Yahoo Autos Aston Martin and Red Bull Play Top Trumps with Valkyrie AMR Pro
It has been a year since Aston Martin confirmed, at the 2017 Geneva auto show, that the hypercar it has jointly developed with the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team would be known as the Valkyrie. A year later, the company has gone one better by showing the even faster track-only version of the same car. That the company itself referenced the popular Top Trumps trading-card game as it unveiled the AMR Pro gives a good indication of its impressive statistics. Going by Aston’s numbers, it looks set to go straight to the top of the stack.
For reference, the Koenigsegg One:1 that previously marked the high-water mark of power-to-weight ratios managed the neat trick of having 1 metric horsepower for each kilogram of weight—1360 of each when running on its preferred diet of the E85 ethanol/gasoline mix; that weight translates to 2998 pounds. Aston Martin says its AMR Pro Valkyrie improves on that measure. The company says that the combination of a naturally aspirated V-12 engine and a hybrid system will give a peak output of more than 1100 horsepower (1115 in metric measure), while its car weighs less than 1000 kg, or 2205 pounds. Clearly they resisted the impulse to name it the One-Point-One-Five:1.
The company hasn’t released many more performance figures beyond those we reported in late 2017, but the new images make it clear both how special the AMR Pro car looks and also how different it is from the regular street-legal Valkyrie. It sits lower and features much more aggressive bodywork, with sizable front and rear wing elements as well as a long LMP racer–style stability fin running along the centerline at the rear of the car. While the first official shots released show the car in isolation, and in some cases against some frankly psychedelic backgrounds, the Geneva auto show car was presented flanked by the new Vantage GTE racer and this season’s Aston-liveried Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car, emphasizing how close the two organizations have become.
Mass has been shaved, compared to the roadgoing Valkyrie, by the use of even lighter grades of carbon fiber as well as the removal of pretty much all equipment. The AMR Pro will not have any form of cabin heating, nor will it have an infotainment system. The windscreen and side windows are polycarbonate, and the windscreen will contain integrated heating elements. The suspension components are made from carbon fiber, and the car has an even lighter exhaust system than its road-legal sibling.
Aston says that the Pro’s 1100-plus-hp power output will be higher than that of the roadgoing Valkyrie and also confirms it will be able to achieve peak lateral acceleration of more than 3.0 g, boasting that this is “a figure far beyond that of any other car derived from a fully homologated road car.” Even in its peak downforce trim, it will be able to reach a maximum speed of 225 mph; in its low-drag setting, that speed should approach 250 mph.
The company has also confirmed that, with its adjustable wing work in its most aggressive settings, the Valkyrie AMR Pro will be capable of generating more than its own weight in aerodynamic downforce. We look forward to reading about the first owner who actually manages to drive one upside down.
Deliveries of the Valkyrie AMR Pro start in 2020 and will be limited to just 25 examples, all of which have already been sold. We’re told that several of those buyers have also chosen to separately purchase one of the street-legal Valkyries, this despite a price somewhere on the order of $3 million.
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