Aston Martin is known for its CEO Andy Palmer being quite open during media engagements.
But Aston vice president and chief creative officer Marek Reichman is keeping details of the marque’s upcoming mid-engine supercar close to his chest.
However, he did spill some beans during a chat with MOTOR recently, most notably about what we should expect when the car arrives in 2020.
He says with Andy Palmer’s ‘Second Century Plan’ in place, and the long term nature of its current trajectory, the mid-engine ball has been rolling for a while.
“The vision and the jigsaw puzzle, when you fit it all together, there’s a reason we entered into F1 originally, there’s a reason we now have title sponsorship, Valkyrie sits as a very important part of that, the track-going Valkyrie, all of that lineage feeds down into the road-going car.”
While details of the car are scarce, he did say the car is “beautiful,” and made some bold claims about its expected performance.
What I can tell you is that, in terms of its performance capability it will be a true competitor to the market set at the time – whatever the 488 is, whatever the McLaren 720S is, wherever Lamborghini is, and we’re bringing in the expertise from The Company That Makes Red Cars.
Those red cars, or Ferraris, were the work of former head of innovation Max Szwaj and engine boss Joerg Ross (who most recently held the same role at Maserati).
Szwaj is now chief technical officer at Aston, while Ross holds a similar role as at Ferrari.
Also recently joining the team are dynamics veteran Simone Rizzuto (nabbed from Maserati, previously Alfa Romeo), head engineer Matt Becker (formerly of Lotus), and former McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin.
“We’re almost assembling a dream team to create this product,” Reichman said.
“So if you put that team together with beautiful design and the DNA of a Valkyrie, although a little bit further down the tree, then that’s the product you end up with.
“Something very innovative, something very beautiful, and with great handling characteristics.”
Roll on 2020.
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