When Aston Martin announced the limited-run Valour, the world got excited. It’s a fantastic, engaging, exciting car. It also wasn’t quite enough for F1 World Champion and Aston Martin Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso. We caught up with him at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed to talk about his new company car: the Valiant.
The whole thing came about when he asked if he could make some changes to his Valour – he wanted aerodisc wheels, more advanced aero, lightweight materials and a more hardcore feel. None of that was really possible, so Aston Martin made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. As he told us: “We reviewed the list of things that I wanted to change, and they said… maybe it’s better to make a full new car, with a new name, and we can make it a limited edition.”
“More or less, everything that we asked for is in the car,” beamed Alonso, who swiftly moved on to cutting weight, and how the F1 and road-car teams used motor sport thinking to shift 100kg from the Valour.
“The interaction between [the two divisions] has been closer than ever for this car. In terms of using some of the materials that we use in the F1 team, some of the weight savings that we do… are on the highest part of the car, because you can lower the centre of gravity.” He noted that usually on a road car project such as this you can get a few kilos here and there by lopping little bits of heft in strategic places, but 100kg? That’s tough.
The aero set-up he wanted was also tricky: “The aerodynamic devices on the floor – the front splitter and the diffuser – were a challenge. It’s not difficult for a track car – but for a road car, which needs to go over speed bumps…” The same goes for some of the bodywork, and plenty more. Road cars need to be more than outright speed machines after all. “Some of those [elements] were a question mark whether it was worth putting those into a road-legal car. But in the end, everything came alive.”
After taking the Valiant up Goodwood’s famous 1.17-mile hillclimb he was impressed, but also keen for another go because, well, he was rusty: “I didn’t remember it properly! I did it [Goodwood Hill] 20 years ago, so when I arrived I wanted to go again. I need another run to explore its potential more.” He noted that the Multimatic dampers impressed him, as did the V12 noise: “It’s a very special way to feel the car, and transmits the passion that you have behind the wheel.”
The choices made – lightweight wheels with aero covers, aggressive but beautiful aero, a manual ‘box with exposed (and apparently ‘challenging’ to bring to reality) gear linkages – all point towards a car built for ‘proper’ drivers, of which Alsono is very obviously one.
“I think the final product is a piece of moving art,” he mused. Watching it do its thing up the hill… he’s right.
Read the full tech spec of the Aston Martin Valiant here and our first drive of the Valour here.
