Aston Martin hypercar named Valkyrie, details revealed

Aston Martin has been working on a hypercar for a very long time. The British carmaker had first unveiled the concept last year under the codename AM-RB 001. Now, the car is nearing production and has been given a more generic moniker. Aston Martin's first ever hypercar has been named as the Valkyrie.

The Valkyrie is being developed under a partnership with Aston Martin and Red Bull, with the latter providing a range of aerodynamic inputs, thanks to their experience in Formula 1. The two companies are also working on optimizing the cockpit's packaging and finalising the production model's exterior design.

The Valkyrie will come with a tear-drop shaped upper body of the cockpit and contours on the lower tub, with full-length Venturi tunnels running on either side of the cockpit floor. These elements are claimed to have been designed to minimise the use of any additional aerodynamic devices on the upper side of the body and thus keep the looks as clean as possible while making sure that there is enough downforce to keep the Valkyrie on the road.

Some specific details about the Aston Martin Valkyrie's interiors have been revealed, which mention that the seats will be mounted directly on the tub to optimise interior space. Due to this positioning of the seats, the occupants will have a reclined feet-up sitting position, similar to the Formula 1 and LeMans race cars.

Additionally, the cockpit is being designed to minimise any distractions to the driver. As a result, all major controls are located on the steering wheel, which is detachable to aid ingress and egress. Moreover, all vital information and parameters are displayed on a single OLED screen. The ORVMs have been replaced by rear facing cameras, which feed the image output to two separate screens located on either side of the dashboard.

Aston Martin is also using some extreme measures to limit the weight of the car. For example, the company's regular wings badge was considered to be too heavy for a hypercar. As a result, engineers have fabricated a chemical etched aluminium badge that has a thickness of just 70 microns, which is 30 per cent thinner than a human hair. This badge is 99.4 per cent lighter than the regular enamel wings badge found on other Aston Martin models. The headlight assemblies have been stripped to the bare basics and thus just house the low and high beam elements attached to an exposed anodised aluminium frame. The company claims that this headlight is around 30 to 40 per cent lighter than the lightest series production headlamps seen on any Aston Martin car.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie is expected to be completely unveiled in 2018 and will likely be powered by a V12 engine along with a KERS hybrid system. It will be a limited-edition model and is expected to cross the US$ 3 million price mark.