Listen to the $3.3-Million Aston Martin Valkyrie’s V12 Rip Reality Apart

If your toes don’t curl when you hear this 1,100-horsepower, 6.5-liter, naturally aspirated V12, then your volume isn’t high enough.

byJames Gilboy|
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On Wednesday, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer shared a video featuring the company's upcoming Valkyrie hypercar engaging in dynamometer testing, complete with sound.

Dynamometer (or "dyno") testing is done to simulate an engine's operation under load and is used by automakers and racing teams alike to tune and torture-test engines. Aston Martin's extensive integration of motorsport technology with its partner Red Bull Racing means that intense testing of the racetrack-ready hypercar will be necessary to properly prep it for the rigors of use in both the role of road car, track toy, and down the line potentially even racing at Le Mans.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie's engine is a 6.5-liter, naturally-aspirated V12 developed with the aid of Cosworth, which promises the engine will be the most powerful N/A V12 ever used in a road car. Conservative power estimates are 1,100 horsepower, far exceeding that of the current record holder—the Ferrari LaFerrari—at about 950 hp.

As with almost every revvy road car featuring an N/A engine, people are keen to make unfair comparisons to Formula 1 cars of yore, but the Aston Martin Valkyrie is a rare case wherein such a comparison is fair. Pit it against the 1990 Scuderia Ferrari 641, which also boasted a naturally-aspirated V12, albeit a smaller 3.5-liter unit.

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Considering that the sold-out Valkyrie costs its buyers $3.3 million, it'd better sound comparable to an F1 car. Of course, the comparisons won't (and shouldn't) stop there, as Red Bull's F1 team helped develop the Valkyrie's aerodynamics, which helps the car generate more than its own weight in downforce.

It's just a matter of time before we will get to hear a Valkyrie at full throttle on a racetrack. There may never be a chorus as angelic from any other production car.

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