THE HYPERCAR CONUNDRUM

WHO ARE THESE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR, ABSURDLY FAST VEHICLES ACTUALLY FOR?

SITTING IN THE Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro with a pro driver is an experience only slightly less violent than a fistfight. I'm squashed into the passenger's seat next to Andy Priaulx, former World Touring Car Cup champion and one of the AMR Pro's development drivers. The savagery of the g-forces and the rate at which corners appear and vanish in the narrow windscreen make the Valkyrie feel physics-defying, a quality my sagging neck muscles do not celebrate.

As I clamber out of the cockpit, I'm exhausted and elated in equal measure. This is Florida in the summer at the road course of Homestead-Miami Speedway. Even Priaulx is looking sweaty as we return to the pits. I'm buzzing with adrenaline but also questions, the biggest being not why but rather who-as in, who will have the $4.3 million necessary to buy an extravagance like this and the free time to develop the strength and skill to drive it at speed for any period?

It won't compete, but in terms of performance, the AMR Pro is a sharp-end race car. It was spun from the road-legal Valkyrie, itself one of the most extreme vehicles, to show how fast you could go without regulatory restrictions. Its Cosworth-built 6.5-liter V-12 was shorn of hybrid assistance (and emissions controls) to make 1000 hp. The AMR Pro pits that power against less than 2200 pounds of mass. Insiders hint at more than 6000 pounds of peak downforce, though Aston is coy about the figure. When Formula 1 maestro Adrian Newey announced the project in 2016, he promised a car that would be as fast as an LMP1 racer around a circuit. After this ride, that promise is delivered upon.