- Aston Martin has announced that it will suspend development of its Valkyrie race car while it reorganizes under new investor Lawrence Stroll and his Racing Point F1 team.
- Plans for production of the roadgoing version of the Valkyrie hypercar, as well as the smaller Valhalla, will continue.
- Deliveries of the Valkyrie road cars are scheduled for the second half of this year, with the more extreme track-focused Valkyrie AMR Pro arriving in 2021.
Aston Martin announced in late January that it will suspend EV development until after 2025. The company also ended its Formula 1 partnership with Red Bull Racing in favor of new investor Lawrence Stroll’s Racing Point team, to be called Aston Martin F1 starting in 2021. Now Aston is saying that its eagerly awaited Valkyrie mid-engine Le Mans race car, co-developed with Red Bull Racing, won’t launch later this year as scheduled.
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The Valkyrie was set for its racing debut at Silverstone in August of this year and then was planned to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021. Instead, Aston Martin said, it will cease development and consider if it wants to proceed in any future prototype classes. As of now, the company will continue to race with the Vantage GTE.
Aston Martin vice president David King issued a statement saying, “With such momentous change taking place in sports-car racing, the decision to pause our entry into the WEC Hypercar class gives us the time and breathing space to calmly assess the status of the top level of the sport, and our place within it.”
Aston Martin
Aston Martin plans to continue the Valkyrie’s production, though, along with the smaller mid-engine Valhalla hypercar. The street-legal Valkyrie is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V-12, along with an electric motor in the front. Together, they produce 1160 horsepower at a screaming 10,500 rpm.
Deliveries of customer cars will begin in the second half of this year, and the more extreme track-focused Valkyrie AMR Pro will be delivered in 2021. Only 150 examples were available, and they’re all taken.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
