The Valkyrie — a hypercar-derived V12 monster with no turbocharger, no hybrid, and 11,000 RPM of naturally aspirated fury.
Every other car in the GTP class uses a turbocharged engine with a hybrid electric motor. The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro uses neither — it relies entirely on a naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 revving to 11,000 RPM. This is a fundamentally different engineering philosophy, producing a screaming, high-revving engine note unlike anything else in the field.
One Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro competing in GTP class
THOR stands for Team Hart Official Racing, and the team operates Aston Martin's factory GTP program in IMSA. Aston Martin is the legendary British sports car manufacturer best known for its road cars — and for being James Bond's vehicle of choice. Their motorsport arm has produced GT and prototype racers for decades.
The THOR team launched the Valkyrie's IMSA debut at Sebring in 2025. Running a completely unique car in a field of conformist LMDh machinery is a bold statement — and it demands both technical courage and deep development resources.
Ross Gunn has been an Aston Martin factory driver for many years and provides deep institutional knowledge of both the team and the car. Roman De Angelis, from Toronto, Canada, represents one of Canada's finest GT talents and has grown within the Aston Martin factory program over several seasons.
The Valkyrie started life as one of the most extreme road cars ever conceived — developed with Red Bull Advanced Technologies (the engineering arm of the F1 team) and powered by the Cosworth-built naturally aspirated V12. The road car produces over 1,000 horsepower from a 6.5-liter V12, revving to stratospheric RPM figures.
The AMR Pro racing version takes the Valkyrie's extreme aerodynamics and powertrain and adapts it for endurance competition under the GTP/Hypercar ruleset. Unlike the LMDh cars, the Valkyrie does not use a hybrid motor — its equivalence of technology (BoP, or Balance of Performance) is calibrated against the hybrid cars using fuel flow and weight adjustments to level the playing field.
The car is visually extraordinary — impossibly low, with massive aerodynamic surfaces including an aggressive front splitter and a rear diffuser that generates remarkable downforce. At speed, the Valkyrie creates such a large aerodynamic footprint that ground effect becomes a significant factor.
For spectators and fans, the Valkyrie offers something unique in a field of turbocharged V6s and V8s. The naturally aspirated Cosworth V12, revving toward 11,000 RPM, produces one of the most visceral engine sounds in modern racing — a high-pitched scream that recalls the golden era of GT and prototype racing. Standing at the circuit's edge when the Valkyrie passes is a genuine sensory event.
The Valkyrie races under a different technical pathway than the LMDh cars. While all GTP cars are governed by the same Balance of Performance (BoP) rules to ensure competitive equality, the Valkyrie (as a Hypercar-derived machine) took a different technical route to homologation. The BoP system adjusts weight and fuel flow to equalize performance across different architectures — a clever, if sometimes debated, leveling mechanism.
Roman De Angelis was born in Toronto, Ontario, and has risen through the Aston Martin factory ranks to become one of the marque's top GT drivers. He has competed in the FIA WEC and various European GT championships, bringing international endurance experience to the THOR team's North American program.
Balance of Performance (BoP) is a system used in multi-manufacturer racing to equalize competitiveness between cars with different technical specifications. Regulators adjust weight, fuel tank capacity, fuel flow, and power outputs so no single manufacturer's car has a systematic advantage. The Valkyrie's V12 non-hybrid approach is equalized against turbocharged hybrid LMDh cars through BoP adjustments — making the race about driver skill and team strategy, not purely engineering superiority.