FIRST DRIVE! Aston Martin VICTOR Flat Out In £4m V12 Manual Hypercar!

Wow this is a moment I can't believe I'm driving this so hello welcome to the Stowe circuit at Silverstone the mic might be picking up there's a real F1 car test in the background we've got a live Valkyrie . We're doing some development at Stowe Circuit and today, as far as highlights of the year go, we're about to

drive

this one of an Aston Martin Victor. Now, no doubt, at this point, you've all probably seen pictures of this, let me tell you. you and I say this all the time the camera is not doing this justice to the sculpture the aggression of it the flares the details it has exposed beautiful push rod suspension work with carbon fiber stays you have this enormous amount of sculpture aerodynamics feeding the fans and air intake and generally I love this kind of retro nouveau vibes inspired by the 80s outlook, however that's where it stops because what it really is is a hybrid of wait

aston

martin

177

aston

martin

.

Vulcan with a slight handful of Valkyrie components, I mean, as far as a melting pot of wishlist parts goes, this thing is up there, so where do things start 177? Actually, it's below. It is based on a completely renovated Aston Martin 177 carbon fiber monocoque. and that's not where the naturally aspirated v12 ends, of which it runs on 7.3 liters, it is also derived from the 177, however it was kindly sent to Cosworth, who sprinkled some magic on it and elevated the original 177 engine from 750 horsepower to 836 horsepower naturally aspirated British V12, what a phenomenal thing. Now, on the Vulcan side of the components, you'll conveniently notice these side exit exhausts here straight from Vulcan, but the big news, the big news, follow me here.

That thing down there you'll see three pedals in the middle you'll see a shifter that's right this is an 836 brake horsepower v12

manual

the brakes are actually racing brakes so it'll be very interesting to see how This car handles the road. About the racing brakes, what a phenomenal thing. Well, I mentioned earlier that there were some Valkyrie-inspired components in this car. Now,

first

of all, the fascia and the design of these wheels, they came from the Valkyrie program and they have this incredibly delicate diamond on them. The front lip, the front fascia of the wheel, beautiful in itself, are 20 inches and shod with a 20 inch rubber Michelin Pilot sport cup.

Now, the meaning of this is that since the Valkyrie program was introduced, you may have recognized the trend that when asked to get serious in the performance department, they generally shot their wheels with Michelin Valkyrie was developed exclusively with Michelin Vulcan tires when I drove the Gumball rally converted road car that also had Michelin PS4 tires and now this one that has a set of 20 inch sticky cups, I'm really looking forward to seeing how these things feel and as a partnership, It's pretty cool to see this stuff trickling down from the Valkyrie to a road car like this, even though it's a one-to-one road car, but Very cool, I think it's surprising considering it's got a 7.3 liter V12, it's a pretty compact unit, right?

Isn't that what I would say? However, when you're in the car, you'll notice that the size of the dashboard is something you can probably compromise on. A small plane would suggest how much of this V12 is under the dash, almost making it what feels like a front mid-engined V12. If you look at the end of the hood, you wouldn't think the engine would be that far back. So that will make the balance of this feel wonderful once again, something that has been inherited from 177 and Vulcan and if there is a section of this car that screams 177 it is probably one of the most iconic trunk decorations of all time , which of course is the pushrod suspension inherited from the 177 program, there are these exposed carbon fiber struts, you can see all the coilovers, the billet engineering, the adjustable shocks that you can adjust through these beautiful carbon-coated holes. leather in the trunk with its own viewing window, as if the suspension had glass. to show off is absolutely incredible, so we're here for the

first

ride, we'll bring you lots of sexy footage as we go, but we're all here to see how this sounds, right?

