This Is The Aston Martin Valkyrie That Will Keep Everyone Awake At Le Mans Next Year

As if things weren’t already exciting enough in the upper echelons of endurance racing, we’re set to be treated next year to the glorious sound of a naturally aspirated, 6.5-litre Cosworth-built V12 filling the world’s racetracks when the Le Mans Hypercar version of the Aston Martin Valkyrie finally makes its debut.

Just to tease us a little more, Aston has shared some images as the car takes to Donington Park at the beginning of an extensive testing programme ahead of the 2025 season. It’s based on the Valkyrie AMR Pro, a track-only version which shares remarkably few components with the roadgoing Valkyrie – itself hardly a sensible, refined cruiser.

For the Le Mans car – officially called the Valkyrie AMR-LMH – Aston and its works partner team, The Heart of Racing, have taken things even further, fitting an enormous, quintuple-finned rear wing with a central spar running along the car’s spine and onto its roof. The front end looks different, too, and while it’s hard to tell with the camo, we’d imagine there are some more changes going on both outside and underneath.

It’s set to use the standard car’s howling V12, modified to meet LMH regulations and to withstand the strains of running for 24 straight hours, as it will be at Le Mans and Daytona.

Yep, not only will The Heart of Racing be running a two-car entry in the 2025 World Endurance Championship, of which the French race is the flagship event; it’ll also enter next year’s IMSA Sportscar Championship, which traditionally kicks off the annual racing season with the 24 Hours of Daytona every January.

Aston's endurance racing boss, Adam Carter, said: "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.”

The Valkyrie dives headfirst into one of the busiest and most varied eras of endurance racing ever, with the top classes populated by the likes of Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Alpine, Lamborghini, Cadillac, BMW and Peugeot in WEC; and Acura, Cadillac, Porsche and BMW in IMSA.

Those are some formidable competitors, but none of them use a 6.5-litre, free-breathing V12. We sincerely hope anyone heading to Le Mans or Daytona next year is prepared for even less sleep than usual.