Aston Martin Valkyrie 05
Aston Martin Valkyrie 04
Aston Martin Valkyrie 03
Aston Martin Valkyrie Michelin 01
Aston Martin Valkyrie Michelin 02
Feann Torr15 Mar 2017
NEWS

Aston Martin confirms mid-engine sports car family

CEO Palmer confirms new range of mid-engine models to take the fight to McLaren

Aston Martin boss Dr Andy Palmer has told motoring.com.au that his company will launch a range of mid-engined sports cars.

The cars, which will arrive early in the new decade, are built to take on McLaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.

They will be the first mass-produced mid-engined cars from the storied British sports car marque and will build on momentum from the Valkyrie hypercar announced in 2016.

"To go rear/mid-engine is a new paradigm [for Aston Martin]. And we'll always do the GT cars, so the Vantage the DB and the Vanquish will always exist, but this [new mid-engine family] allows us to put another string on our bow…" said Palmer.

"We've fundamentally never done it before. You can find [mid-engine] one-offs in our history but Valkyrie is the first time we've done a big series of mid-engines."

Aston Martin Valkyrie 03

The development of the new mid-engine family of sports car will be led by Max Szwaj, the company's new chief technical officer whose last employer was – surprise, surprise – Ferrari.

Palmer admitted that the engine configuration has not yet been decided for the first mid-engine Aston Martin sports car, but said the AMG 4.0-litre V8 that will work its way into the new Vantage among other models is unlikely.

"As it's anticipated today, basically it's front-engine only," he said of AMG-supplied engine.

"We haven't fixed the engine strategy but it'll be something capable of being built on our line. So there are constraints simply because we're not going to invest in a whole new engine machining line for one series of cars.

"So it needs to be capable of being built on the V8/V12 line," he said.

Aston Martin Valkyrie Michelin 01

Production of the first mid-engine Aston Martin sports car is expected to begin in 2021, after the current DB11, next year's new Vantage, the 2019 Vanquish and 2020 DBX crossover models are released.

"Basically you can work out where it is: it's the fifth car [in our range] and we do one every year. It's in play right now," stated Palmer.

The upfront Aston chief implied the new mid-engine models would fall under the AMR (Aston Martin Racing) high-performance production car sub-brand along with the Valkyrie hypercar, which were launched at the 2017 Geneva show, while unifying the brand's transition to incorporate mid-engine sports cars.

"Think of it in the context of the Valkyrie mid-engined car. It gives credibility to our plan for a whole series of cars. If we came straight to market with a [McLaren] 720S competitor, people will go "why is Aston doing a mid-engine car? They're history is in front engines".

"But having done Valkyrie first in the context of AMR, creating what I hope will be the car of the decade, suddenly you’ve got a lot more credibility to allow that to flow down. So AMR is important in that building context."

Aston Martin Valkyrie 04

Don't expect the Valkyrie's baby brother
When quizzed over the similarities between the Valkyrie and the new series of mid-engined Aston Martin sports cars, Dr Palmer was unequivocal.

"There won't be, in this generation, a car of that complexity and that price. We're going to build down from that [Valkyrie] on to a great mid-engined series of cars," he explained.

"I don't deny some of the DNA will flow down, but it won't be a car of that complexity. The Valkyrie is unique, it's the pinnacle. Otherwise you're being disingenuous to those people who've spent that money."

The platform that sits underneath the Valkyrie will not be used on other upcoming cars. Even so, developing a new mid-engine platform with former-Ferrari technical maestro Szwaj is not the British brand's biggest challenge.

"The dilemma for us is that we don't yet know how to make a beautiful mid-engine car," said Palmer, "because mid-engine cars may be handsome and may be fashionable, but they don't conform to the rules of nature.

"And a lot of them age quickly, they don't have that timelessness to them. Maybe Dino probably ages very well, but look at a Testarossa today, you love it for what it is but it's not a beautiful car any more, in the contemporary sense.

"So how do you bring that sprinkle of DB5-ness to a mid-engine configuration and make that timeless? That's the conundrum we have to solve."

Palmer said the company's chief creative officer, Marek Reichman, was struggling with injecting a high dose of 'Aston' into the exotic new sports car.

"He's got a number of quarter-scale clay models he's doing and then binning, and then doing. He hasn't found a solution. That's what keeps him going, what brings him into work every morning," smiled Palmer.

What's coming from Aston Martin calendar:
2017: Vantage AMR Pro
2017: Rapide AMR
2017: Vantage AMR, V8/V12
2017: DB4 GT "continuation" vintage car
2018: Vantage
2018: DB11 Volante
2019: Vanquish
2020: DBX
2020: Lagonda
2021: Mid-engine sports car

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