How does the Aston Martin Valkyrie even exist?
New information from the automaker leads us to wonder how this hypercar even came to be.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is very nearly a Le Mans prototype with license plates. Aston Martin and Red Bull Advanced Technologies built a stunning hypercar, with a whole bunch of race car elements that we haven't really seen in any other road car to date.
First of all, there's the aerodynamics. Either side of the cockpit features Venturi tunnels that shove air around the car and out back to the rear diffuser, which helps keep the rear end stuck to the ground. There's so much negative space around the cockpit, it barely even resembles a car.
This car is going to make a tiny number of people extremely happy.
You might not think there's space for a human in there, but there's actually room for two. That said, you have to sit with your feet up, like you're in a Formula 1 car or a Le Mans prototype. The seats are built specifically to contour to the driver's shape, and the buckets are bolted directly to the car's chassis. A four-point harness is standard, with a six-point being optional for track drivers.
Speaking of the interior, it's not much different from a race car once again. The squarish steering wheel features a screen that offers up a dashboard's worth of pertinent information, and it's detachable for easier getting in and out. There are no side mirrors -- rather, there are two cameras that feed video to two screens in the cockpit. There's no rear window to speak of, either. The world's smallest center high-mount brake light lives on the staggeringly thin rear fin that runs down the rear bodywork.
Keeping weight low was a serious priority, which is evident in the car's badge. It's made from etched aluminum, and it's just 70 microns thick, which is 30 percent thinner than a human hair. It's 99.4 percent lighter than the standard Aston Martin badge.
Every picture looks like a rendering, but make no mistake, this V12-powered behemoth is very real. It might not be ideal for grocery duty, but if you wanted to drive it every day of the year, you very well could.
