Highlighted on Cosworth’s Web site (www.cosworth.com), after what the company says has been one of the closest-guarded secrets in its recent history, are the full details of the brand-new Aston Martin Valkyrie V12 engine.

The Northampton-based company says the engine was developed to meet a simple, yet “extraordinary” brief: to create the ultimate expression of the internal-combustion engine.

“When we received the brief personally from Adrian Newey, we knew the specification would be demanding, but when we started talking about specifics of power, weight, emissions compliance and durability, we knew this would be a challenge like no other.

The result has been a partnership with Aston Martin and Red Bull that has delivered an internal-combustion engine way beyond anything previously seen in a road car.

“We knew from our experience at the pinnacle of motor-sport that the only answer was a normally aspirated engine.

“Turbocharging offers significant benefits — especially in road cars — but for the greatest driver’s car of the modern era, it had to be the uncompromising purity of natural aspiration.

"Our ‘clean-sheet’ 65deg V12 engine — codenamed RA — displaces 6.5 litres and has a certified peak power output of 1,000bhp at 10,500rev/min before going on to a maximum of 11,100rev/min.

These figures represent a world first for a naturally aspirated emissions-compliant road car.

"Its peak torque is 740Nm at 7,000rev/min, yet the engine’s performance figures will be further boosted by a battery-hybrid system.

“Furthermore, the engine is a structural part of the car, connecting the front wheels to the back, yet it weighs just 206kg — less than our last F1 engine comparatively scaled up to 6.5 litres.

"This is made more impressive still by the level of technology in the combustion system, which meant that keeping the weight down was a huge challenge — especially as we actively avoided the use of extreme material alloys so new that their properties over time are unproven.”

Aside from the major castings — block, cylinder heads, sump and structural cam covers — most of the engine’s internal components are machined from solid material.

These include titanium conrods, F1-spec pistons and a billet-machined crankshaft that starts as a solid steel bar 170mm in diameter and 775mm long.

It is first roughed out, then heat treated, finish machined, heat-treated again, gear-ground, final-ground and super-finished.

Over the six-month manufacturing process, 80% of the original bar is machined away, but the end product is a crankshaft that is 50% lighter than the one used in the Aston Martin One-77 V12.