SILVERSTONE, U.K — Five years after Adrian Newey first penned his vision of the ultimate road car, the results of those sketches, the Aston Martin Valkyrie, made its first public outing at Silverstone on Saturday.
The 1,160bhp hypercar is a joint project between Red Bull and Aston Martin and will hit the roads later this year as the first examples are delivered to customers. Newey was at the centre of the car’s design, resulting in one of the most extreme aerodynamic concepts of any road car anywhere in the world.
Aston Martin’s test driver Chris Goodwin was behind the wheel for the demonstration lap, which represented the start of Valkyrie’s physical testing.
« I’ve driven this car around Silverstone for countless hours on the simulator at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s HQ, so to finally drive the Aston MartinValkyrie here today feels exceptionally special.
« We still have a lot of development work to do but we can now begin to really push the physical testing process and realise the true capabilities of the car. »
Newey added: « To see the Aston Martin Valkyrie running today, five years from the first moment I started sketching what it might look like, is very emotional.
« With the changing visual angles as it drives past and the noise, it is now doing what it is supposed to do, which is to move and be dynamic. It has been an enormous push from the Team to get it running here today so this is also a special moment for them. »
All 150 of the road-going Valkyries that will be produced have already been sold, as well as 25 track-only AMR Pros. Aston Martin also announced last month that it will use the Valkyrie as the basis of its 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours campaign.
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/27186862/newey-designed-valkyrie-makes-debut-silverstone