By the way, just to set a little more context, the importance of the side exit exhausts is that they are directly in line with your head, which when you sit down is probably a meter away, so let's talk about direct injection into the ear. holes, okay, there's a different theme here of tan and green, it's almost a British racing green and it turns out that my phone cover matches and goes conveniently in that beautifully saddled phone holder, now the carbon fiber theme is an incredible sculpture, it's just the smell of something different. leather with details that fill your eyes, you could look around this car 10 times and on the eleventh time see something completely different, it's a pretty unique headliner, it's not alcantara, it's like a really nice feeling, it's all Aston Martin logos embossed Dortan on these beautiful seats, it actually looks like an adaptation of the v600 seats and it really is a hybrid, it's a complete mix of all kinds of cars I've had and I still can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth but once I did the gumball rally in an Aston Martin Vulcan I was the only one that became a road legal car and I'm on this, there's a lot of that flooding the steering wheel to start with and then the pedal box.

We have this racing pedal box. Down here, it's funny when this car was released and I saw it online, it was kind of a divided opinion, not everyone was a fan of it, I think the fact that it exists is a miracle anyway, enough talk, take this Let's go for a walk, okay? In fact, I'm going to do something that I think is more than appropriate because roll down the window so my left ear can appreciate some of this, oh the Vulcan memories are coming back slightly intimidated, but last time I didn't have one of these right there . let's find out what this clutch is like, it's actually totally fine, this is a moment, this is a moment I can't believe I'm driving this right now, so the things you can't Google in the first place, the 836 sound because it developed from the apex is hilarious it's actually done yeah those brakes if I was using this on the road I would trade them for road brakes I mean it's oh my god now the steering is Lightweight, the front end actually has a noticeable amount of grip.

I don't really like the slower stuff that much, a little bit of understeer and the slower stuff, but it probably just needs a little bit more temperature in these tires, listen to it, just listen to it, yeah, racing brakes you'd like to change them when you get cold . the track, but now roll these windows back up, the steering feels interesting, the steering is actually quite light, it probably looks more like a 177, actually, I guess that's the road friendly side, that's the side off the road, there's this crazy juxtaposition really of part feels like a round car and then the brakes like that feel like a race car and to be in something of this magnitude with a

manual

gearbox, well, it's quite a bit, too It takes a bit of adaptation, actually, I mean, I never thought I could imagine saying this, but I still have an element of muscle memory from having spent some time in the volcano driving around Europe and it's very strange to feel a platform that is quite similar with a manual gearbox.

Imagine this on the road, I mean. It's pretty wild because it's in this here on this race track what you wouldn't want to do is stop at the traffic light make it sound like a number 10 and that's not cool, okay, for a purpose, now you'll notice that it did. They don't squeak when braking, that's because we're actually reaching some good speeds, the kind of speed these brakes are designed to operate at when they're warmed up, they don't squeal as much. The sound is absolutely defining, well, it's incredible. To be in such a privileged position to see one of these let alone

drive

it.

I just want to say a huge thank you not only to Aston Martin but to the owner of this amazing and unique machine. It's something to behold, honestly, another thing that I think I said it when I was driving, but I never thought I could relate a previous experience to driving something as unique as this, but after being in an incredible position in Gumball a couple of years to remember what it is like. driving a vulcan to translate those experiences into something like this, I mean there are so many shared reactions, sounds, smells, vibrations, it all comes back, but it's in a much more refined package, the vulcan really was basically a track only car and that from one that managed to be road legal, it didn't really change, it just had all the boxes checked to be road legal, this inside is refined, it's beautiful, the steering weights are a little more road friendly road and the manual, the manual experience feels that 177 engine base, I mean, what are we? 7.3 liter navigation 12 and you can hear every one of those revs because it builds the crescendo because if you have those side exit exhausts it resonates on both sides of your head, the sound is incredible, yeah.

It's just a piece of craftsmanship with an incredibly exotic foundation, so I hope this is the start of a series of special projects, so if there are potential people with very wide imaginations and very deep pockets, I implore you to get in touch with q division and find out what could be your dream vehicle because it could be so crazy or if you want to take it to the next level 11 like this, as always, thank you very much for watching, see you next time, ciao you.