Aston Martin Valkyrie: Secrets of exterior and interior design revealed

The cockpit’s upper body surfaces and lower tub contours follow the envelope of space available between the huge Venturi tunnels that run either side of the cockpit floor. Drawing huge quantities of air beneath the car to feed the rear diffuser, these tunnels are the key to generating the Aston Martin Valkyrie’s extraordinary levels of downforce while keeping the upper body surfaces free from additional aerodynamic devices.

The hypercar’s seats are mounted directly to the tub to maximise interior space, with occupants adopting a reclined ‘feet-up’ position reminiscent of today’s Formula One and Le Mans Prototype race cars.

Although the design of the car is focused on aerodynamics and downforce, the Valkyrie also features other unique details. Among the most striking is the headlights, which take inspiration from the raw functionality of a Formula One car’s components. Aston Martin’s designers stripped things back to the bare essentials, celebrating the engineering rather than concealing it behind cladding. With the low and high beam elements attached to an intricate exposed anodised aluminium frame, not only are the headlamp units a work of art, they are also 30-40 per cent lighter than the lightest series production headlamps available to Aston Martin.

The same approach has been taken with the Aston Martin ‘wings’ badge that adorns the nose. With the regular badge considered too heavy, and a simple sticker not befitting for a car of the Aston Martin Valkyrie’s prestige, the Aston Martin Design Team came up with a chemical etched aluminium badge just 70 microns thick. That’s 30 per cent thinner than a human hair, and a remarkable 99.4 per cent lighter than the regular enamel wings badge. The badge, nicknamed the ‘lacewing’, is then attached to the painted body and covered with a perfectly smooth coat of lacquer.

“I would say we’re around 95 per cent of the way there with the exterior design,” said Aston Martin Creative Director of Exterior Design, Miles Nurnberger. “Much of what you see is actually the structure of the car, so this had to be signed-off relatively early in the project. The remaining areas of non-structural bodywork are still subject to evolution and change as Adrian [Newey] continues to explore ways of finding more downforce.”