Aston Martin’s Valkyrie AMR-LMH Le Mans Hypercar has taken to the track for the first time in preparation for an assault on the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and America’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The main prize will be outright victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is a feat that Aston Martin hasn’t achieved since 1959.
Back then it was Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby who steered the DBR1 to first place, with the sister car of Maurice Tintignant and Paul Frère coming home second, beating a gaggle of V12 Ferraris. In 2025 Ferrari will again be the team to beat after the Scuderia took the checkered flag in this year’s race.
Aston Martin will also face competition in the hotly-contended Hypercar class from Porsche, Toyota, Cadillac, Peugeot, Alpine, BMW, Lamborghini, and Isotta Fraschini.
The Valkyrie has been developed in-house by Aston Martin Performance Technologies and factory team The Heart of Racing based on the road-going car. Its carbon fibre chassis has been race-optimised, while the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 engine has been modified for a leaner burn. It still revs to 11,000 rpm and puts out over 1,000 bhp and has been fortified for the rigours of endurance racing.
“The Valkyrie AMR-LMH sets its own standard as a thoroughbred endurance competition car,” says Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport. “It is a pure, leading edge racing machine, and while it is very early in the testing cycle, from what we have witnessed so far, we are satisfied that it is achieving the targets and criteria we have set out for it to accomplish.”
The Valkyrie’s first shakedown test at Donington circuit was completed by Darren Turner, Mario Farnbacher and Harry Ticknell who won the LMGTE class for Aston Martin at this year’s Le Mans.
Aston Martin plans to enter two cars in WEC for 2025 and one car in IMSA where it will compete in the GTP class and be run from The Heart of Racing’s new base in Phoenix, Arizona.
