A note on this editorial piece. This is reaction and analysis to the January 29th, 2024, article on Sportscar365 by their European editor, Davey Euwema, about the car debuting in the second quarter of this year. I have had to wait to get this out for a while due to other blog entries taking precedence. But now, you can read my thoughts, for yourself.
As Aston Martin are no doubt on target with getting their Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar ready to race both stateside, and globally, this left me wondering about the wonderful competition we have been witnessing for the last year or two within the Hypercar category, and the LMH/LMDh formula of endurance sports car racing, that has been absolutely booming, and reinvigorating the sport as a whole, more now than it has either since the late 1990s and early 2000s with the American Le Mans Series, or even the '80s thunder of the Group C prototypes in Europe which also counts the original IMSA GTP, GTP 1.0. My ultimate question is, will the Valkyrie eventually get to a certain point, where it could be extremely powerful and dominant on the worldwide sports car scene?
Some manufacturers have done that. Porsche, with the 917/10 and 917/30 effectively killed the Can Am and of course it was also dealt the death blow by the energy crisis of the early 1970s and costs spiraling out of control. Porsches turbocharged 1,000 horsepower monsters, absolutely obliterated the other Can Am cars, most of which, at that time, were powered by an old reliable big block Chevrolet V8 with massive intake stacks on top of the motors. The United States and Canada had Can Am. Europe had Interserie, for Can Am cars, and also had the massive 5-liter prototype coupes that included the Porsche 917, Ferrari 512S, and Lola T70 Mark 3, also powered by a Chevrolet V8, but a small block version.
Group C and GTP 1.0 were both killed off, in 1992 and '93 because of a flattened economy and because of spiraling costs to run the cars which led to the introduction of the World Sports Car category by IMSA in 1994 for open cockpit, flat bottom race cars, with production car derivative engines. World Sportscar, is another story for another day. The awesome Peugeot 905 powered by a howling 3.5-liter Formula 1 atmospheric V10 engine was the car that drove the nails into the coffin of Group C, when they cleaned everybody else's clocks at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1992 and '93. Of course, the car was detuned in the rev range from one of these V10's that was built for Formula 1, designed to run 200 mile sprints every couple of weekends.
We have seen, albeit with several spec elements to the new LMDh cars, a wide variety of chosen body designs, different chassis backbones, and engine designs as well as a symphony of engine noises, from the GTP class. Most of the cars powered by V6 and V8 engines, turbocharged or not, with great variation in engine design and displacement, based upon the road legal cars these manufacturers produce. Cadillac, BMW, Acura, Porsche, and furthermore, Toyota, Ferrari, the aforementioned Peugeot, and soon Lamborghini and Alpine. Well, the new Aston Martin Valkyrie will add another voice to the choir, another instrument to the orchestra, with a glorious, 6.5-liter V12 atmospheric engine. This car will also be extremely sleek and low slung, from the pictures we have seen of it. It lay dormant for a number of years for a handful of reasons. First off was the global pandemic situation. Secondly, was Aston Martin's vested interest in competing in Formula 1 and getting the F1 program off the ground.
That all being said, there will be a revival of the Valkyrie next year, not only in IMSA but also in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Aston Martin are indeed working to fit the car into a window of aerodynamics and performance. However, from the looks of it, this car may very well be a rocket ship. Will it be reliable? That is the $64,000 question. Well, in this case a whole heap more than $64,000, but you get the idea. Aston Martin being the first manufacturer to have a road going Hypercar that they will base the race car off of, is going to give them a lot of data, and a lot of tools to work with. Again, they have a box to work in and must squeeze as much as they can into that rules box with the car.
An astute commenter on the Sportscar365 article explains this is the track day version in the picture shown in their article. Maybe, just maybe, the race car will not have the rear wing mounted so far down. That's something to consider. The picture of the road car makes the Valkyrie look as if it will be incredibly aerodynamic and have the most unbelievable turn of speed for a prototype in a long, long time. Looks though, can be deceiving. The race car may very well have some very different styling cues per the parameters of design allowed by IMSA and even by the ACO and the FIA. So, we the sports car racing fans have to wonder. Will this Aston Martin Valkyrie be the "better mouse" that is about to snap the FIA's mousetrap? Only time will tell. The first place we might see what this beast is going to do is at Daytona, and again, they will have stiff competition, especially, like I always say, from a certain bright red Cadillac.
It looks as though Aston Martin very well could be building a better mouse that might obliterate IMSA's, the ACO's, and the FIA's collective mousetraps. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if indeed this quote unquote "better mouse" is going to be the absolute beast of a car that it claims to be judging from the pictures and specifications tables we have seen. The plot of the Hypercar story doth thicken, I dare say.
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