British sports car CEO says Aston hypercar to set renegade lap at the Green Hell, rather than spend millions trying to set outright lap record

Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer has confirmed the Valkyrie will attempt to set a new production car lap record at Germany’s Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Tipped to beat the current 6:44.97 lap record that was set by the Lamborghini Aventador LP770-4 SVJ last year, Palmer stressed that the Aston Martin Valkyrie hadn’t been developed to break records at the Nurburgring.

When asked by Carsales at the recent Le Mans 24 Hour if a Nurburgring lap was important

to him, the Aston boss 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.

His confidence is thought to come from the significant input his colleague Red Bull’s chief aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey’s, contribution to the Valkyrie’s design, aero and engineering.

If so, the Valkyrie will have to lap the unforgiving Green Hell at an average speed of more than 238km/h over the tortuous 21km road circuit to stand a chance of beating the 919 Evo’s five minutes and 19.55 sec lap time.

As well as the Nurburgring, Palmer also confirmed the Valkyrie would set a timed lap of Silverstone – the car-maker’s home track, hinting a hot lap at the famous Belgium Spa circuit was also on the cards.

“Silverstone and Spa are so far where all the development work on our Valkyrie simulators have been done.”

“It’s amazing how fast you can take Eau Rouge – it’s not flat, but only needs a small lift, so far we’ve found that the biggest limitation has been the road tyres,” claimed the Aston Martin boss.

Already confirmed that the Valkyrie will produce an astonishing 865kW and 900Nm of torque from its 6.5-litre V12 hybrid powertrain, just 150 road cars and a further 25 Valkyrie AMR Pro track versions will be made, with the former priced from $4.5 million.

Already claimed to lap the British Silverstone GP race circuit on simulators as fast as an F1 car, the Valkyrie — which has been co-developed with Red Bull Racing — is rumoured to be capable of generating up to 1816kg of downforce.