It is no secret that Aston Martin has big plans for the upcoming Valkyrie hypercar and now the boss, Andy Palmer has spoken about attempting a new production car lap record at Germany’s Nürburgring Nordschleife.
It is currently held by Lamborghini’s Aventador SVJ with a time of 6:44.97 and although Palmer mentions that the Valkyrie was not developed to break records at the Nürburgring he does see the importance of it for some markets.
When asked by Carsales at the recent Le Mans 24 Hour if a Nurburgring lap was important, he replied: “I’d really love to say ‘no’, in most cases a Nurburgring lap is not important. However, in some markets, I’m thinking China strangely, a time around the Nurburgring is important to the prowess of a supercar.
“In reality we’re not developing it for that. It’s not what it’s meant for but we’ll probably end up setting a time.”
Palmer said, instead of spending “tens of millions” honing the Valkyrie for specifically for a fast time, or renting out the whole famous road circuit exclusively and waiting for the perfect conditions he favours more of a renegade approach.
“We already know it will be fxxxing quick there”, said the Aston CEO, adding: “I’m thinking maybe we’ll do something cool – like turning up to an open session, something crazy like that.”
Palmer didn’t mention times, but last year Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, suggested the Aston Martin hypercar was in with a chance of setting the fastest-ever lap of the Nurburgring, beating even the modified Le Mans-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo’s time.
As a reminder, this mind-warping creation will produce 865 kW and 900 Nm of torque from its 6.5-litre V12 hybrid powerplant with just 150 road cars to be made.