Protracted flight: long-term construction hypercar Aston Martin Valkyrie got a Spider version

This year's Monterey Car Week in California is rich in premieres: the British company Aston Martin presented here an open version of the Spider of its flagship Valkyrie hypercar. It is planned to release only 85 copies and all of them have already been sold out.

Valkyrie is a long-term project that never ends. It has existed in the public space since 2016, when Aston Martin introduced a prototype hypercar under the factory index AM-RB 001. In 2017, he received the name Valkyrie, it was planned to launch the car in 2019, but it has not yet begun. Moreover, neither the exact price nor the exact technical specifications of the hypercar have been announced so far. At the same time, new versions of it appear: in June, the final version of the track version of the AMR Pro debuted without an electric add-on, and now the company has introduced the road version of the Spider.

Based on the description, the Spider is not really a spider, but a targa: the overlay hardtop has to be installed by hand, and the company didn't bother to show it in the photos. The press release says that the roof consists of three sections – a central one made of carbon fiber and two side sections made of polycarbonate. It is not clear whether the roof in the dismantled state fits in the car or should it be left in the garage.

The removable roof, according to the developers, required a reworking of the carbon-fiber monocoque carrier in order to maintain body rigidity at the level of the coupe version, recalculation and processing of the aerodynamic plumage and new chassis calibrations. In addition, the spider has new doors with opening kinematics that are not the same as those of the coupe – the difference is clearly visible in the photographs.

The power plant, inscribed in the power structure of the body, is the same as that of the coupe: a gasoline 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 (1014 hp, 740 Nm), developed jointly with Cosworth, is docked with an electric motor (162 hp)., 280 Nm) and a 7-speed Ricardo robotic gearbox. The electrical superstructure was developed jointly with Rimac and Integral Powertrain. The maximum combined output of the power plant is “walking”: the release dedicated to the spider, indicated 1171 hp, on the Aston Martin consumer website – 1156 hp, and in the release of 2019 dedicated to the data sheet of the Valkyrie, 1176 hp appear.

Well, at least, the V12 speed limits do not “walk”, in all releases the same value is 11,000 rpm. On the spider, you can enjoy its crescendo to the maximum. The hypercar accelerates to 60 mph (96.56 km/h) in less than 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of 350 km/h with the roof on and 330 km/h with the roof off.

Presented in California, Valkyrie Spider, according to the description, is not yet a finished product, it is waiting for tests and final tuning. Shipment of finished machines to customers is promised to begin in the second half of next year. The price of the Spider version was not named, they asked for about 2.5 million pounds sterling for the coupe. Coupe circulation – 150 pcs., Spider – 85 pcs., AMR Pro versions – 40 pcs. Everything has been sold out for a long time, you can not take a queue – unless you hope that one of the customers will get tired of waiting and give up their car.

In July, Aston Martin introduced another hybrid hypercar, the Valhalla, which was developed as part of a restarted collaboration with Mercedes-AMG and is one step below the Valkyrie in the rankings.