Aston Martin’s Le Mans-bound ‘son of Valkyrie’ due 2021
ASTON MARTIN HAS officially confirmed a new ‘son of Valkyrie’ hypercar will go into production, after Autocar exclusively revealed its existence last year.
It will be the third hypercar to emerge from the British car maker, after the Valkyrie and Valkyrie AMR Pro. Codenamed ‘Project 003’, the midengined model, part of a joint development project between Aston Martin and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, is due to be released in 2021.
Said to be built around a lightweight structure, the Project 003 will be powered by a turbocharged petrolelectric hybrid powertrain of undisclosed size and power output. Aston is claiming an “exceptional breadth of performance”, but the car has also been designed to be usable and practical for road use, with space for luggage.
The Project 003, like the Valkyrie, will feature active aerodynamics for “outstanding levels of downforce in a roadlegal car”. Active suspension, likely inboard and pushrodoperated, will again be used for the new car.
Aston Martin has confirmed it will be homologated in leftand right-hand-drive form, with production limited to 500 examples globally. The first customer cars will be delivered towards the end of 2021.
Before road-legal production models are released, however, the ‘son of Valkyrie’ will race for outright victory at Le Mans in 2020, according to CEO Andy Palmer. The debut fits in with regulation changes to make the top category of endurance racing more relevant to hypercars, meaning the new car could race against models such as the Mclaren Senna.