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Valkyrie is a car conceived like no other so the maintenance was never going to be conventional. It is an extraordinarily complicated car. The sheer level of motorsport, aviation and aerospace grade components combined with staggering tech and road cars first means that the Aston Martin Valkyrie requires a level of care that is commensurate with it being one of the most significant and advanced road cars ever built.
The extreme design philosophy begins with the full carbon fibre structure and bodywork but also extends to the powertrain, transmission and hydraulic active aerodynamic systems which allow a level of performance never seen before on a road car. The two venture tunnels and modest dimension ensure that key components in the car are incredibly compact and tightly packaged and difficult to access.
Not only is Valkyrie designed and engineered differently, it is also assembled differently in order to unlock this performance. As a result, Aston Martin have developed a unique solution to servicing which is carried out centrally at the factory in Gaydon, Warwickshire for UK cars. It demands the expertise of specialised technicians who were part of the development team. They use custom-made tools and bespoke procedures that would be impractical and extremely expensive to replicate across the Aston Martin global network. Therefore, every car returns to one of Aston Martin’s facilities.
A Valkyrie oil change is a significantly more intricate process compared to any other car. Initially, the high-voltage system is deactivated, locked out and tagged out, and the cabling is methodically disconnected to facilitate access to the hydraulic circuit. Subsequently, the hydraulic circuit is depressurised and disconnected, thereby granting access to the integrated oil pump and filter unit. Due to the unique, race spec dry sump system of the Valkyrie, the old oil is carefully removed through vacuum extraction. Finally, a precise measurement of Mobil1™race oil is carefully added to the system, ensuring optimal performance.
Moving on to the hydraulic circuit. It is a core element in delivering the extraordinary performance levels of the Valkyrie. The pressure it operates under is immense, pushing up to 3000 psi and flowing up to 33 litres of hydraulic fluid a minute. It demands meticulous maintenance and bleeding procedures at each scheduled service interval.
To cope with such staggering loads, the pump is from an Apache attack helicopter. There are ten Moog valves –infinitely adjustable flow regulators strategically positioned within the hydraulic circuit, four ride height actuators, six transmission actuators, and six active aerodynamic devices.
The precision applied to the management of the active aerodynamic features mirrors the exacting standards of Formula One™ rather than conventional road cars. The aerodynamic components must be finely balanced, with an extraordinary level of precision – each actuated to within a mere 0.5mm of each other side-to-side and that is achieved within a remarkable 200 milliseconds.
This is a quick overview of what the service schedule looks like. Naturally, there are more details and procedures beyond this but it gives you an idea as to the general format. You will hopefully be getting a feel for how unconventional and complex it is to maintain. Undoubtedly, it will be more expensive to run because of the sheer level of componentry and how they need to be cared for. A conventional supercar, it is not.
We have provided a few bullet points of the service schedule, excluding the initial “run-in” service. The engine arrive fully ready from day 1 but the car still returns to the factory a 1k kilometres for an initial check.