In this episode of Hagerty’s The Driver’s Seat, Henry Catchpole finally gets to drive the latest supercar to flaunt its carbon-fibre curves, the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Under the floodlights of the spectacular Sakhir F1 circuit in Bahrain, he gets some answers as to whether the hypercar developed with the help of Red Bull’s Adrian Newey lives up to the promise of being one of the all-time great landmarks on the timeline of the supercar.
Will future generations mention it in the same breath as the McLaren F1, the Bugatti Veyron and the original supercar, the Lamborghini Miura?
With a 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 producing 1000bhp and revving to 11,000rpm there’s no doubt it has an engine that is memorable on paper and sounds sensations from outside the car, but what’s it like to flex when you’re behind the wheel. And what will 1100kg of downforce feel like? Will the Valkyrie be driveable for anyone other Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin’s current F1 hot shot? Catchpole attempts to answer all this, and more.
There is also an incredible ride in the track-only AMR Pro version of the Valkyrie, with none other than Formula One driver Nico Hülkenberg driving. Pulling over 3G around Silverstone is an interesting experience as you can tell from Henry’s face!
It’s fair to say that the development of the Valkyrie hasn’t always been easy and the video also explores what the challenges were and dives into some of the extraordinary stories that surround the car’s gestation. Just how did Adrian Newey’s phenomenally bold aerodynamic design finally make it into production as a full homologated road car? And what have sausage and mash in a pub near Milton Keynes and the Space Shuttle programme got to do with it?
We hope you enjoy the film. Let us know in the comments where we should take the Valkyrie when we get to drive it on the road.
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