Aston Martin Valkyrie engine note teased
Naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 recording released as Aston floats on the London Stock Exchange
Gone are the days when a new model was announced, unveiled, tested, and then forgotten about either forever, or for however many years it took to start being considered a classic. The modern process, as you'll be well aware, involves a constant drip-feeding of hints, teases, leaks and spy shots to keep the car on homepages, in social media feeds and at the front of enthusiast's minds, building the hype until its launch. After its been driven, tested and reviewed an example or two will find their way to 'influencers', who will publish videos about the seven things they love/ 12 things they hate/ 81 things they're surprised by until their followers are distracted by someone with something newer and shinier in the pipeline, and so the cycle repeats.
There are many cons to this process, but a few pros too, one of which has arrived today in the form of a tweet from Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer announcing "The sound of "THE" GREAT British car company!" Attached is a 20 second clip which seems to be of the Valkyrie dyno testing and demonstrates the sonorous wail of its naturally-aspirated Cosworth V12.
The sound of “THE” GREAT British car company! Thank you @Cosworth@redbullracing#AstonMartinValkyrie#NaturallyAspirated#V12pic.twitter.com/HmEICj29uH
— Andy Palmer (@AndyatAston) October 3, 2018
The exact output of the 6.5-litre powerplant is still under wraps, with a previous tweet from Cosworth's own account claiming a total of 1,146hp having been deleted and revealed to be inaccurate. What has since been confirmed, however, is that the Valkyrie will boast "two to three hundred more horsepower" than any other V12-engined road car, making its motor the most powerful naturally aspirated unit ever fitted to a road car.
Usually that would be enough Aston news for one morning, but today also saw the company launch its long awaited IPO. It floated on the London Stock Exchange at an initial price of £19 a share before dipping to £17.75, leaving the company with a market value of just over £4 billion, quite a way short of the £5 billion valuation it had originally hoped for. Nonetheless, CEO Andy Palmer described the occasion as "a very proud moment, if not the crowning moment (to date!) of my 40 year career" and with private investors able to buy shares from next Monday, the manufacturer's valuation may be set for a few more twists and turns yet.
"We'll build the goddess of cars" (tease)
"Here are a few pencil lines roughly mimicking a cloud - that's how the car may look like" (tease)
"This is the lower back corner of the glovebox" (sensational tease, exhaustive press coverage)
"Listen to the sound the water pump makes" (media goes ballistic, writes about eargasms)
etc.
How about doing project work for a few years and show the car being driving in its intended habitat by an able driver?
Personally I enjoy manufacturers releasing small bits of information in the way they do, it means I get to know more about the cars earlier. I can see how others might not be interested, that’s fine. I don’t like reality TV shows, others do. I don’t feel the need to go on forums and complain about the existence of reality TV shows, I simply don’t watch them. It’s a 100% effective procedure that guarantees I don’t have to deal with media that’s not to my taste and it costs me literally nothing. If you don’t want to look at the teaser campaigns you could very easily choose not to.
1146bhp at 13.15Bar BMEP is at 12000rpm.
Perhaps feasible numbers but somewhat eye-watering...
TX.
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