Aston Martin's Adrian Newey-inspired hypercar, the Valkyrie, is so extreme that it could challenge for the outright Nürbugring record, which was broken last week by Porsche Motorsport's 919 Hybrid Evo racing car.
Speaking at the weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner told Racefans that the Valkyrie, not his team's Formula 1 car, stood the best chance of beating the enhanced World Endurance Championship (WEC) racer.
"I’m not sure a Formula 1 car could actually do it, but I think that the Valkyrie — certainly the track version of the Valkyrie — could be a contender," he said.
The 919 Hybrid Evo, which has evolved beyond the regulations that restricted it when it competed and won the WEC, clocked a 5min 19.545sec lap around the Green Hell, beating the long-standing 6min 11.3sec record set in 1983 by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 endurance racer.
But the Valkyrie, which will cost from £2.5 million, will use materials and parts that are more advanced than even the cars of motorsport's top single-seater rung, thanks to the lack of regulations and development restrictions affecting it.
No expense has been spared as Aston's designers and engineers, co-developing with Red Bull Racing, seek to make the Valkyrie faster around a lap than exotic alternatives such as the Mercedes-AMG Project One, which, like the Valkyrie, also benefits from F1 powertrain tech.
Designers at Aston’s top-secret design centre at Gaydon completed the Valkyrie's exterior shape earlier this year. It is said to be focused on aerodynamics, with only small tweaks and adjustments made for aesthetic reasons.
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A shrieking normally
A shrieking normally aspirated 6.5 V12? Or a buzzing 1.6 turbo V6?
AMG, of all people - what were you thinking?
Another project scuppered by
Another project scuppered by Andy Palmer bluster? What an opportunity to own something designed by an F1 legend, and be able to drive it on the road!
But I bet the design team are pulling their hair out with the boss's circus big top 'roll-up roll-up' posturing about it being as fast around Silverstone as an F1 car. It just isn't, and won't be. What a silly thing to say and I hope it doesn't end up defining the project.
He has form here with the Nissan LMP1 Le Mans project in 2015. How much faster they were going to be than the competition, the tricks they had up their sleeve, what the an advantage the layout would give them over the competition... They got laughed off the track.
Car of Cars....?!
Faster than a Hennessy, a Veyron?, handle better than any McLaren Road Car?, come Adrian, put your Car where your reputation is........?!b