Aston Martin is returning to the top flight of endurance racing, having revived its Valkyrie LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) project.
The carmaker has confirmed it will field a racing prototype version of the Valkyrie in both, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the USA-based IMSA SportsCar championship from 2025. With this, Aston Martin will be making a bid for outright victory at the fabled Le Mans 24 Hours race for the first time since 2011.
- Aston Martin to compete in top flight of WEC, IMSA
- LMH prototype based on Valkyrie AMR Pro
Aston Martin revives Valkyrie Le Mans project
Aston Martin had originally announced plans to race the Valkyrie at Le Mans back in 2019. However, that project was later shelved, and now, over three years later, it has been officially revived.
The prototype will be based on the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car, which was originally developed to meet LMH regulations. It will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, which in standard form develops over 1,014hp. Total power will be capped at 680hp for the prototype, in line with the championships’ Balance of Performance requirements. As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro, the battery-electric hybrid system that features on the road-spec Valkyrie won’t feature on the race car.
Aston Martin says at least one Valkyrie racecar will be entered in the top classes of the WEC and IMSA from 2025. This means that the prototype will compete in some of sportscar racing’s most prestigious events like Le Mans, Daytona 24 Hours and even 12 Hours of Sebring.
“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years," said Lance Stroll, executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda. "Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.”
This will make Aston Martin the only manufacturer confirmed to compete in all levels of sportscar and GT racing, as well as F1. Stroll says the firm will use all of its F1 learnings to “further enhance the capabilities of the Valkyrie racecar at Le Mans, in WEC and IMSA. Just as the learnings we gain through endurance competition will feed directly into our road car programmes, further improving the ultimate performance of our products.”
Aston Martin teams up with Heart of Racing
USA-based sportscar squad Heart of Racing will spearhead Aston Martin’s programme in both championships. “Our team has grown exponentially since we began racing with those famous wings at Daytona in 2020,” said Ian James, team principal of Heart of Racing.
“We understand and are aligned with the ethos of the brand and we have developed our own systems and technologies to extract the maximum performance of the cars we compete with. Our understanding of Valkyrie is strong and we have worked closely with it through our customer activation programmes for two years now.”
Aston Martin will compete against the likes of Ferrari, Toyota and Peugeot in both championships. All these Hypercar competitors will also battle it out against LMDh entries from Lamborghini, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac and Alpine.
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