Aston Martin ready to compete anew at Le Mans

THE new Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH has hit the track for the first time, as Aston Martin with The Heart of Racing begins a comprehensive testing program ahead of the British ultra-luxury sportscar brand's bid to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright next year and for the first time since 1959.The new hypercar, developed by Aston Martin Performance Technologies and works team The Heart of Racing, completed a shakedown and initial evaluation testing in the United Kingdom this week. The car was driven by Aston Martin High Performance development driver Darren Turner, The Heart of Racing's Mario Farnbacher, and Harry Tincknell, who won the LMGTE class of the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans with Aston Martin."The Valkyrie AMR-LMH sets its own standard as a thoroughbred endurance competition car. It is a pure, leading edge racing machine, and while it is very early in the testing cycle, from what we have witnessed so far, we are satisfied that it is achieving the targets and criteria we have set out for it to accomplish," Adam Carter, Aston Martin head of Endurance Motorsport.Aston Martin with The Heart of Racing will now commence a full development schedule to prepare the car ahead of FIA homologation in the autumn and its competitive debut in early 2025. The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH is the first racing car to be built to Hypercar regulations to contest both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the US-based IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) simultaneously.The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH is unique in the top Hypercar class of global endurance motorsport in that it is the only one among its contemporaries to derive its roots from an existing production-based extreme performance car — Aston Martin Valkyrie, the ultimate hypercar. Works team The Heart of Racing will enter two Valkyrie AMR-LMH contenders in WEC and a single car in IMSA in 2025.The race-optimized carbon-fiber chassis Valkyrie AMR-LMH uses a modified, lean-burning version of the sensational Cosworth-built 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine, which in standard form revs to 11,000 rpm and develops over 1,000 bhp. The power unit is enhanced and adapted to meet the performance window of the hypercar class and developed to withstand the rigors of top-level long-distance competition.The Heart of Racing recently established a UK team headquarters for its WEC program, near to where the racing cars are being constructed in cooperation with Aston Martin Performance Technologies, based at Silverstone. The team is overseeing the development and test program of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, which will move from the UK to European circuits through the summer as performance evaluation becomes the priority."We know we are going up against the best, so we intend to represent Aston Martin at the same level. I believe, from what we have seen so far, and with the DNA of where this car came from, I think we have the right tools to be able to do this successfully," said Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James.