Aston Martin Valkyrie Hybrid Is Exotic First For Company

It’s hard not to be impressed, if not left scratching our head, when we see such unique carmakers as Aston Martin recently announcing their wild exotic hybrid, the Valkyrie. The Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar’s performance is equally as impressive as its dramatic body shapes are designed to evoke in us.

Aston Martin Embraces Hybrid Exotic Valkyrie

Exotic cars turning to electricity might not be anything new today, but for Aston Martin, it’s a first. On March 6, 2017, Aston Martin and Red Bull Advanced Technologies co-developed and formally identified the codename of its new wild hybrid exotic, the AM-RB 001. The Valkyrie is meant to portray what the company stands for these days, which of course involves the unavoidable electrification of its fleet. And since Aston Martin is a grand old racing car company, why not build an exotic car that even the hardest diehard Ferrari fan wouldn’t turn down. A modern hybrid supercar called the Aston Martin Valkyrie.

Aston Martin came out of a few rough years and firmly reestablished itself a few years back by racing. But since then, many things have changed at the company. The hiring of Nissan’s ex- electric vehicle (EV) best representative and a sincerely genuine guy, Andy Palmer, was a serious tell-tale sign the venerable old English company had a plan going forward. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is the case in point.

Although many of us were expecting a pure EV by now, and would reluctantly say the company did dabble with an electrified Toyota iQ, its motivation was more financial and necessary to do business in California, where it attracts a fair share of its slice of the financial pie. Aston Martin decided to surprise with the king of all hypercars, this time with a hybrid platform it would use from its AM-RB 001 to later become the Valkyrie.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie, Technically Speaking

Just to get one thing out of the way, yes, the Aston Martin Valkyrie is probably unobtainium to many and yes, it’s “only” a hybrid.

However, it’s an 1130 hp (842 kW) hybrid, using a combined 6.5-liter V12 gasoline engine that will reach the vicinity of 1000 hp (745 kW), with the rest coming from the electric motor.

Although there are other hypercars that easily break that amount of horsepower, the company has a design specification that makes the Valkyrie unbeatable, at least on paper. The Aston Martin Valkyrie power-to-weight ratio is 1:1. This is a serious weight ratio, meaning how many horsepower move(s) a kilogram of car. 1 horsepower for 1 kilogram is up in racing land world and certainly promises some wild and enthusiastic acceleration, which makes me think the Valkyrie begs to hit the Los Angeles canyon roads for a breathtaking view of the car and its performance.

Speaking of which, at 2,491 lbs (1,130 kg) so far, the Aston Martin Valkyrie is still working on ways to slim down its aggressive looking style. Interestingly enough, the production model will be even lighter, aiming for 2,270 lbs (1,030 kg).

It’s easy to see where Aston Martin is coming from here, and where it is trying to go. Although the English and UK car industry slowed to a crawl in the 70s before being bought by bigger international car manufacturers, which eventually let a lot of these original and sometimes unique car crafters fall to the wayside, it’s good to see those that survived. But it’s even better hearing those that survived and are taking the electric route. I remember when Ferrari itself dropped six hybrid patents, back in 2008 predating its first hybrid, the LaFerrari, by almost a decade.

In the meantime, it is exciting to see Aston Martin coming back, among a few others. And yes, even if no company is 100% regional these days, such traditional carmakers as Aston Martin have decades of building and racing cars.

As to the name, any Aston Martin fan will recognize the code name beginning with a V signifies a tradition that began in 1951 with the iconic Vantage, the car that launched it into the limelight. But the “V” name also meant as a way to distinguish its high-performance variation from the regular model, the DB2. And back then, boasting 125 HP instead of 105 was a significant increase in performance and desirability to get a few people to spring for the extra cash.

As an aside, the first time the Vantage badge appeared on an Aston Martin was on the side of the DB5. And distinguishing the distinguished is something the company is no stranger to when it naming its creme de la creme, the Virage, Vanquish, and Vulcan, the latter being the company’s god of fire.

Oh James, do behave!

I’m happy to see Aston Martin not only surviving, but racing and now announcing a serious high-performance hybrid that should shake up the competition. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is finally here.