In less than 48 hours, the victorious drivers of the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, which starts at 16:00 tomorrow, will step out onto a brand-new podium. The podium inaugurated today is sponsored by Rolex, major partner of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH recently ventured on track for the first time, marking the beginning of a thorough testing phase for the British make – stage one of the quest to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year.

Developed by Aston Martin Performance Technologies in partnership with US team The Heart of Racing, the <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/aston-martin-to-race-two-valkyrie-hypercars-at-the-2025-24-hours-of-le-mans-58803" target="_blank">Valkyrie AMR-LMH</a>

performed a shakedown and an initial assessment last week. Drivers Darren Turner, Mario Farnbacher and Harry Tincknell were at the wheel of the British Hypercar.

The shakedown will be followed by a full development programme to prepare the car for FIA homologation this autumn, ready to race in 2025. Heart of Racing will be entering two Valkyrie AMR-LMHs in the FIA WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: &ldquo;The Valkyrie AMR-LMH sets its own standard as a thoroughbred endurance competition car. &nbsp;It is a pure, leading edge racing machine, and while it is very early in the testing cycle, from what we have witnessed so far, we are satisfied that it is achieving the targets and criteria we have set out for it to accomplish.&rdquo;

<h2>European tour this summer</h2>

The Valkyrie AMR-LMH is fitted with a modified version of the Cosworth RA 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine. In its standard version, the engine torque is 11,000 rpm with an output of over 1,000 hp. The powertrain has been improved and adjusted to fit the Hypercar class performance range. It has also been developed to cope with the constraints of endurance racing. The Heart of Racing, which recently set up its FIA WEC headquarters in Silverstone, near Aston Martin Performance Technologies, is responsible for developing the car. The Valkyrie will be tested on circuits throughout the UK and Europe this summer, and performance will be the main focus.

The Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James said: &ldquo;The first runs for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH have been an immensely proud moment in the programme. The birth of this project has been a couple of years in the making, so to get it to the track and to see it going around in the flesh, feels momentous for The Heart of Racing. We&rsquo;re looking forward to the journey ahead &ndash; it&rsquo;s a steep hill to climb for everyone involved in this project. We are at the pinnacle of sportscar racing, the competitors are formidable, and they have been doing it a long time. [...] We know we are going up against the best, so we intend to represent Aston Martin at the same level. I believe, from what we have seen so far, and with the DNA of where this car came from, we have the right tools to be able to do this successfully.&rdquo;

With the Hypercar entry, Aston Martin will be the only manufacturer to compete across the board in sportscar racing &ndash; from Hypercar to GT4 &ndash; as well as in the FIA Formula One championship. 
See the gallery below for pictures of the shakedown.

Shakedown for the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH

Selected to drive at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (11-24 July) the 1974 winning Matra MS670B, a gem in the 24 Hours Museum's permanent collection, four-time victor Emanuele Pirro spoke of his passion for the history of the Le Mans classic.

One week after resonating at&nbsp;the Bugatti&nbsp;circuit for&nbsp;Classic Days, the magnificent high-pitched sound of the Matra MS670 B 3L&nbsp;V12 from the 24 Hours&nbsp;Museum could be heard across the&nbsp;Channel at the Goodwood&nbsp;Festival of Speed. Who better&nbsp;than a previous Le Mans&nbsp;winner from the land of bel canto to take the wheel?

Italian driver Emanuele Pirro is a certified legend of the 24 Hours with five wins in the 2000s with Audi. He is always up for celebrating the iconic race&nbsp;through regular participations in the Le Mans Classic&nbsp;or driving one of the jewels of the 24 Hours Museum just a few days ago.

Emanuele Pirro:&nbsp;I first want to thank the 24 Hours Museum and the ACO as&nbsp;it is a huge privilege to be able to drive this car. It is a thrill for me and for the crowd watching it because it is very unique. I am passionate about automobile technology. I feel there are certain periods and certain cars where the technology is cutting-edge, and this Matra has&nbsp;aerodynamic&nbsp;technology which makes it very special. Its engine has also made its mark on history, as did my&nbsp;friend, Henri Pescarolo, and&nbsp;G&eacute;rard Larrousse, president of the drivers&#39; club.

Which car(s) stood out to you at the 24 Hours of Le Mans before you even took your rookie start?

