The Aston Martin Valkyrie Will Spawn A New Range Of “Incredible” Cars

Looks like the Aston Martin Valkyrie will be the first of many limited-run hypercars built with Red Bull.

The much-anticipated Aston Martin Valkyrie will form part of a new hypercar generation powered by race car technology alongside the Mercedes-AMG Project One and McLaren BP23 hypercar. While the 1,130-hp Valkyrie looks like it will represent the pinnacle of performance possible in an Aston Martin road car, it will apparently be the first of many “incredible” new hypercars to come as part of its expanded partnership with Red Bull, which is collaborating with Aston Martin to develop the Valkyrie.

Autocar reports that Aston Martin’s “Innovation Partnership” has been strengthened in a deal that will see both companies collaborate on future products and Aston Martin serving as the F1 team’s title sponsor. While no details have been released about the products Aston Martin and Red Bull will collaborate on, the British automaker referred to the Valkyrie as the “first in a line of incredible products” following the new agreement, suggesting that more limited-run hypercars with extreme performance will follow the Valkyrie after it launches in 2019. To develop these new cars, a new Aston Martin Advanced Performance Center will open later this year.

It will be based at Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keyenes, UK, and house around 110 new Aston Martin staff working as engineers and designers on these new sports cars. Aston Martin has already announced plans to develop a mid-engined supercar to rival the Ferrari 488, but it isn’t clear if this is part of Red Bull’s collaboration. CEO Andy Palmer is also considering entering Formula One as an engine supplier, but not until new technical rules and regulations are in place in 2021. “We are not about to enter an engine war with no restrictions in cost or dynamometer hours, but if the FIA can create the right environment, we would be interested in getting involved,” he said.

View the original article here

Five Cylinder Cars May Be Rare, But They Sound Absolutely Incredible

Here are our five favorite five cylinder cars.

Some of the most common engine types are the inline-four, V6 and V8s. Exotic cars have the occasional V10 or V12 and some economy cars have tiny three-cylinder engines, but that is basically the full-range of engine types (we didn't forget the rare rotary). Five-cylinder is a much less common engine type that only a few manufacturers have ever embraced. Audi really made the five-cylinder catch on with the mighty Sport Quattro, and the VW Group has been doing good things with these engines recently. Here are our five favorite five cylinders of all time.

Audi has most recently reminded us of why we love the five-cylinder engine so much. The TT-RS and RS3 both use a 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine that sounds like a supercar. This engine sounds like a mini R8, and is definitely the best sounding in its segment.

The new Ford Focus RS has been hyped up because it is the first RS model to finally be sold in the US. The current car has a 2.3-liter turbo four-cylinder, but the old car was powered by a 2.5-liter five-cylinder turbo engine that was engineered by Volvo (which Ford owned at the time).

Alfa Romeo has finally returned to the US, but the 159 is an Alfa that the US never received. The car was built on a FWD platform and came with a variety of engines. One of the most unique engines was the 2.4 JTD diesel engine that produced 207 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. This is one of the best sounding diesel engines of all time.

The Audi RS2 wagon is one of the cars that we are most upset about the US never receiving. The car was codeveloped with Porsche and was powered by a 2.2-liter inline-five with 311 hp. When it came out, it was one of the quickest cars in the world to 30 mph thanks to its impressive AWD system.

Before Fiat returned to the US, it built a car called the Coupe Turbo. It was a simple name that described exactly what the car was. The Fiat Coupe Turbo was powered by either a 2.0-liter four or five cylinder engine. The five-cylinder produced 217 hp and 229 lb-ft of torque and was one of the fastest FWD cars at the time.