Valkyrie Spider, an F1 for the road

I don’t think any customer has already received his (or her) Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar yet, but deliveries should start imminently as prototypes have been seen on the open road, some have been able to be a passenger in Aston Martin’s first hypercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hill Climb, and apparently, demand for this 1,160 hp F1 car for public roads has succeeded availability tremendously, despite the price tag between £2m and £3m (about $2.46 million to $3.69 million), all 150 units are long sold out.

And that’s just for the Valkyrie road car, remember there will also be another 40 units of the Valkyrie AMR Pro track-only version, and thanks to demand, Aston Martin now unveils the Valkyrie Spider … open-top motoring at its best, this time, limited to 85 units in total, and according to the official press release from Aston Martin, these are already are over-subscribed and allocations will only begin shortly, available in both left and right-hand drive version, the first deliveries scheduled for H2 2022 but it seems not all that have put their name down will eventually receive this amazing hybrid hypercar.

This amazing looking Valkyrie Spider has been developed from the coupe version, taking unique engineering solutions by combining the talents of both Aston Martin themselves and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT), the engine is still the same 1,160 hp hybrid unit, combining 1,000 hp from the Cosworth developed 6.5-Liter V12 engine with 160 hp from the KERS-style hybrid system, using a 12-in-1 exhaust design, the Valkyrie’s soundtrack is reminiscent of a 90s F1 race car.

These days the roof is an integral part of the body structure and supplies overall rigidity, removing it isn’t as clear cut as it sounds, for the Valkyrie Spider this meant a modification of the carbon fiber structure, and that also implied a total recalibration of the active chassis, and the impressive active aerodynamic parts on the Valkyrie to make sure removing the roof didn’t compromise the overall experience, and more importantly … performance.

Thanks to a lot of development and slight modifications between the Valkyrie and the new Valkyrie Spider, Aston Martin managed to keep the weight gain on the Spider to a strict minimum … the result is still a top speed in excess of 350 km/h with the roof in place while driving topless will still get you over 330 km/h … all while sitting nearly in the center of the car, fixed in place by a six-point safety harness.

Even the entire removable roof system is special, consisting of a central panel made from carbon fiber that contains the hinges for the two panels above the occupants, all of these panels can be removed once the doors open, and stowed in their dedicated sections, carefully cut into the new carbon fiber structure … due to the lack of a roof, the gullwing doors from the coupe had to be redesigned into front-hinged dihedral doors, bespoke to the Valkyrie Spider.

The brand new Aston Martin Valkyrie Spider will be shown during the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey, California, from 12 August 15 August 2021, but getting into the VIP section holding this amazing roofless hypercar will be by invitation only … no information in pricing either, by the way.