Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH Le Mans Hypercar Begins Track Test

The all-new Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar has made its track debut ahead of its 2025 FIA WEC entrant.

It is no secret that Aston Martin is in the midst of developing its own Le Mans hypercar, using the manic Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar as its basis. Ahead of its official entrant to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2025, the Gaydon-based marque has unveiled its Le Mans Hypercar contender in the flesh for the first time.

AM’s Le Mans contender, known as the Valkyrie AMR-LMH for short, has completed its first track test at the infamous Silverstone circuit, which is also the home base of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, the marque’s performance arm that is also in charge of developing its Formula One racecar.

According to Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, the decision to develop the Valkyrie LMH at its F1 base camp is no coincidence, as the marque hoped to use its "complex knowledge base" gained from racing in F1 for years to trickle down to its Le Mans fighter and eventually to its road cars, too.

The Valkyrie AMR-LMH will be the sole LMH car in WEC grid to be based on a real production car, featuring the same V12 mill used on its road-legal twin.

One unique thing that sets AM’s Le Mans hypercar apart from the rest of the WEC’s LMH grid is that the Valkyrie AMR-LMH still uses a V12 mill derived from its road-going twin, whereas all of its contenders settled for an eight-pot setup instead. According to AM, the 6.5-litre nat-asp V12 mill developed by Cosworth used on the Valkyrie LMH has been “enhanced and adapted” for both the WEC and IMSA regulations, meaning that its total system output has been capped at only 697 HP.

Apart from the twelve-pot fire breather, the Valkyrie LMH also underpins the same full carbon chassis setup used on the road-legal Valkyrie, meaning that it is the only LMH car on the endurance grid to be based on an existing production model. Combined with some intricate aero parts and extensive carbon fibre body work, AM claims the Valkyrie LMH is lighter than the Valkyrie AMR Pro, which by itself already tipped the scale at only 1,500 KG.

For its WEC and IMSA entries, the Valkyrie LMH will be run by Aston Martin with its long-time motorsport partner, Heart of Racing. Besides the upcoming 2025 WEC, this US-based motorsport outfit currently competes in the GT3 class using AM’s new Vantage GT3 race car.

Speaking to Autocar UK, Aston Martin Performance Technologies engineering director Adam Carter said, “Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sports car racing, and, together with our partners, we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class."

AM’s entry to both the WEC and IMSA next year marks another automaker venturing into the pinnacle of endurance racing, with the previous notable entrant coming from the renowned Italian automaker Lamborghini. Besides Aston Martin and Lamborghini, the WEC LMH grid also features some other notable automotive brands such as Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Peugeot, Porsche, Toyota, and Ferrari, with the latter recently taking victory at the coveted 24 Hours of Le Mans race.