
“This has been a journey for me and I’ve worked on this for the last two years,” James says. “I’m super-excited about it, I think the Valkyrie is going to be a fan favorite no matter where it races.”
The target, James says, is for the Valkyrie to complete “at least 12-15 thousand kilometers” of track testing before the car attends the annual IMSA BoP test at Daytona in December.
Part of the to-do list also includes a visit to the Sauber wind tunnel in Switzerland and Windshear wind tunnel in Concord, North Carolina. This is a mandatory step in the homologation processes for manufacturers looking to enter both championships.
All eyes in the Hypercar and GTP paddocks will be on the Valkyrie’s progress. This is because it will become the first LMH-spec prototype to visit the Windshear facility ahead of its campaign in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTP class next season.
It is another significant milestone for convergence and IMSA knows that its ability to balance the car against the current crop of GTP manufacturers is almost certainly going to be monitored closely by the other LMH manufacturers.
Was there any apprehension on Heart of Racing’s side about becoming the first LMH programme to take the plunge and run its prototype in GTP?
“It was never in doubt,” James says. “We want to be represented in both championships. We love racing in America, it’s where we’ve started and grown up as Heart of Racing. It’s a big undertaking but I have faith in the entire process.”
