Cosworth Posts - And Deletes - Tweet About The Aston Martin Valkyrie's Record-Breaking Output

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Aug 22, 2018

Did Cosworth jump the gun in revealing how much power the Valkyrie has?

Cosworth has deleted a tweet saying that the Aston Martin Valkyrie will feature the world’s most powerful naturally aspirated engine. The engine manufacturer claimed in the tweet that the Valkyrie’s 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V-12 engine can produce 1,130 horsepower. Just a few minutes had passed when the tweet was deleted, prompting speculation that Cosworth may have jumped the gun in announcing the hypercar’s record-breaking power output.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and all that buzz is completely understandable. This is, after all, a vehicle that traces its roots to Formula One, using F1 design principles in its overall development. A big part of that development resides in the car’s monstrous naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V-12 engine, something that Cosworth was, seemingly, a little too quick to point out.

A naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V-12 engine that produces 1,130 horsepower is incredibly impressive. If that figure is correct, the Valkyrie would have the most powerful naturally aspirated engine in a road-going model, breaking the record held by the Ferrari 812 Superfast, which has its own 6.5-liter V-12 unit that churns out 789 horsepower.

As impressive as that is, a quick round of mathematical gymnastics may still be in order, especially when you bring the Valkyrie AMR Pro into the discussion. See, Aston Martin launched the race-spec version of the Valkyrie at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year with the disclaimer that it would have a hybrid powertrain that produces more than 1,100 horsepower. That’s not the interesting part, though; Aston Martin also said that the Valkyrie AMR Pro would have more power compared to its road-going counterpart.

It’s possible, then, that even if the road-going Valkyrie does have 1,130 horsepower at its disposal, not all of it will come from the naturally aspirated V-12 engine. The V-12, by itself, could be responsible for producing 1,000 horsepower, but the rest of it could be provided by a hybrid system. Even if Aston hasn’t announced the official output figure, this scenario is more likely to be the case rather than the V-12 accounting for all of the car’s power output.

Still, that’s not going to change what the Valk's V-12 engine is capable of. Even if it can only produce 1,000 horsepower on the dot, it would still beat the Ferrari 812 Superfast’s output of 789 horsepower by a whopping 211 horsepower. Maybe Cosworth had the right idea when it posted its tweet. Even if it got the numbers mixed up, the Valkyrie would still ascend to the top of the mountain as having the most powerful naturally aspirated engine of any road-spec model in the world.

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