Aston Martin Confirm They Silenced the Valkyrie During Testing

Aston Martin pulled the curtain back on the hotly-anticipated Valkyrie program on Tuesday evening, revealing the liveries and driver lineups for both the IMSA WeatherTech series and the World Endurance Championship

The anticipation for seeing the Valkyrie finally hit the track to race competitively is arguably the biggest story of the 2025 IMSA/WEC season. The Heart of Racing and Aston Martin passed on debuting the LMH machine at Daytona, instead opting for the opening round of the WEC in Qatar to put the car on track competitively for the first time.

The Valkyrie project has been years in the making, and major credit is due to The Heart of Racing for spearheading the movement to turn the road-going sports car into a prototype racing machine that can compete in the highest levels of endurance racing. The major allure of the car is the potential to hear the thunderous roar that comes from the 6.5 L Cosworth naturally-aspirated V-12 monster that serves as the motor for the car. 

In the previous months leading to this point, multiple outlets have captured footage of the Valkyrie testing on track - at Silverstone, Road Atlanta, Bahrain, Sebring and other places around the world - and fans were left a bit dismayed at the fact that the car didn't sound like we all thought it would sound. It was muted, due to what everyone figured was a silencer placed on the exhaust.

AMR and THOR were coy whenever they were pressed about the sound as they danced around the question and chose to focus on the actual development process of the car rather than confirm or deny that a muffler installed during testing, and if they would actually have the ability to truly unleash the beast by the time it came to racing. Well, as it turns out, we have nothing to be afraid of anymore. 

Speaking to the media at the car's reveal, Aston Martin's head of endurance racing Adam Carter confirmed that AMR and THOR did in fact use a muffler on the exhaust when running tests these last eight-or-so months in order to avoid any trouble from officials when it came to breaching noise decibel limits. As we inch closer to the debut of the No. 007 and No. 009 in Qatar and a month later in Sebring with the No. 23, expect to hear the full power of the engine unleashed.

"When it first started running we were over-suppressed in terms of noise, we took a safe position in terms of silencing. The worst-case scenario is to get stopped in testing due to breaching noise limits," Carter explained.

"We over-compensated, so part of the development programme, which has been driven purely by performance, has been to reduce the silencer size. It reduces the weight, the inertial loading on the exhaust, the underbody blockage and helps with cooling. In turn, this has unleashed more of that beautiful soundtrack. I'm really looking forward to hearing it in Qatar out on track.

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LET'S GOOOOOOO!

It's a shame that the car didn't debut at Daytona, but we all understand how important every last second is to developing the car. AMR and THOR both expect to be competitive once the car deploys against its counterparts but we'd be crazy not to expect the same growing pains that come with any new sports car or prototype machine hitting the track for the first time. 

Even still, they can have all the time they want really when it comes to ironing out the kinks and finding their optimal racing conditions because hearing these things speed around A Track Near You is going to be so badass we'll forget all about the struggles they'll surely run into right out the gate. None of that matters in the short term! What matters is our (their) plan - to blow the nips off everyone standing trackside when the car rolls past them at top speed. Everyone get ready!