The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH Is Here To Fill Le Mans With Glorious V12 Noise

Endurance racing is undeniably enjoying a purple patch right now, with no fewer than nine factory-backed OEMs currently building cars for the top classes. If one thing’s been missing from this return to mass manufacturer participation, though, it’s some proper noise, with everyone but Cadillac running relatively compact, turbocharged engines.

Finally, though, that big snarly American V8 is getting some aural competition – this is the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH, complete with a naturally aspirated V12. Yes and please.

If you’ve been following the new era of endurance racing closely, you’ll know that the Valkyrie’s journey to Le Mans has been a long and complicated one. Way back in 2019, when the new Hypercar class was devised as a production-based formula, Aston was one of the first manufacturers to join up, announcing a racing version of the Valkyrie hypercar, back then still in the midst of its long development.

Less than a year later, though, Aston announced it was postponing those plans indefinitely, and it seemed that the Valkyrie Le Mans project was dead in the water. However, the company had another change of heart in October 2023, reviving the programme in collaboration with works-affiliated team The Heart of Racing, despite the initial production-based regulations long since being shelved.

After lots of tantalising glimpses of a prototype testing throughout 2024, we’re now finally getting to see the finished product ahead of its race debut. Much like the Valkyrie road car, the centrepiece is the engine: a 6.5-litre, free-breathing V12 developed by Cosworth.

Unlike the road car’s engine, which only really needs to withstand the rigours of heavy Monegasque traffic, the LMH car’s V12 needs to be run hard for 24 hours straight, so it’s been modified somewhat: it’s running a leaner fuel mixture to lower consumption, and it won’t quite hit the road car’s screaming 11,000rpm redline.

It’s junked the road car’s hybrid element, and the engine’s power has been pinned to 680bhp so it’s in line with class regulations. It’s also running a new seven-speed sequential racing gearbox from Xtrac.

Naturally, there’s a new aero package, defined by that enormous quintuple-finned rear wing and tailfin that Aston appears to have found by rooting around a backlot at an Airbus factory. Underneath, it gets front and rear double-wishbone suspension, complete with pushrods and adjustable side and central dampers.

Aston and The Heart of Racing – which goes by the extremely cool acronym of THOR – is set to run a pair of Valkyries in the World Endurance Championship, starting with the opening round at Qatar at the end of February. A single car will also run in the IMSA series in North America, where it’ll debut at Sebring in March.

We can’t help but root for it in both championships, but however it ends up performing, endurance racing is about to sound a whole lot better.