Aston Martin has unveiled its Valkyrie hypercar that will head to Le Mans this summer aiming for outright victory in the most famous endurance race in the world. The Valkyrie is the only road-derived hypercar to compete in both series this season.
Aston has been a stalwart of endurance racing for many years, but competing for class wins in the GT categories, rather with Le Mans prototypes that have the potential for outright victory, and has racked up 19 class wins since the first race in In total, more than drivers have raced Aston Martins at Le Mans over the past 95 years, in 27 different chassis and engine combinations, through virtually every era.
In , the top flight LMP1 category was replaced by a more affordable one called Le Mans Hypercar LMH , along with an even less costly category, called LMDh, for cars with the same bhp maximum power output but an off-the-shelf chassis and a mandatory hybrid system.
It has cemented Wec as arguably the most exciting most sports series in the world once more, and the Le Mans race unmissable for racing fans. The aerodynamically-optimised hypercar features a high-revving 6. Although the engine was built for a high-performance vehicle anyway, Aston Martin has made adjustments to ensure the engine can maintain the performance required in high-level endurance racing competition. It also has to be efficient, in order to reduce the number of fuel stops required during a race.
And the bodywork has changed to meet the regulations, too, with quick-change bumpers, a single-point rapid refuelling coupling and a cockpit adapted to help it reach the safety standards required for racing. The chassis also now has built-in pneumatic jacks to lift the car up for tyre changes.
