Hello. There's something rather magnificent about watching an extremely expensive, ludicrously powerful car being driven with complete commitment around a racing circuit. The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro represents the absolute apex of what one might call "track specials" - those rather peculiar machines that are neither road cars nor proper racing cars, but something that exists in a fascinating parallel dimension where normal automotive rules don't apply. The AMR Pro version of the Valkyrie is a curious beast. While Aston Martin prepares to enter the standard Valkyrie in endurance racing, the AMR Pro actually makes more power than the racing version will be allowed to use. The regulations for the top class of endurance racing - known as Hypercar - restrict competitors to around 680 horsepower, which is rather like telling Usain Bolt he can only use one leg. The AMR Pro, by contrast, produces a full 1000 horsepower from its naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine. Interestingly, it achieves this figure without the hybrid system found in the road car. It's a rather wonderful bit of engineering - stripping away complexity to achieve greater performance. The engine, developed by Cosworth, is an absolute masterpiece. It's a V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm, which means it sounds like a Formula 1 car from the mid-2000s. One might argue this makes it the best-sounding contemporary production engine in existence. What makes the AMR Pro truly special, however, is its weight - or rather, the lack of it. The car tips the scales at just 1006 kg, which is about the same as a small European hatchback. When you combine this featherweight construction with 1000 horsepower, you get a power-to-weight ratio that would make most actual racing cars rather jealous.The onboard footage from Paul Ricard circuit demonstrates just how brutally effective this package is. The car changes direction with the sort of immediacy that suggests it doesn't particularly care about the normal laws of physics. The acceleration appears to be absolutely relentless, and the braking performance looks as if someone's attached a parachute to the rear of the car. Paul Ricard, with its distinctive blue and red run-off areas (which make it look rather like a children's playground), is an ideal venue for showcasing a car like this. It's a fast, flowing circuit with a mixture of high-speed corners and technical sections. The track's 1.8 km Mistral straight allows the AMR Pro to stretch its legs properly, while the tight final sector demonstrates the car's agility. Only 40 examples of the AMR Pro were built, making it considerably rarer than the standard road-going Valkyrie, of which 150 were produced. This exclusivity, combined with its extreme performance capabilities, makes it one of the most desirable track cars ever created. It's rather interesting to consider the AMR Pro in the context of Aston Martin's return to the top level of endurance racing. While the racing Valkyrie will be somewhat neutered by regulations, the AMR Pro represents what the car can really do when freed from such constraints. It's a bit like having a faster car than the one you're actually racing with, which must be a rather unusual situation for a manufacturer. As we've seen from the recent resurgence of interest in GT1-style hypercars, there's clearly an appetite among wealthy enthusiasts for machines that deliver true racing car performance without requiring a team of engineers to operate. The Valkyrie AMR Pro sits at the very pinnacle of this exclusive category - a car that combines the very best of Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and Cosworth engineering expertise. What's particularly impressive about the Valkyrie AMR Pro is that it manages to look elegant while being so aggressive. Adrian Newey's aerodynamic expertise is evident in every curve and channel of the car's body, but it never descends into the somewhat excessive aesthetic that characterizes some track-focused hypercars. It's purposeful rather than ostentatious, which feels appropriately British.
