Today is the end of an era at Cosworth. For the past few years, the iconic English engine manufacturer has built not one but two high-strung V12 hypercar engines for two different multi-million dollar machines. However, after today only one remains. That’s because the epic naturally aspirated V12 engine in the Aston Martin Valkyrie has reached its end, as the final one left the factory in a Valkyrie road car.
Cosworth’s collaboration with Aston Martin has been an almost decade-long affair that produced 257 engines for both Valkyrie road cars and race cars. It’s also produced several broken records, including the Silverstone Circuit production car lap record that the Valkyrie shattered earlier this month.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is unlike almost any other production car in history. It’s the brainchild of legendary Formula 1 engineer Adrian Newey but its production has an epic list of featured artists, including Rimac, Multimatic, and, of course, Cosworth. In the road car, its 6.5-liter V12 makes an astonishing 1,001 horsepower and 575 lb-ft of torque. But since the Valkyrie is also a hybrid, it pairs that engine with a 141 horsepower, 206 lb-ft electric motor. Combined, the Valkyrie makes 1,139 horses and 682 lb-ft, good enough to get Aston’s F1-inspired road missile from 0-60 mph in 2.3 seconds.
Remember that Silverstone record I mentioned earlier? The Valkyrie is the only road-going production car in history to break the two-minute barrier, lapping the F1 circuit in 1:56.42. The previous lap record holder was the Manthey-Racing Porsche 911 GT2 RS, which lapped the same circuit in 2:06.82.
As incredible as the Valkyrie is as a hypercar, and as good-looking as it is, the star of the show wears a Cosworth badge. Its fast-revving, 11,100 rpm-V12 is the heart and soul of the Valkyrie, which is especially evident when you hear it. It sounds like an F1 car for the road in the best of ways and can make hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
No one expected Coswort’s Valkyrie-spec V12 to last forever, as it was always intended to be a limited-production build. Still, the end of its run is a little bittersweet. The Valkyrie’s V12 was a celebration of internal combustion can and how it can make us feel—now it’s a memory. Thankfully, Cosworth is still building naturally aspirated V12s for Gordon Murray.
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