I did my first&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans very early on in my career, in 1981 (at the age of&nbsp;19 in a&nbsp;Lancia Beta Montecarlo, Ed.), during my second season. My first dream&nbsp;cars at the race date back to&nbsp;1970-1971 with the&nbsp;Porsche 917, the&nbsp;Ferrari 512 S and&nbsp;M, and the&nbsp;Ferrari 312 PB. Le Mans was&nbsp;special for the top speeds before the chicanes were installed&nbsp;(in the Mulsanne Straight, Ed.) and aerodynamic advancements have always fascinated me. Having said that, I don&#39;t like to choose one era over another. It&#39;s not just about technology, but also development and know-how, which have been crucial throughout the history of the&nbsp;24 Hours.

Which other cars from the&nbsp;24 Hours would you like to drive?

I&#39;ve never had the chance to drive the&nbsp;917 and that is something I&#39;d love to do due to its historic value; and the&nbsp;Porsche 962 as well. I raced it in Japan in 1988.

Do you appreciate winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans more when you&#39;re a student of its history?

That&#39;s why the diesel engine&#39;s first win&nbsp;(in 2006, with teammates&nbsp;Frank Biela and&nbsp;Marco Werner, Ed.)&nbsp;was so special.&nbsp;Audi took that technology to an extremely high level. Before that, everyone thought of big trucks when it came to&nbsp;diesel. It was a significant project for&nbsp;Audi and that&#39;s what made it outstanding.

How&nbsp;does being part of the history of the 24 Hours inspire you today?

Honestly, it&#39;s a strange thing for me because I was such a fan as a boy. I realise I&#39;m part of its history, but I feel it differently. When I watch other drivers, and other cars, I see the entire history of the race through the lense of a die-hard enthusiast and that&nbsp;passion is still alive in me like when I was a kid. Driving&nbsp;a car like the Matra at a certain age&nbsp;(Pirro is now 62, Ed.), I try to live it&nbsp;like the drivers and engineers of the era in terms of preparation and the race. It must have been really incredible.

Just a few moments after this interview, Pirro slid into the&nbsp;cockpit of Pescarolo and Larrousse&#39;s&nbsp;Matra MS670B for yet another unforgettable Le Mans experience.

PHOTOS (Copyright - Louis&nbsp;Monnier/ACO): GOODWOOD (U.K.), GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED, 11-14 JULY&nbsp;2024. Photos of Emanuele Pirro&#39;s visit to the U.K. (from top to bottom): preparing with the&nbsp;Matra MS670B from the 24 Hours&nbsp;Museum; speaking with Jacky Ickx (at right) while signing autographs for young&nbsp;fans; taking on the legendary Festival of Speed ​​climb.

Emanuele Pirro: "passion [for the 24 Hours} is still alive in me like when I was a kid"

Since the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class was introduced at the 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring in 2014, scores of drivers and teams have taken advantage of this affordable, competitive route into the world of endurance racing.

After five seasons (2015&ndash;19) with the 5.0-litre Nissan VK50 V8 engine and five more (2020&ndash;24) powered by the 5.6-litre VK56 V8, the ACO has announced that the LMP3 class will switch to the Toyota V35A, a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, from 2025.

This is the powerhouse&nbsp;that drives the Lexus LS500. It develops 470 hp (15 hp more than the outgoing Nissan) but is more frugal on fuel, and quieter too. The new engine, built and prepared by Oreca, will be homologated until the end of 2029, offering manufacturers and customer teams visibility and stability for the next five seasons.

The third-generation LMP3 will be introduced into the ACO&rsquo;s championships in 2025, beginning with the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and Le Mans Cup (LMC) at the start of the season, and followed by the 2025&ndash;26 Asian Le Mans Series. Partner championships running under official ACO licence will switch to the new generation from the start of the 2026 season.

The current four LMP3 chassis manufacturers &ndash; Ligier,&nbsp;Duqueine Engineering, Ginetta and Adess &ndash; have been kept on for the new homologation cycle. Among the technical details revealed, the third-generation LMP3 will boast an upgraded cooling system, wiring harness and body.

The total outlay will be &euro;299,000 for a full car &ndash; &euro;209,800 for the chassis and &euro;89,200 for the powertrain. Retrofit chassis and powertrain kits for second-generation cars will also be available with a price tag of around &euro;60,000 each.

Subject to manufacturer production schedules and the homologation calendar, teams should begin to take delivery of the first cars in the third quarter of 2024.

