Aston Martin Valkyrie To Spawn McLaren 720S Rival


Aston Martin has revealed that the upcoming Valkyrie hybrid hypercar is just the first in a family of new mid-engined cars, and will spawn a new supercar.

Speaking to Car and Driver at the Geneva Motor Show, Aston chief executive Andy Palmer confirmed that the first new model from this range will directly target vehicles from Ferrari (488), Lamborghini (Huracan) and McLaren (720S).

“Valkyrie is the start of a mid-engine dynasty, if you want to call it that. The reason we’re doing it is to create a halo car, but also to create DNA for a mid-engined sports-car range,” he said.

According to Palmer, the car has yet to be signed off for production and won’t reach the engineering stage unless the brand continues to meet sales and revenue targets. Nevertheless, the new mid-engined supercar is currently being brought to life by Aston Martin designers.

“The project is in the design studio right now, but the mandate for that car or cars is, basically, how do we ensure that it’s beautiful, how do you make function follow form rather than the other way around? If it’s going to be an Aston Martin, it will have to be beautiful. The car will need to be fantastic; it will have to compete with some good rivals. Doing Valkyrie starts to give us some ideas about what they should look like.”

If the car does reach the road, it is expected to be powered by a V12 engine, potentially a variant of the DB11’s 5.2-liter twin-turbo unit or a detuned version of the Valkyrie’s naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12.

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