The way I see it, these are the possible scenarios for Valkyrie Track Pack:
- As I mentioned above, AM lied about downforce and their claims for the standard car really are stats of the Track Pack.
I don't even want to believe this. It'd be very disappointing if true.
- Track Pack has more potent aero (than standard car's claim), peak df number stays identical but is reached at a lower speed.
It could be capped to something like 1,100 kg at 200 kph (equivalent of 1,700 kg at 250 kph). This would make it faster in the slow corners. But it's nowhere as crazy as some journalists have reported the downforce of the Track Pack to be (Lieberman said it has 1,900 kg peak
).
<< This is the most likely scenario.
- Track Pack has more potent aero (than standard car's claim), and the peak df number is higher.
This means they are cutting it even closer to the tire limit, and now the safety margin is something like 500 kg.
This could mean peak of about 1,300 kg at 220 kph (equivalent of 1,700 kg at 250 kph).
Couple of extra wacky theories:
- The bottom of the car was said to be designed by Newey and the top half of the car designed by Miles Nurnberger. I'm thinking that Track Pack is closer to the original Valkyrie proposal, with more design input from Newey. Aston Martin decided against this and went with the more elegant final design instead.
The existence of the Track Pack is a concession made by Aston Martin, to let Newey have his concept as an option.
- Track Pack was engineered around bespoke tires (slicks) with higher load rating. Sadly AM's dire financial situation meant they had to cancel this plan, as they couldn't afford any further development. But they wanted to recoup some of the already spent money, and so they offered the kit to customers anyway. After all, it's still faster than the standard car, but without proper tires it's essentially like having Usain Bolt compete in racewalking.
- Both the standard car and the Track Pack were meant to be much lighter than 1,355 kg wet. Imagine if they managed to keep it to about 1,100 kg instead (in fact their weight target was 1,000 kg).
They could then easily afford almost 1,400 kg all the way up to 250 kph on the very same tires. Now, this would make it quite extreme. So much so, that this would warrant existence of a separate version for the most hardcore customers, while everyone else would get much more conservative car.
As the development went on, the cars got heavier and more stringent caps on downforce had to be introduced. Yet somehow the Track Pack managed to find its way into production.
BTW, one thing I've never understood about standard Valkyrie, and what I've never seen anyone attempt to explain, is why there's different df limits for braking and cornering. Active aero limits df when cornering to 750 kg up to 220 kph (equivalent of 968 kg at 250 kph). If 1,100 kg of df is safe for braking, why isn't it safe for cornering?
Is it just the weight transfer putting more load to one side only?
I would understand limiting cornering downforce if they were only working the inside half of the aero elements (two front wing elements, two rear spoiler elements, two diffuser flaps), to keep more natural balance side-to-side. But I've never seen that on any of their cars. All the aero elements are synced between left and right.
but also rear vents underneath the taillights are larger.
I don't see any difference there.