After teasing us with its insane Valkyrie hypercar for almost three years, Aston Martin has revealed full performance details of the car's hybrid powertrain and confirmed that the first prototypes are now being built. And, as you might expect, the numbers are mind-bendingly massive.
When first floated in 2016, the Valkyrie was a collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, called the AM-RB 001. Adrian Newey of RBR quipped that designing a road car is easier: "Road cars have far less legislation to restrict the design ... than Formula One does at the moment."
Fast forwarding about 18 months, to July of 2017, and we saw the design package for the Aston Martin Valkyrie (now with a name) introduced. A hypercar combination of F1 styling and futuristic street muscle was the result. Another year and a half later, Aston Martin dropped information on the planned V12 engine for the car, an extremely high-revving, 1,000-horsepower monster.
Now Aston Martin has unveiled full performance figures for the car's hybrid powertrain. Production certification for the powertrain has been achieved and the company is building its first operational prototypes of the car, eager to get them on the track for testing.
The powertrain includes the massive 1,000 bhp (745.7 kW) V12 engine, a 6.5-liter, naturally-aspirated monster made by Cosworth. The engine achieves that output at 10,500 rpm and peak torque of 545.7 lb-ft (740 Nm) at 7,000 rpm. Then comes the Rimac-designed battery-electric system, which adds another 160 bhp (119 kW) and 206.5 pound-feet (280 Nm). For a total system output of 1,160 bhp (865 kW) and 663.8 pound-feet (900 Nm) at 10,500 rpm and 6,000 rpm respectively. Power for the batteries is derived in part from a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and the electric boost motor is from Integral Powertrain.
The technical design of the Valkyrie is a combination of know-how from Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing's Advanced Technologies. Because the F1 knowledge runs so deep with both parties, much of the Valkyrie is derived directly from that racing background – such as the way the powertrain, chassis, and bodywork integrate together as one piece of engineering.
The V12 engine and gearbox casing act as stressed members of the Valkyrie's chassis. The gearbox itself also serves as a mounting point for the rear suspension and a large portion of the rear subframe for the car, and the battery pack for the hybrid system acts as a central hub for the car's power electronics.
Aston Martin says that the new Valkyrie prototypes being built now will be used for testing purposes, but has not yet given a timeframe for that, or for a public unveiling of the finished vehicle.
Source: Aston Martin