Aston Martin’s 110 years of legacy gave us some mind-bending marvels of British engineering, but with that, the brand also saw many ups and downs, the brand had owned by 5 different owners from 1947 to 2007 but ended up going bankrupt all 5 times, but finally, in 2013 Aston Martin partnered up with Mercedes-Benz to provide engine and parts to them, so in 2016 they came up with the DB 11, which was the 1st Aston Martin built under the partnership with Marcedes-Benz and since then Aston Martin got its British GT Design essence back combined with German engineering.
And to celebrate 110 years, Aston Martin revealed the Valour, their last V12 with a manual transmission limited production supercar, inspired by the Vantage from the 80s with its silhouette inspired by the one-off Aston Martin Victor, and it is limited to only 110 units. Powers the Valour is the 5.2L twin-turbo V12 borrowed from the outgoing DBS Superleggera, which puts out 705hp and 753Nm of peak torque, and all that power goes only to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission. Being a rear-wheel-drive, the Valour puts out 10 less horsepower and 147Nm less torque than the DBS Superleggera, but unlike DBS Superleggera, it doesn’t mean to be quick but to give the driver a pure driving delight.
The front of the Valour is the modern interpretation of the Vantage of the 80s with Victor inspired headlamps with air ducts on the side, Aston Martin’s signature front mesh grill has the surrounds finished in exposed carbon and muscular bulges, a big hood scoop and 2 NACA ducts on the hood, all giving it an angrier look from the front. Moving to the side, it sits on 21″ lightweight honeycomb forged alloy wheels inspired by the Victor wrapped around bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 5s with carbon ceramic discs as standard. It also has air ducts on the front fenders to cool down the brakes, which also increases aerodynamic efficiency and the extended carbon fibre side skirts give the Velour a muscular effect from the side. Moving to the rear, the 1st thing you will notice is that the rear windshield is replaced with an aero shield to increase the downforce at the rear, and the rear diffuser looks huge with a motorsport-inspired tri-exhaust system in the middle, making it look aggressive yet unique from the rear. It also has a scooped-out rear spoiler and thin LEDs below it, which act as taillights.
Aston Martin has kept the Valour’s interior as analog and as lightweight as possible like, your centre console and elements on the dash are made out of carbon fibre, the door latches instead act as handles to open or close the door from the inside, and instead of carbon bucket sport seats, it has carbon fibre bucket seat shells with fabric paddings on them, which reduces a lot of weight, with being lightweight the Veluor’s interior is a work of art like, the gear knob is made out of wood, and the whole lever is designed as a piece of art, the Steering wheel and dashboard are inspired from the DBS and the Victor and the centre console is from the current V8 Vantage.
Aston Martin announced that all 110 units of the Velour will be different from each other because of the exterior colours, the interior materials, contrast leather, etc. All will be part of Aston Martin Q design studio, where customers can style their Velour in their style, colours and materials.
And with the Velour, Aston Martin has finally departed the V12 engine, and from now on, there will only be V8, hybrid or electric Aston Martins in the future.
