Yahoo Autos Aston Martin's Next Mid-Engined Hypercar Is Coming in 2021
We broke the news that Aston Martin was planning to produce a mid-engined supercar positioned beneath the beyond-hyper Valkyrie last year, and now the company has confirmed that the production version will be released in late 2021, with the project currently referred to internally as the 003. It has even released this very impressionistic sketch (shown below) to drop some hints about the finished car, although insiders admit that design work is already well underway.
The 003 moniker is because the roadgoing Valkyrie and the track-only Valkyrie AMR Pro count as different projects: 001 and 002, respectively. Both Valkyries are being jointly developed with the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team, under the technical leadership of Adrian Newey, and although there is no confirmation that Red Bull will also be involved with 003, an Aston spokesman told C/D: "We are very hopeful that everyone involved with 001 and 002 will continue to be involved with 003." When we spoke to Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner at the British Grand Prix in July, he told us that his organization is already "heavily involved" with the project, hinting about even more future collaborations for good measure.
The production version of the 003 will be positioned below the Valkyrie and still limited to no more than 500 cars. It will be more practical than its zero-compromise sister: Aston promises that it will have luggage space and be homologated for road use in all major markets. It will be built around a lightweight structure-we'd be very surprised if that wasn't a carbon-fiber tub-and Aston promises class-leading aerodynamic performance from an active system.
The official release confirms the car will have a turbocharged gasoline-electric hybrid engine. We will have to wait to see if that is sourced from Aston's existing deal with Daimler, which supplies the AMG twin-turbo V-8 that is fitted to the DB11 and Vantage. Intriguingly, when we spoke to Adrian Newey about the Valkyrie at this year's Geneva auto show, he said that serious consideration had been given to producing it with a twin-turbo V-6 rather than the naturally aspirated V-12 it is now being developed with; we wonder if some of that thinking has been transferred to the junior car.
As with the Valkyrie, chassis development of the 003 will be led by Chris Goodwin, who defected from his former role as McLaren's chief test pilot last year. The mid-engined Aston is clearly aimed at the ground currently occupied by his former employer, as well as Lamborghini and Ferrari. Aston boss Andy Palmer has hinted he sees an entire range of mid-engined Astons, so we can anticipate more news to come.
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