Is The Aston Martin Valkyrie A Landmark Hypercar?

Now that Aston Martin has delivered plenty of Valkyries to customers around the world, it finally let a handful of journalists put the insane hypercar through its paces. Henry Catchpole was one of those journalists and he is behind a fairly epic video from Hagerty featuring the Valkyrie.

There’s no doubt that the Formula 1-inspired Aston Martin is something very special. Catchpole notes at the start of his video that it has all the right ingredients to be considered as a landmark vehicle in the history of high-performance cars, sitting alongside greats like the Lamborghini Miura, McLaren F1, and Bugatti Veyron. But, is it actually as pivotal in the history of the automobile as these greats?

Watch: Go For A Ride In The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro With F1 Driver Nico Hulkenberg

Much like Chris Harris, Catchpole had the chance to drive the Valkyrie at the Formula 1 Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. He also spoke with James Manners, the head of vehicle engineering for the Valkyrie, to learn some interesting details about the car.

One of the intriguing design features of the car is the windshield wiper. Because the car has what Aston Martin dubs a ‘double compound’ windshield, a conventional wiper wouldn’t work so it spent a year with the same company behind the wipers from the space shuttle developing something that would work.

Catchpole then heads out onto the circuit. He is immediately very impressed with the car and notes that despite the odd seating position and the small size of the cabin, the Valkyrie has surprisingly good visibility. While getting up to speed in the car takes a bit of time, he is able to gradually push and properly explore the performance potential of the car.