Aston Martin is pulling no punches when it comes to its bold motorsport aspirations, confirming that it is eyeing off a Le Mans Victory in 2025 with the hardcore Valkyrie AMR Pro.
Interestingly enough, the Valkyrie will become the world’s first road-based hypercar to compete in both the FIA’s World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the Valkyrie taking on Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring in a single year.
It also means that Aston Martin will be the sole manufacturer to enter into all major forms of endurance motorsport racing around the globe.
Aston will once again lean on the Heart of Racing team to lead the charge after HOR helped Aston snatch a 1-2 class finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona and back-to-back wins in the IMSA GTD Pro earlier this year.
The team will have access to Aston’s F1-inspired Valkyrie AMR Pro, which comes powered by a modified version of the Cosworth-sourced 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 that kicks out 745kW of power and revs out to a stratospheric 11,000rpm.
Aston says that the power unit “will be enhanced further to incorporate the critical balance of performance requirements of the Hypercar class,” as well as increase its reliability and longevity under the torture of long-distance endurance racing.
As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track-only special, Aston’s battery-electric hybrid system is absent on its endurance racer.
Aston Martin has a long standing relationship with the iconic Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe, having competed at the circuit five-years after its 1923 inception, snapping up 19 class victories.
The brand’s greatest achievement at Le Mans remains the 1959 outright victory with its legendary DBR1 which was piloted by none other than Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori.
“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Aston Martin in endurance racing,” says Aston’s Chief of Endurance Motorsport, Adam Carter.
“As a manufacturer, Aston Martin has a consistent record of success at world championship level, and through the efforts of Heart of Racing, also now in IMSA.”
“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 performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class.”
