In the year of it’s 110th anniversary, Aston Martin has announced that a racing prototype version of the Valkyrie will take on the 24 Hours of Le Mans challenge from 2025. With backing from Heart of Racing, Aston Martin’s championship-winning endurance racing partner, the car will also be active in the top hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, meaning the famous trio of Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring are all on the agenda.

Continuing Aston’s rich history in racing, and particularly endurance racing, the Valkyrie’s appearance at Le Mans will take place nearly 100 years on from the brand’s Le Mans debut in 1928. Since that first race, 240 drivers have raced the French circuit, with 19 class victories and an overall triumph in the 1959 race. That year, the iconic DBR1 was driven by Roy Salvadori and Le Mans royalty, Carroll Shelby and Le Mans has become the venue where Aston Martin has found the most success. Aston Martin’s entry into the Hypercar class ensures that the British manufacturer will have a presence in all aspects of endurance racing.

The Valkyrie AMR Pro was originally designed and developed to meet the LMH hypercar regulations and now the team, located at Aston’s F1 facility in Silverstone, has begun the task of developing a prototype Valkyrie for racing and once homologated, the Heart of Racing team will spearhead the team as the Valkyrie race car becomes the first purebred hypercar to participate in both championships and the only one among its rivals that can trace its origins back to an existing production car.

The race-optimised carbon-fibre chassis Valkyrie will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, which in standard form revs to 11,000rpm and develops over 1000bhp. The power unit will be enhanced further to help cope with the rigours of top-level long-distance competition. As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car, the battery-electric hybrid system that features on the road-specification Valkyrie is not in the race car.

As well as the Valkyrie, Aston has also committed to building all new GT3 and GT4 cars, based on the Vantage. The new GT challenger is expected to compete in WEC, IMSA and SRO-run GT World Challenge Series as well as various internationally based regional championships, will be available for existing Aston Martin Racing partners and prospective customers to purchase and compete with for the beginning of the 2024 racing season.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Aston Martin in endurance racing.

“Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sportscar racing and, together with our partners we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class. To be able to do this in cooperation with a proven championship-winning operation such as Heart of Racing ensures we have all we need to race from a competitive platform. It’s a fascinating programme, given that this is the only hypercar in the class with direct synergies to its road car counterpart, but the Valkyrie concept was always intended to break through boundaries, and now we have the opportunity to show what it can do on a track.

“By also confirming Aston Martin’s commitment to a new GT3 and GT4 challenger, we signal our intent to compete for victory at all levels of sportscar racing now and well into the future.”

Words: Mike Booth
Pictures: Aston Martin