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Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro production car revealed

Three years ago, Aston Martin showed what it had in mind for an extra-serious AMR Pro version of the Valkyrie hypercar. It was part of a splashy Geneva display with other supercars, and it was leading into Aston's plans to take the Valkyrie to Le Mans. Then there were financial issues, a postponement of Le Mans competition, and that whole pandemic thing. But now, the regular Valkyrie is going to reach customers soon, and Aston Martin has revealed the production version of the Valkyrie AMR Pro. Aston notes that this AMR Pro Valkyrie was developed using a lot of what the company learned from the race car program, and even going a bit beyond since the AMR Pro doesn't have to meet the rules for Le Mans. The company also brings up an expected lap time of 3 minutes 20 seconds at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the track used for 24 Hours of Le Mans. For reference, Toyota's LMP race cars with no production car roots have lapped between 3 minutes 14 seconds and 3 minutes 17 seconds. Besides being an impressive theoretical time, the racing reference has us hoping the company will one day enter the Valkyrie in the recently created hypercar class. Setting aside the Le Mans connections, the Valkyrie AMR Pro really does have some major modifications compared to the standard car. The chassis is made lighter with additional carbon fiber, such as for the suspension control arms, as well as Perspex windows. The whole car is 10.5 inches longer overall due to more aggressive aerodynamic aids that double the amount of downforce the Valkyrie produces. With it, Aston claims the Valkyrie AMR Pro can produce cornering forces as great as 3G. The wheelbase is 15 inches longer, the front track is 3.8 inches wider, and the rear track is 4.5 inches wider. As for the powertrain, the Valkyrie AMR Pro will still use a version of the 6.5-liter Cosworth V12, but unlike the standard version, the AMR Pro will ditch the electric motor and its related components. This is a move to further reduce weight. Power will also be down slightly to 1,000 horsepower. Of course, that's still a lot of power, and the 11,000-rpm redline will remain. When Aston initially showed the AMR Pro, it said it would only build 25 examples. That seems to have increased, as now Aston says it will build 40 examples, plus two prototypes. A price hasn't been given, nor has availability, but apparently deliveries will start at the end of this year, not long after the regular cars reach owners. Related Video:

Cash influx could help Aston Martin double sales

Aston Martin is on the verge of a major product overhaul – complete with new architecture and powertrains. And good thing, considering that the Vantage and DB9 are each about a decade old. But to make it all happen, the British automaker is going to need a massive capital influx. Fortunately, that's just what it got when Investindustrial came on board. The Italian private equity fund, which previously owned a large chunk of Ducati and is now building a Ferrari theme park in Spain, bought a 37.5 percent stake in Aston Martin back in 2012. The acquisition reportedly cost Investindustrial the better part of a quarter billion dollars, but that's not the end of the firm's investment in Aston. According to Bloomberg, Investindustrial is now pouring even more into the Gaydon-based marque to help fund its product blitz. The output of that investment is expected to be announced at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. That's where Aston's new chief executive Andy Palmer (whom Investindustrial reportedly helped poach from Nissan) is tipped to announce the company's new product plan that is earmarked to help double the company's sales from around 4,000 units last year to as many as 8,000 once those new products reach the market. The plan will assuredly include replacements for Aston's trademark luxury GTs, but could also encompass a new crossover utility vehicle to give it a greater foothold in growing markets like China while taking on similar new products from key rivals like Bentley and Maserati. While those two competitors are owned by larger auto groups – Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler, respectively – Aston is independent. It's brokered a deal with Mercedes (thanks once again in no small part to Investindustrial) to help with components it can't effectively develop in-house, but the cash injection will be critical to the brand's revival plans.

Aston Martin tipped for F1 return with Red Bull, Mercedes

Aston Martin could be plotting a return to Formula One for the first time in over half a century. And not as a backmarker, either. That is, at least, if the latest rumors materialize. While most automakers that participate in F1 do so as either a team owner (like Ferrari and Mercedes) or as an engine supplier (think Renault or Honda), the rumored Aston Martin deal would take a different approach. According to Autosport, the proposal would have the Red Bull Racing team run Aston Martin branding – but not its engines. Those would be provided by Mercedes, just like the engines in the British marque's upcoming slate of road cars. In that regard, the deal would not be unlike the one which Red Bull currently has with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which sees the team running Renault engines and Infiniti branding. Andy Palmer was a pivotal figure in brokering that unusual arrangement when he was working for Carlos Ghosn, and is now tipped to be brokering a similar deal in his new capacity as Aston Martin's CEO. Though Aston has found glory in sports car racing (including Le Mans and its various associated series), it was never much of a contender in grand prix racing. It competed in a handful of races in 1959 and 1960, but never achieved results worth bragging about. Aston was rumored to be plotting a return when David Richards sat as chairman of the company, having run Aston's racing program as well as Honda's F1 team previously. Those rumors, however, never materialized. Whether this time 'round gains any traction remains to be seen - Aston Martin declined to either confirm or deny the reports when reached for comment by Autoblog. Red Bull has been growing increasingly dissatisfied (and increasingly vocal about its dissatisfaction) with Renault engines over the past couple of seasons. Though the two parties won four back-to-back world titles together, things took a noticeable step backward after the new turbo engine regulations took hold for the 2014 season. Nissan/Infiniti and Red Bull are contracted to continue collaborating until the end of next season. After that is when the new Aston deal could take hold, and Mercedes is reportedly keen on the idea so that it could add another customer to its F1 engine supply business and offset the costs of development. That could effectively prove the end of Renault in F1 (at least for the time being). Aside from Red Bull, the French automaker currently supplies only that outfit's sister team Toro Rosso.