The Aston Martin Valkyrie’s Cosworth V12 is going to need to be rebuilt a lot if the owner wants to use it every day.
The Valkyrie is going to be an amazing car, and much of that has to do with the amazing engine that is being developed specifically for Aston Martin’s first real hypercar. With a total displacement of 6.5-L and total output in excess of 1,000 horsepower, Cosworth has said it will be the most powerful naturally aspirated engine in the world.
However, getting to that lofty height of power required considerable effort. Peak power comes at an eye-watering 10,500 RPM, according to Cosworth managing director Bruce Wood.
In an interview with Car and Driver, Wood revealed a few interesting tidbits about the massive Cosworth V12 that would serve as the Valkyrie’s primary power source. Max torque comes at 7,000 RPM and is measured at 545 lb-ft, but max power comes much higher. So high that the car has a soft redline at 11,200 RPM and an emergency fuel shut off at 11,400 RPM.
Those enormous revs also have another price to pay: the engine will need to be rebuilt a lot sooner than on a Toyota Corolla.
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"Our expectation is that at 100,000 kilometers [62,000 miles], [the engine] would be replaced," Wood said. "That's not to say we think there is going to be a hole through the side of it, but our expectation would be that a lot of the components would be worn out. The reality is that if anybody got to that point, we'd take the engine out, strip it, and crack-test it. If the block was fine and not excessively worn, there would be no reason not to rebuild it with new pistons and valves."
We haven’t got any details from Aston about warranties, but if you can already afford a $2 million hypercar, you can also probably afford to replace its engine every few years.
Few details on the hybrid portion of the Valkyrie’s powertrain were spilled, but we know the electric motor will be between the engine and the transmission and that the Valkyrie will be capable of all-electric travel. We also found out that there won’t be any reverse gears and the car will travel backward purely on electric power alone.