It's hard to believe it's been almost five years since the Aston Martin Valkyrie was first previewed as a concept.
We'll remind you that the Valkyrie was presented with help from Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo, who at the time was driving for Red Bull Racing, a technical partner of the hypercar project. Since the reveal Ricciardo has gone on to drive for Renault and has now switched again to McLaren. Yes, it's been a long time.
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Now imagine what the wait must feel like for the future owners. To ally fears that the project might be canceled, new Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers has featured in a video sent out to reservation holders confirming a mid-2021 start of deliveries. That's close to two years later than originally planned.
"I apologize that it's taking a little longer than we promised you," Moers said in the video, a copy of which was posted online on Tuesday by Road & Track. "But now we're on the run with Valkyrie. There's still a path to go. There's still a lot of things to go, but I'm confident that we'll have the car available to you as our customers by mid '21.”
Tobias Moers
Developing a hypercar is no easy task, as Moers is well aware of as the former head of Mercedes-Benz AMG. The One hypercar being developed by AMG was also originally due in 2019 but, like the Valkyrie, will now start deliveries in 2021. The ensuing battle is going to be epic.
Perhaps coming as no surprise, Moers also said in the video that the Valkyrie is “more sophisticated than anything I saw in my past, recently in my career, in my whole life."
Aston Martin Valkyrie's 6.5-liter V-12
While it doesn't have the F1 engine of the One, the Valkyrie still boasts a combination of lightweight carbon-fiber construction, trick aerodynamics developed by the Red Bull Racing Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, and around 1,160 hp generated by a Cosworth-developed 6.5-liter V-12 paired with a KERS-style hybrid system. Valkyrie owners are in for a real treat as the V-12 sounds just like an F1 engine from the 1990s, thanks in part to its 12-into-1 exhaust design.
There will only be 175 Valkyrie owners all up, with 150 of them getting the road-going version of the Valkyrie and the remaining 25 getting the even faster Valkyrie AMR Pro track edition. Unfortunately, there will no longer be a dedicated racing version for the World Endurance Championship's new Le Mans Hypercar category, meaning we won't get to see the Valkyrie in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
