The outrageous Aston Martin Valkyrie has hit UK roads for the first time ahead of planned deliveries later this year.
The Valkyrie is the brainchild of legendary Formula One designer Adrian Newey and is the product of a joint project between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing. The hypercar promises to be faster than any other vehicle on the road when it finally reaches customers in the second half of this year.
An image released by Aston Martin shows a dark blue Valkyrie on a typical English road, which helps to highlight just how extreme its aerodynamic surfaces are compared to normal traffic. Such tests are typical for a new production car, but this is the first time the Valkyrie has been spotted driving in a public space.
The hypercar was recently dubbed “insane” by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who took to the track in a pre-production version during a promotional day at Silverstone. The Valkyrie is powered by a 6.5-litre, hybrid-assisted V12 engine that revs to 11,000 rpm and produces 1160bhp.
Verstappen was driving the road-going version, but 25 track-only AMR Pro versions will also be built. The starting price for the road car is £2.5 million, but put away your chequebook as all 150 (plus the 25 AMR Pros) already have buyers.
There was a plan for the Valkyrie to race at Le Mans under the World Endurance Championship’s new hypercar regulations, but it has since been canned now that Aston Martin has come under the ownership of Lawrence Stroll. However, Stroll will bring the British brand back to Formula One by rebranding his Racing Point F1 team Aston Martin.
The change in ownership also means Aston Martin will cease to be a sponsor of Red Bull in F1 at the end of this year, although Red Bull Advanced Technologies is committed to making sure all Valkyrie orders reach their customers.