Watch the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH hypercar hit the track ahead of 2025 Le Mans
Le Mans 2025 shaping up to be a classic
Aston Martin has released a film of its new Valkyrie AMR-LMH racing car testing on track for the first time ahead of the vehicle’s attempt to win the Le Mans 24-hour race.
Based on the road-going Valkyrie hypercar, the new contender will take on rival vehicles from brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari at the French endurance race, which forms part of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Going for a second outright Le Mans win
Although the company has won at Le Mans in various classes — including in 2020, when the Vantage AMR won the LM GTE Pro class — Aston Martin has only won the race outright once in its history.
In 1959, the DBR1 took the chequered flag in a moment shown briefly at the start of the movie Le Mans ‘66 (Ford v Ferrari in the USA), with racing driver and fabled engineer Carroll Shelby sharing driver duties with Roy Salvadori.
In 2025, Aston will be pinning its hopes on the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, which is the only car in the cutting-edge hypercar class to be based on an existing performance road car. It will have to compete with purpose-built track specials — so-called “prototype” vehicles — but the £2.4m, 1,130bhp Valkyrie is no ordinary street machine, and a Track Pack makes it even quicker around a circuit, so the race team has a very solid base on which to build its contender.
Before it gets to that point, though, the AMR-LMH will have to undergo a series of rigorous tests, the first of which began a couple of weeks ago at Silverstone.
First time for new racer on track
Aston Martin’s high-performance development driver, Darren Turner, took the hot seat alongside British racer Harry Tincknell (who won the Le Mans LM GTE Pro class in the Vantage AMR in 2020) and German driver Mario Farnbacher, to complete “initial evaluation testing.”
Just like the “standard” Valkyrie, the AMR-LMH uses a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 petrol engine, which normally produces more than 1,000bhp and revs to an ear-splitting 11,000rpm, in combination with hybrid technology to improve immediate performance and fill torque gaps. However, the race engine has been tweaked to meet the requirements of the WEC and to ensure it’s capable of “top-level, long-distance competition.”
Now in the hands of The Heart of Racing, the UK-based team that will run the car in WEC and the American IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship next year, the Valkyrie AMR-LMH will embark on a multi-circuit test programme to ensure it’s ready to compete at the highest level alongside the leaders of the WEC.
World Endurance Championship not just Le Mans
The series comprises numerous long-distance races at famous circuits around the world, with this year’s calendar including six-hour races at Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium, and Imola, in Italy. Next month, the championship will head to Circuit of the Americas, in Texas, for round six of the competition.
However, the highlight of the WEC is Le Mans, which is held in June. There, cars race solidly for 24 hours, albeit with pit stops to change tyres and drivers, and to take on fuel.
Last year, Ferrari claimed the top spot on the podium, finishing first and third respectively with the no. 50 and no. 51 499P hypercars. Next year, Ferrari is expected to face competition from numerous big-name brands, including Toyota, Peugeot and Porsche, as well as the new Aston Martin.
“The first runs for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH have been an immensely proud moment in the programme,” said The Heart of Racing team principal Ian James. “The birth of this project has been a couple of years in the making, so to get it to the track and to see it going around in the flesh, feels momentous for The Heart of Racing.
“We’re looking forward to the journey ahead — it’s a steep hill to climb for everyone involved in this project. We are at the pinnacle of sportscar racing, the competitors are formidable, and they have been doing it a long time. Some of them have endless resources. We know we are going up against the best, so we intend to represent Aston Martin at the same level.
“I believe, from what we have seen so far, and with the DNA of where this car came from, I think we have the right tools to be able to do this successfully.”
Related articles
- If you found news on the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar starting testing interesting, you might want to read Will Dron’s review of the Aston Martin DB12
- You might also be interested in our Aston Martin DBX707 on-track video review
- And more great news: Aston Martin is working on a new V12 engine
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