. Aston Martin has long said the Valkyrie is intended to be an F1 car for the road. Although I've never driven an F1 car, and meaning no offense to AMG, this uncompromising download of Newey's brain must be, has to be, as close to a road-legal F1 car as can ever exist. But to re-underline it, the Valkyrie is extreme, and I mean that in every possible way.
I'm big, but not that big, and I struggled inside the Valkyrie. True, I was too fat to fit inside the fire suits Aston brought to Bahrain , but I had three ergonomic issues on the track. The first is that the pedal box is, especially if you have large feet. I'd recommend tight-fitting racing boots. Get comfortable with the idea of left-foot braking, as there's not much room for your left foot to be anywhere but over the brake pedal.
But this is the Valkyrie and nothing is easy. You may be aware that Aston has had some issues in delivering fully baked Valkyries to customers. Electrical gremlins have plagued the complex project, and as one engineer explained to me, there are 15,817 adjustable parameters on Valkyrie. Not permutations, but literally 15,817 individual levers that the computer can pull at any given moment. Crikey.
Before he departed Aston, Moers told me about testing the Valkyrie. Smiling, he said something to the effect of,"You won't believe the engine at 11,100 rpm." Quickly followed by,"Lucky for our customers, we have very good traction control." My point: The Valkyrie is a race car, one that's sadly tire-limited. Why? Because development started long enough ago that Cup 2 R tires were just a twinkle in Michelin's eye.
Oh the bragging rights.
Hagerty did an excellent video on it!
until the next one