Is this the ultimate hypercar? The Valkyrie. For 4 million dollars, or thereabouts you get a 1000 kilogram car powered by naturally aspirated V12 engine that makes around 1000 horsepower (745kW), aided by battery assistance used at low speed and for torque vectoring when cornering.
Aston Martin’s attention to detail includes a new aluminium nose badge thinner than human hair.
Marek Reichman styled the striking car’s upper bodywork, working closely with motorsport legend Adrian Newey. The British engineering genius shaped Indy 500–winning machines before turning to F1, where his work secured world titles for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
“I’m working with arguably the world’s greatest F1 designer, Adrian Newey. It’s a collaboration between the two companies, the two brains,” Reichman says.
“This is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ for any designer, to be involved in something that will change the face of hypercars. It’s going to be a long time before it is surpassed – it may never be repeated.”
Reichman says the pair split design duties, with Newey focusing on engineering and the Aston man taking charge of style.
“When Adrian and I met, my sketches of what I believed the car was going to be like, versus his, were so very similar, but his had an engineering bias and mine were driven by the esthetics of beauty,” Reichman says.
“The best way to describe it is that the underside is Adrian forcing and controlling the air, everything that you see that’s in carbon I have an input with Adrian, but he is the lead on that.
“It’s the opposite on the upper side, it’s my lead with Adrian’s input. The underside is about forcing the air, the upper side is about letting the air naturally do what it needs to do, creating forms and shapes that don’t interfere with airflow, that don’t create areas of turbulence.
“It’s about creating a pebble, it’s about creating something with beautiful highlights that feel as though they’ve been formed by the air flowing around the surfaces. It’s about keeping it clean, pure and simple.”
On paper, the Valkyrie is quicker than an F1 car around a circuit, but since it will need an F1 driver salary and F1 driver skill to drive it. What is the point? Especially as they are talking about making 150 of them. Crazy, crazy, crazy!
