Aston Martin was one of the first manufacturers to commit to the Le Mans Hypercar class in 2019, with plans to start competition with at least two factory cars in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship. The car was planned to compete without a hybrid system, despite the road car containing one.[9] Alongside the factory entries, which were set to be operated by Multimatic Motorsports, two customer cars were planned to be fielded by R-Motorsport.[10][11]
In February 2020, Aston Martin announced that they would be cancelling the project, citing the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's decision to allow LMDh sports cars to participate in the Hypercar class.[11] The LMDh regulations were a more cost-effective solution for manufacturers, which meant customer racing programs were less expensive to invest in for brands and running costs were viable for customer teams. The convergence of the two rulesets significantly impacted Aston Martin's financial model for the Valkyrie race car, as they had anticipated that sales of the Valkyrie to customer teams would constitute a substantial portion of the program's funding.[12] According to David King, who was then the President of Aston Martin Racing, development of the Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar came close to the construction of a fully operational model that was set for testing in spring prior to the convergence of the Le Mans Hypercar and LMDh rulesets.[11]
Around this time, Aston Martin had also joined Formula One for the first time in 61 years. The British marque's racing division was restructured internally with a primary focus on the company's Formula One and LM GTE programmes.[11] Despite Aston Martin's decision to pause the project, they remained open to future participation in the Hypercar class.[13]
2023 revival
In October 2023, Aston Martin officially announced the return of the Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar project. They planned to enter at least one car in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2025, run by factory team The Heart of Racing.[4][5] This made Aston Martin the first Le Mans Hypercar manufacturer to enter the IMSA series, which up to that point only had LMDh cars participate.[14]
The original plan to compete without a hybrid system was carried over to the new car. The car uses the same 6.5-litre CosworthRAV12 used by all versions of the Valkyrie sports car, but is extensively modified to run leaner in order to meet the Le Mans Hypercar class performance window and to stay reliable throughout all stages of an endurance race.[3][15] The gearbox is a 7-speed sequential manual developed by Xtrac.[16]
In celebration of their return to top class endurance racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin introduced an unrestricted track-only version of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH in June 2025 called the Valkyrie LM.[21] The car is nearly identical to its racing counterpart, with only certain racing equipment removed such as ballast and the mandated electronics required for competition in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The Cosworth V12 powertrain was carried over from the race car, reconfigured in order to use standard fuels.[22] Production is limited to 10 examples.[23] Through Aston Martin's 'Unleashed' program, owners of the Valkyrie LM are able to drive the car on different racing circuits worldwide with comprehensive support from Aston Martin engineers.[24]
The Valkyrie AMR-LMH finished towards the back in its debut at the 2025 Qatar 1812 km, with the #007 retiring with a transmission issue and the #009 completing the race 23 laps down, though the team was encouraged by the car's potential.[26] The car continued to progress positively coming out of Qatar,[27] finishing in the top 10 in all rounds of the first half of the IMSA season,[28] running in the points at the 2025 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps before needing to complete a fuel stop,[29] and qualifying for Hyperpole and finishing the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans without fault.[30] At the 2025 SportsCar Grand Prix in Road America, the car achieved a season-high 6th place finish, the best result for a Valkyrie in either series.[31][32]
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Aston Martin THOR Team
Roman De Angelis 
Alex Riberas 
Marco Sørensen 