Aston Martin’s new-for-2025 Le Mans Hypercar prototype, the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, hit the track last week and has successfully completed its initial shakedown, part of a larger testing programme.
The car has been built by the British manufacturer, in partnership with Multimatic and The Heart of Racing, the team which will run the factory-supported operation in both the FIA World Endurance Championship, with two cars, and in the IMSA Sportscar Championship, next year.
As such, Aston Martin will be the first manufacturer to compete with an LMH-rules car in the IMSA championship. It will race in the GTP class, against competition from Cadillac, Acura, Porsche, BMW, and Lamborghini.
The car was driven in its shakedown by Darren Turner, a long-time Aston Martin-contracted driver who after a long racing career is now the manufacturer’s high performance development driver, plus Mario Farnbacher and Harry Tincknell.
The car will now undergo a full development schedule, in order to prepare it for FIA and IMSA homologation. While Aston Martin tested the car at Silverstone and Donington, it will move from UK circuits to Europe later this year as part of the development programme.
It’s based on the road-going Valkyrie hypercar, plus the track-only AMR Pro. But, as the new AMR-LMH variant is a dedicated prototype, Aston Martin will not have to build any road going versions of this car specifically.
It uses the Valkyrie’s original Cosworth-engineered 6.5-litre V12 engine, detuned to compete in IMSA and WEC. The ‘raw’ version of the engine produces over 1,000bhp and revs to 11,000, although the racing version won’t produce that level of performance, for regulatory and reliability reasons.
“The Valkyrie AMR-LMH sets its own standard as a thoroughbred endurance competition car,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport.
“It is a pure, leading edge racing machine, and while it is very early in the testing cycle, from what we have witnessed so far, we are satisfied that it is achieving the targets and criteria we have set out for it to accomplish.”
Meanwhile, Ian James, Heart of Racing team principal, said: “The first runs for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH have been an immensely proud moment in the programme.
“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.”
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