1,000 hp street engine without supercharger

Getting 1,000 hp is easy. Just add boost and make sure the engine can handle it. The engineers at racing company Cosworth chose the hard way. They developed a 1,000-horsepower naturally aspirated V-12 engine for the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and Engineering Explained's Jason Fenske takes a deep dive into how they did it.

The Valkyrie engine (part of a hybrid powertrain) has a displacement of 6.5 liters and produces over 150 horsepower per liter. It revs at 11,100 rpm (peak power at 10,500 rpm), but is fully roadworthy and Aston says it will last about 60,000 miles before needing significant maintenance. That's quite a long life for what is essentially a racing engine.

The Valkyrie was a pet project of Red Bull Racing design boss Adrian Newey, who designed the engine as a stress component of the chassis, much like the F1 cars he pens in his day job. That means reinforcing the V-12 engine to withstand structural loads without making it too heavy. The weight of the engine reaches 450 lbs.

The Valkyrie V-12 engine does not have boost, but it does have two important elements for generating power: high rev performance and large displacement. This combination allows more air to be pumped into the engine, resulting in more power. This is the opposite of the downsizing turbo engines used in other cars, including Aston's own Vantage and DB11. These engines attempt to compensate for the smaller displacement by using a turbo to apply pressure and pump more air.

The high redline of the engine requires a gear-driven camshaft instead of the traditional timing belt and chain. To reduce noise, the gears are located at the rear of the engine. The V-12 engine also uses port injection instead of direct injection. This is because direct injection requires a particulate filter to meet European emission regulations. The engine is equipped with four catalytic converters.

For more information on this amazing engine, watch the full video. Fenske also briefly mentions the Gordon Murray T50 supercar engine, also developed by Cosworth. Like the Valkyrie engine, the T50 engine is a high-revving (up to 12,100 rpm), naturally aspirated V-12. However, the engine is slightly smaller (3.9 liters) and has lower output (650 hp).