Development has officially started on two brand new mid-engined Aston Martin supercars, the Vanquish and Valhalla becoming live engineering projects, company boss Tobias Moers has confirmed to Autocar.
In his first interview since becoming CEO in August last year, the former Mercedes-AMG chief laid out his vision of Project Horizon for the British brand.
This includes ‘more than 10 cars’ before the end of 2023, the cancellation of some of the previous management’s plans – including a new bespoke V6 engine and the relaunch of Lagonda as a brand of super-luxury electric vehicles – and a push towards improving the quality and dynamic performance of Aston models, which are already delivering results.
The Ferrari F8 Tributo, which rivals Vanquish and the more powerful Valhalla, are the flagship projects of this new era for Aston. Both were first considered concept cars in 2019 and were to use the new V6. With this project now canceled, the supercars will instead use hybrid transmissions from AMG as part of an expanded technical partnership between Aston and Mercedes’ performance arm.
“The two will now be different, but even cooler and better,” said Moers of Vanquish and Valhalla. Regarding the V6, he said: “I found a concept engine which was not compatible with Euro 7. It would have taken another huge investment which was just too big to materialize. “
He continued, “We shouldn’t be investing money in this. Instead, we should be investing money in electrification, batteries and expanding our portfolio. The intention is to be a stand-alone company, although always with a partnership. “
Such a goal is “anything possible” to be achieved by 2024 or 2025, according to Moers.
He said the expansion will begin with the launch of the Valkyrie hypercar in the second half of this year in road and track form, before a third variant – likely to be a convertible – follows in 2022.
With a V12 engine, active aerodynamics and active suspension, the Valkyrie is on the verge of breaking many records for a road car, reaching performance levels of Formula 1. It was developed with Red Bull, which, according to Moers, is “really good” to work, even after the two severed their connection with F1 late last year when Aston owner Lawrence Stroll turned his Racing Point team into a business Gaydon. Entrance.
Beyond that, the Aston DBX SUV is expected to spawn a second variant in September, seen as an inline-six mild hybrid version to serve as an entry-level model.
Another variant will join it in April 2022, aimed at “an Italian player who has the market too comfortable at the moment” – understood as a high-powered V8 version to take on the Lamborghini Urus.
Moers said there would also be “a wider lineup for the Vantage and DB11” – something that has already started with the new Vantage F1 Edition, a significantly more powerful and focused model that can travel the Nürburgring 13 seconds longer. faster than the standard Porsche. 911 rival.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-11 23:01:23
