The Aston Martin Valkyrie has been hotly anticipated by everyone in the automotive community since it’s first debut in 2017. Since then, countless issues have plagued the company, changes in ownership, direction, a pandemic, an f1 team, no more partnering with Red Bull, a bunch of design revisions, and FINALLY, the release.

So what’s a Valkyrie like?

You squeeze through an LMP2 sized hatch in the monocoque, into the tightest crevasse I’ve been in (aside from your mother). You sit with your rear so far below your knees you might as well be in the fetal position. And the way this car conducts itself, you might want to be. After squeezing in and reinstalling the steering wheel, you prepare yourself to fire the up the 6L Cosworth v12.

The car shakes as the engine wakes up (the engine and transaxle are both stressed members of the car, much like a prototype or formula car). You pull away in electric power until the car decides to connect the engine back into the drive train (at around 10mph, this is done to conserve the clutch) and oh god we’re now out on track.

It’s loud, deafening even, and the once silent and still monocoque is slowly becoming the worlds most expensive massage chair. The Valkyrie accelerates with an urgency of a missile being fired out of an F22 raptor. The v12 will not let up. Not in torque, not in power, and not in noise. You’re peaking near 200mph before letting off for the breaking zone into T1, when your innards very rudely remind you about the concept of inertia.

Mid corner, the car’s active suspension works to keep the aero happy. And while it doesn’t feel completely natural yet, the car inspires massive confidence. Powering out, TC flashes as the the car hunkers down to give me the most it can to get back to its blistering pace. It’s a bit of a handful at first, but lean on the aero, work with the dizzying tech, and listen to the glorious v12 shout it’s 1000 naturally aspirated horses into the atmosphere, and get rewarded with an experience unlike anything else.

At full tilt, the Valkyrie generates almost its weight in downforce, and as you move, the car changes and adapts to its conditions. The suspension moves to keep the car’s attitude optimized (“ground effect” is a tricky thing. You don’t want to kill flow downstream, stall the diffuser, or porpoise), the rear wing can act as an air brake or level out to reduce drag, the front wing works with flaps in the tunnels to modulate the load that the Cup 2’s experience (even better and more stable on the optional Cup 2 R’s btw, though if you happen to own one, just use slicks), working in unison to keep the aero balance stable. It’s a brilliant exhibition of a single minded focus on radical aerodynamics and LMP/GTP/LMH level packaging.

And just when you think the car can’t possibly get faster… there’s this:

The AMR Pro.

The AMR Pro is the scraps of a promised Le Mans hyper car entree for the Valkyrie developed by Multimatic and repackaged as a pointless track toy for the 0.01% to play with. It has the same v12, now even more unhinged, less weight, no moving bits, and even more downforce. This might be the new greatest car I’ve ever driven (Sorry Valkyrie).

Take everything good about the road car, and now turn it up to 11. You’ll be pulling 3.2 lateral G’s mid corner, carrying LMP speeds from entree to exit, all while the already ludicrous engine has somehow found a way to sing an even sweeter song.

The AMR Pro manages make the Valkyrie, a car that feels so pure and single minded, feel almost compromised by design.

The AMR pro is a brilliant machine, and I believe you’ll hear more about it in the coming months. But back to the car of the hour.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie. I remember staying up late watching and rewatching videos of the car’s launch in a rented apartment in Ibiza the day it was revealed to the world as the AM RB 001. I searched the internet for every available angle to try and unlock the “aero magic” surely locked away in the green and black concept. I used to doodle it’s profile in note books, and diligently wait for the next bit of information or iteration to come out.

Then starting college, the Le Mans Hypercar class was announced, with the Valkyrie being the poster child for the bold new era the WEC promised. The “hype” in hypercar had never felt more real. And while it is mildly disappointing to me to see Aston Martin’s juggernaut of an endurance program reduced to supporting gt4 and gt3 teams while shifting its focus to “the pinnacle of motorsports” (whatever that means) under new management, the Valkyrie still holds a special place to me. This and the GMA T50 are probably the only two “HyperCars” that still get me excited. Screaming v12’s, some wild aero, looks that make you want to pour over every detail for hours, and an experience that promises to blow you out of the water.

Experiencing the Valkyrie did not disappoint that eager eyed 16 year old with wild aspirations to design rockets and play with vehicle aero. And it certainly hasn’t let down the jaded 22 year old engineering student who’s gone down the aero rabbit hole so far I’ve come out a data science addict at the end of it. This car is something else.

Flawed? Yes. The car is raw, like what I’d imagine driving one of those road legal McLaren F1 GTRs is like. You’ll need those Aston martin branded headphones to hear your passenger like you’re flying a Cessna or XJR-15. The transmission is slow compared to a DCT (though with electric torque fill and 1000 hp, you don’t really care), and let’s be real for a moment. This car is the closest thing to a road legal Le Mans prototype (until Glickenhaus soon delivers the road legal 007 LMH) you’ll get behind, and as such it really does suck as a road car.

But god do I not care, and if I had $3 million, I’d be driving it to work every Friday. It’s the peak of road cars. We’ve reached the limit of what’s possible for now for an ICE street car. There will be another, there always tends to be in the next 5 to 10 years. Your holy trinity, Enzo vs CGT, McLaren F1 vs the world, F40 vs 959, the list goes on. The Valkyrie can rest a top that hill knowing it’s conquered the odds and cemented itself in automotive history.

But what Le Mans would’ve been with this thing screaming for 24 hours.

A high pitched middle finger to the other halo cars that brag about specs and lap times only to be slower than a gt3 race car for a quarter the price. In another world, maybe, but in that world, Aston Martin might not have pulled through to see the end of it. The king of modern road cars has landed, a vortex abusing (NOT BERNOULLI!), v12 screaming, lmp1 from 2040 looking assortment of carbon and titanium that makes everything else look pedestrian by comparison.

I won’t be forgetting this one any time soon.

Anyways, these cars where a lot of fun in Real Racing 3! Thank you Aston Martin and EA for adding the Valkyrie!

I bought enough gold with my ex girlfriend’s credit card so I was finally able to drive it! I hope to get a chance to drive them again soon when I get my ipad fixed (she found out and threw it at my head). Next up is the 919 Evo! I can’t wait!

Till the next one, my fellow Mis-Shifted A-Holes!