Aston to attempt Valkyrie Nurburgring record?
Andy Palmer says a lap "is important to the prowess of a supercar" - in China, of all places...
Remember when eight-minutes-something was damn fast for a road car at the Nurburgring? Not any longer. Now even something in the low sevens won't raise many eyebrows; a lap solidly in the sixes is the only way to attract real attention. And that could be all set to change again, if an Aston Valkyrie laps the Nordschleife...
In an interview with Carsales over Le Mans weekend, Aston CEO Andy Palmer said a 'ring lap wasn't that important, but that "in some markets, I'm thinking China strangely, a time around the Nurburgring is important to the prowess of a supercar." So while the Valkyrie doesn't have lap time supremacy as a primary development goal, Palmer reckoned that "we'll probably end up setting a time." Which is rather exciting, given all that we know about the upcoming hypercar.
Perhaps best of all, Aston will not go about its lap in the conventional fashion, ensuring exclusive use of the track and waiting for optimum conditions: "I'm thinking maybe we'll do something cool - like turning up to an open session, something crazy like that", said Palmer. Even at a car park that familiar with seeing exotic cars, a Valkyrie would be some arrival.
So just how fast could it go? Christian Horner suggested the Porsche 919 Evo's phenomenal 5:19.5 could be under threat, a barmy idea but presumably not outside the realms of possibility given the power, weight and aerodynamics. Really, anything less than six minutes would be an achievement beyond what many considered previously possible for road cars. But then, as we're very quickly learning, the Valkyrie isn't exactly like any other road cars.
There will be at least 4 versions of Valkyrie that we already know of - the 'standard' road car, the standard road car with the optional track only aero pack fitted, the track only AMR Pro and then the WEC (Le Mans) race car.
The track pack alone is stated to give 8% better lap times, which would take a lap time of say 6 minutes 20 seconds for the standard car to 5 minutes 50 seconds for the track pack equipped car. In turn the AMR Pro could then be challenging that 919 time. Obviously we've no idea what the standard car is capable of but it would surely shave 20 seconds off the GT2RS Manthey time ?
Something which was designed without "lap time supremacy as a primary development goal", to be road legal, and to sell for a few million vs a race car, that has almost it's only goal as lap time supremacy, was beefed up from the racing regs so not even race legal, isn't road legal and not made to a budget/cost in even vaguely the same ballpark.
Won't happen.
Christian is a lying b
d. 
It wasn't long ago that Aston were showing off their simulator where journalists (PH included) were lapping Spa a whole 25 seconds quicker in the Valkyrie compared to 'generic' supercars.
Valkyrie is going to be a true reset point for this part of the market
If the car is to live up to Aston's hype only total domination at the Nurburgring will do.
Christian is a lying b
d. Something which was designed without "lap time supremacy as a primary development goal", to be road legal, and to sell for a few million vs a race car, that has almost it's only goal as lap time supremacy, was beefed up from the racing regs so not even race legal, isn't road legal and not made to a budget/cost in even vaguely the same ballpark.
Won't happen.
TX.
Not only is that ridiculously dangerous for all concerned (fancy doing >300kph and finding someone "dawdling along" at just 250 kph blocking the fast line. no? me neither....) but it's also impossible, because to set a lap record you must go round EVERY corner on the circuit at maximum possible speed, something that is simply not possible with an open track, where cars (and drivers...) of all performances are running. Trust me, the 11th time you have to abort your "record lap" because you just spent 100 yards sideways on the grass and have knocked off the front off the car on the barriers trying to avoid a slower car gets really pretty annoying.......
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