ACO announces next-gen LMP3 from 2025

A permanent 24 Hours Museum fixture, the Matra MS670B winner in 1974 is set to make an appearance at one of the major summer classic competition car events: the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the U.K., from 11-14 July.

The car will be in very&nbsp;capable hands for the occasion. Charismatic living legend&nbsp;Emanuele Pirro is counted among the five most successful drivers at Le Mans&nbsp;with five wins to his credit (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 and&nbsp;2007), and is known for an undying&nbsp;passion for the race&#39;s history. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Italian will take the wheel of an iconic car and symbol of the&nbsp;French motorsport revival in the 1970s.

Bringing to fruition a journey that&nbsp;began in 1966, eight years later Matra became&nbsp;the only French manufacturer to achieve&nbsp;three consecutive victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, all with the MS670 prototype that first&nbsp;appeared on the scene in 1972..

Starting from pole position in&nbsp;1974 in the #7&nbsp;MS670B,&nbsp;Henri Pescarolo/G&eacute;rard Larrousse held the lead from the first to the final lap, but the team did not have any easy go of it.

<h3>Trackside Repairs</h3>

By&nbsp;Sunday morning, Matra had lost two of its four cars after the nearly simultaneous retirements for&nbsp;Jos&eacute; Dolhem/Jean-Pierre Jaussaud/Bob Wollek (#8) and&nbsp;Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Jean-Pierre Jarier (#6) due to failed engines during the night.

In the&nbsp;19th hour, Pescarolo was enjoying a 60-minute&nbsp;advantage on the&nbsp;Porsche Carrera shared by&nbsp;Jigs van Lennep/Herbert M&uuml;ller when he came to a full stop in the Mulsanne Straight with gearbox troubles. The man in the famous green helmet pulled over, got&nbsp;out of his car, raised&nbsp;the bonnet and managed&nbsp;to engage a gear with his foot&nbsp;which then allowed&nbsp;him to return to pite lane slowly...

When the #7&nbsp;Matra retook the track, its lead had dwindled down to three&nbsp;minutes, but&nbsp;M&uuml;ller and&nbsp;van Lennep in turn encountered problems&nbsp;during the last hours of the race. In the end,&nbsp;Pescarolo/Larrousse won with a six-lap advance, clinching their second consecutive win, and the former entered the race&#39;s hall of fame as the only French driver to triumph three years in a row.

Half a century later,&nbsp;the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an immensely&nbsp;popular event for competition cars from all eras and all major motorsport disciplines, will serve as an ideal setting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the victory secured by&nbsp;one of the gems of the 24 Hours Museum.

PHOTO (Copyright - Michel Jamin/ACO): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), BUGATTI CIRCUIT,&nbsp;JULY&nbsp;2019. The&nbsp;MS670B from the 24 Hours Museum hits&nbsp;the track for&nbsp;the 2019 Le Mans&nbsp;Classic Days entrusted to two-time winner with Matra,&nbsp;G&eacute;rard Larrousse, in 1973 and 1974.

The 24 Hours Museum's winning Matra MS670B on its way to Goodwood

The iconic podium has been coveted by every driver of the 24 Hours of Le Mans since its introduction in the early 1960s. It symbolises the ultimate achievement,&nbsp; the attainment of the Holy Grail: the moment they grasp the winners&rsquo; trophy in their hands.

At the end of every race, the crowds descend on the track to mingle with their heroes. For this 92nd edition, the Automobile Club de l&#39;Ouest (ACO), creator and organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, wanted to heighten this special moment. The new podium is angled towards the track and the grandstands to create a more immersive experience of the ceremony for the crowd. 
 
The new podium has been sponsored by Rolex, major partner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the FIA WEC, after the three parties renewed their alliance in 2023. It is one of a series of structural projects implemented by the ACO to enhance the spectator experience.&nbsp; 
 
The modern-look podium has kept the historic symbols of the famous race with the flags and the clock at the end of the platform, and features a huge 20 x 5m LED screen to broadcast content to the grandstands opposite. The new podium was officially opened today, Friday 14 June 2024, by Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO, and Arnaud Boetsch, Director of Communication &amp; Image at Rolex.

24H LE MANS

Discover the new 24 Hours of Le Mans podium

Related News

Shakedown for the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH

Emanuele Pirro: "passion [for the 24 Hours} is still alive in me like when I was a kid"

ACO announces next-gen LMP3 from 2025

The 24 Hours Museum's winning Matra MS670B on its way to Goodwood

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