Listen to the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar’s 1,000-HP V12 Howl at Silverstone
This is what the world’s most powerful naturally aspirated road car engine sounds like at speed.
Aston Martin's Valkyrie hypercar visited the famous Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain for more torture testing this past week, and the firm's CEO Dr. Andy Palmer couldn't help shooting a teaser video to share its naturally aspirated V12 with the world.
The 6.5-liter unit developed with the help of Cosworth will allegedly be the most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever fitted to a road-legal production car. It generates exactly 1,000 horsepower at a towering 10,500 rpm, and can be pushed all the way up to 11,100 when upshifting doesn't quite make sense. As you would imagine, this results in a noise like a banshee being extruded through a meat grinder, which you can hear in a video uploaded to Twitter by Palmer.
A second video seemingly recorded at the same event identifies it as one where Aston Martin introduced a working Valkyrie prototype to clients. This video does a better job of showing off the Valkyrie's LaFerrari-like sound, but still leaves us with the sneaking suspicion that the car's being short-shifted. We think this because despite the aid of the Doppler effect, neither video taken makes the Valkyrie sound as high-pitched as a dynamometer test video released last year did.
With those rainy conditions, we can't blame Aston Martin's test driver for short-shifting to avoid taking a prototype $3.2 million-dollar Valkyrie for a flight, but two-and-change minutes of listening to one of the most exciting cars ever built being babied is a little disappointing. At this rate, Aston Martin will force us to wait until next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans (where the Valkyrie will race) to hear it at full beans.
We're counting down the days, are you?