Autocar RSS Feed: Aston Martin Valkyrie could race at Le Mans

Autocar RSS Feed Welcome to nirvana for car enthusiasts. You have just entered the online home of the world's oldest car magazine, and the only place on the internet where you can find Autocar's unique mix of up-to-the-minute news, red hot car reviews, conclusive road test verdicts, and a lot more besides.

Aston Martin Valkyrie could race at Le Mans Dec 11th 2017, 08:39 The Aston Martin Valkyrie could drive at the famous La Sarthe circuit Aston Martin could race its hypercar in the 24-hour event if rules change, says CEO Andy Palmer Aston Martin could fight for outright Le Mans victories again, if the regulations are rewritten to allow race-modified versions of hypercars such as the Valkyrie to compete at the top level of the sport, CEO Andy Palmer has confirmed. Speaking to Autocar at the launch of the new Vantage road and race cars, Palmer said he had been consulted by motor racing's governing body, the FIA, on future regulations for sportscar racing. The sport is currently in a state of flux because Toyota is the only works team confirmed to compete at the top LMP1 level following the withdrawal of Porsche, Audi and Nissan in recent years. "They were debating the future of LMP1 and asked me for my view," said Palmer. "My personal perspective is very clear: Aston Martin will never compete in a prototype category because it has no relevance to us. "But if they allowed racing derivatives of road cars, that would be very interesting to us and, I suspect, the fans. "Road-derived race cars fighting for the win is in keeping with the history of sportscar and Le Mans racing, and the prospect of the likes of Valkyrie fighting against McLaren P1, LaFerrari and more would be interesting to more than just me, I suspect." Asked directly if Aston Martin would compete with the Valkyrie if the rules were changed, Palmer said: "Watch this space." The Valkyrie is the result of a collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, with the technical design led by renowned Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey. The partners have already confirmed that they will develop a race version with less weight and more power than the road car for a launch in 2020, although it is thought that a sportscar racing version would have to be more extreme again. The Valkyrie AMR track model, of which just 25 will be made, costs more than £3 million – around £1m more than the standard road Valkyrie – with all cars already sold out. Aston Martin famously won Le Mans outright in 1959, when Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori took victory in the Aston Martin DBR1. Read more: Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro track car revealed UK low-volume car sector to skyrocket by 60% in 'right' Brexit conditions Aston Martin Valkyrie revealed in most production-ready form yet

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. By using Blogtrottr, you agree to our polices, terms and conditions. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions.