The Aston Martin Victor is an 848hp manual masterpiece

By topgear, 05 September 2020

We bet you weren’t expecting this today. Meet the Aston Martin Victor, a one-off commission made by the company’s Q division and utilising a greatest hits package of learnings from the One-77, Vulcan and Valkyrie hypercars. Yowzer.

Knowing where to start is tough, but let’s go bottom up. Underpinning the whole thing is a refurbished carbon monocoque chassis from the One-77, which is also where the Victor’s front-mounted 7.3-litre V12 engine has been sourced. It produced 760hp when the One-77 launched a decade ago which – said no one ever – is not enough.

It’s been sent back to Cosworth for another fettle and has returned producing a significantly more terrifying 848hp (and 822Nm of torque), still without a turbo in sight. Yep, 848hp via natural aspiration. The noise is going to be good, isn’t it?

It drives the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox – in place of the One-77’s automated unit – making this the most powerful stick-shift Aston road car ever. There is a ‘bespoke motorsport clutch’, and we probably don’t need to explain why.

Helping its driver manage all of that are the inboard springs and dampers of Aston’s track-only Vulcan, with ginormous Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes and racecar-esque centre-lock wheels at the end of them.

Clothing the whole lot is a carbon body inspired by the brutish Aston Martin Vantage of the 1970s and 80s. Yet thanks to a development programme that’s utilised computer fluid dynamic testing, it produces more downforce at 160km/h than Aston’s current GT4 racecar. Probably welcome given the sheer muscle beneath.

The rear lights are inspired by those on the Valkyrie, while if you head inside you’ll find a steering wheel nicked from the Vulcan programme. The paint scheme is a twist on the green-on-tan you’d associate with a classic British sports car, the exterior a dark shade called Pentland Green and contrasted with satin carbonfibre. Despite looking burly, the whole thing weighs less than the slender One-77 it’s so heavily related to.

And the name? Following Vulcan and Valkyrie, you might presume it’s an aeronautical reference. We’re told it’s a nod to Victor Gauntlett, though, boss of Aston Martin when it launched the V8 Vantage its aesthetics have unsubtly taken inspiration from.

Quite a thing, huh. Thoughts, Internet?

STORY Stephen Dobie

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