First pictures: Aston Martin tests Le Mans Valkyrie

Aston Martin has released the first pictures of its Valkyrie-based Le Mans Hypercar, which has been testing ahead of its campaign in next year’s World Endurance Championship.

It will be the only Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) powered by a V12, packing the same Cosworth-developed 6.5-litre unit as the road-going Valkyrie. Aston Martin said the naturally aspirated unit has been “enhanced and adapted” for the LMH ruleset, which caps competitors at a maximum of 697bhp.

The British firm’s ambition is overall victory at next year’s Le Mans 24 Hours – the centrepiece of the World Endurance Championship calendar – which would be its first at the historic event since 1959.

Aston Martin has previously said it will enter six Valkyries at Le Mans, maximising its chances of success with a new car.

It had originally announced plans to race at Le Mans in 2019, but these were later put on ice. It was only in 2022 that company chairman Lawrence Stroll suggested it had become a possibility again.

Stroll told Autocar: “I’m a racer myself. I have been all my life. Racing is in my blood, which is why I’m here. We should be racing in whichever category aligns with the message we are trying to deliver for Aston Martin.”

The Valkyrie will be run in partnership with US-based sports car squad Heart of Racing, which currently competes in the GT3 class of sports car racing.

The development of the racing Valkyrie will be informed by the brand's "complex knowledge base" that it has built up through its involvement in Formula 1, which, Stroll says, will eventually trickle down to its road cars.

It is underpinned by a chassis made entirely from carbonfibre and will be the first car on the endurance grid to be based on an existing production car, the Valkyrie.

Aston Martin Performance Technologies engineering director Adam Carter said: “Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sports car racing and, together with our partners, we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class."

The endurance-bred Valkyrie will be made lighter than the 1500kg Valkyrie AMR Pro, with a significant emphasis put on making it as aerodynamically efficient as possible.

When asked about the future of the Valkyrie's Cosworth-developed V12, Carter said: "You can never say never but, at the moment, there is nothing else on the horizon." The engine was developed specifically for the Valkyrie and is not found in any of Aston's other road cars. According to Carter, this gives the team a competitive edge.

He added that the development of the hypercar will be a strong influence on the firm's electric vehicle programme as it moves away from combustion cars in the long term, particularly with reference to keeping weight down and long-term durability up.

Notably, he said one of the main reasons the firm takes part in motorsport, particularly endurance racing, is to create a "synergy" between being a luxury brand and one with racing pedigree.

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