Video: Hear the Aston Martin Valkyrie's 1,000bhp V12 engine scream

The car for such a mighty engine? That would be the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Aston’s “F1 car for the road” and the inspiration of F1 design guru Adrian Newey. Such a  car was always going to have something special sitting amidships and, with new information and pictures released by Aston today, we can now see just how special.

Designed and built for Aston to Newey’s spec by Cosworth, the engine follows F1 practice in being super-light and a fully stressed member of the Valkyrie’s chassis; as Aston says, take it away and there is nothing joining the front wheels to the back.

The V12 also follows F1 tech in having an electric hybrid side – details on that additional power boost yet to come – but lacks one thing that virtually all modern road and race cars have: a turbocharger.

“To anyone with a drop of petrol in their blood, a high-revving naturally-aspirated V12 is the absolute pinnacle,” says Aston chief Andy Palmer. “Nothing sounds better or encapsulates the emotion and excitement of the internal combustion engine more completely.”

Here is the new engine, by numbers:

11,100rpm: maximum engine revs

10,500rpm: peak power

7000rpm: peak torque

1000 brake horsepower (or 1014PS)

740Nm: Max torque (546 b ft)

206kg: weight of engine

153.8 bhp-per-litre: specific output

65 degrees: angle of V12

6.5 litres: engine displacement 

6 months: time needed to machine, grind, heat treat and finish one crankshaft out of a solid steel bar so it weighs half as much as the crankshaft in the One-77’s V12

“Despite the apparently insurmountable challenges it presented, there was never any question that the Aston Martin Valkyrie would make do with anything less,” adds Andy Palmer. “From the outset the team at Cosworth were unflinching in their commitment to achieving benchmarks which pushed the boundaries of the possible. The result is a quite extraordinary engine. One which I doubt will ever be surpassed.

Other Valkyrie numbers – weight, cost, performance – are yet to be confirmed. Speculation centres on 1,000kg, £2-3million and enough performance (and downforce) to be as fast as a Le Mans prototype on a circuit – while still being able to take two people on a touring holiday in air-conditioned comfort.

Aston has said in the past that first deliveries of the 150 road cars (and 25 track-only cars) will be made in 2019.