Aston Martin Valhalla: A brilliantly calibrated hypercar that won't make you deaf and won't try to kill you
Aston Martin's first production mid-engined hypercar is the most accomplished car they've ever made.
What have we here?
Something rather special. It’s the Aston Martin Valhalla, the first ‘series-production’ mid-engined car Aston Martin have ever produced, and their first PHEV. A total of 999 will be built — so rather more than the Valkyrie, with which it shares some similarities in shape. Other major differences lie in the fact that unlike the Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie, the all-in-house Valhalla can be driven every day without making you deaf, and it won’t try to kill you quite as often. It’s not a knuckle-dragging racing car with a number plate, it’s a brilliantly calibrated hypercar that is equally able on road and track.
One imagines it’s quite fast and expensive…
Correct on the first count. On the second, it’s all relative. The Valhalla boasts 1,067bhp, 817 of which comes from its Mercedes AMG-derived, Aston-modified 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. The other 250bhp comes from three electric motors; two on the front axle, one on the rear mated to the dual-clutch transmission (another first for Aston). Top speed is 217mph and it’ll hit 62mph from standstill in 2.5 seconds. It costs £850,000, which is twice as expensive as the similarly thrusting Ferrari 849 Testarossa and Lamborghini Revuelto. However, they are comparatively common or garden supercars, rather limited-edition hypercars.
What makes a hypercar? As well as speed, it’s down to rarity, technological innovation and extraterrestrial design. At 999 units, the Valhalla will not be quite as rare as the McLaren W1 and Ferrari F80. However, it’s £1.25m cheaper than the McLaren and £2.35m less than the Fezza. A bargain, really.
How come it doesn’t have a massive spoiler?
Actually it does, but it’s shy. The active aero is triggered when ‘race’ mode is selected, and the massive wing emerges from where the boot might be in a regular Aston. It raises 255mm and moves between air brake, drag reduction and a whole variety of settings in between. There’s also a full-width front wing that pops down from the underbody like an inverted F1 car’s, but which is completely hidden from view. It switches on the turning vanes and feeds the rear diffuser. The Valhalla’s body is riddled with apertures; negative spaces carved out not for aesthetics, but for pressure management. Air is guided, accelerated, split and recombined with a level of intent that would have seemed outlandish from Aston a decade ago. Ferrari has finally met its match.
Wasn’t this car in a Bond film already?
Well spotted. An early prototype appeared in No Time To Die, a blink-and-you’d-miss-it cameo set in the bowels of MI6 (turns out Q has his own full-scale wind tunnel). That movie was shot in 2019, which was five prime ministers ago. It’s a timeline that has also seen four different Aston Martin CEOs, hinting that political upheaval is not restricted to SW1A. The Valhalla’s gestation has been elephantine, but against all odds it has been seen through to reality. I’m thrilled to report it’s been worth the wait.
So it’s nice to drive, then?
It can make you look like a driving God. The active aerodynamics bend the air to the car’s will, automatically transitioning from the slipperiness of a bullet to generating 610kg of downforce. Ploughing in and out of corners, if you’re brave enough to divert your eyes from the upcoming corner to the rear view mirrors you’ll see the wing dancing around like a matador’s muleta. The electric motors fill torque gaps, stabilise the chassis, and subtly rewrite the laws of physics at the front axle. Unseen is torque vectoring wizardry that can keep all that power planted by delivering the oomph to the wheels individually, along with a hugely adjustable electronic stability control system that lets you select how much yaw and slide you’d like to experience through the turns.
Most impressive is the Valhalla’s composure, the ease with which you can drive it on the road and on track, and the level of comfort and quality that would allow you to drive it every day on any tarmac. In Sport and Sport+ modes I found it to be a thoroughly able cruiser. Perhaps its greatest strength is the ride quality. Aston could have built a car that generates 1,000kg of downforce if they wanted, but they haven’t because that makes for a rubbish road car. The Valhalla ingeniously bleeds off its downforce above 150mph so it doesn’t overwhelm the suspension. It’s a perfect balance.
On the road: Aston Martin Valhalla
Price: £850,000
Top Speed: 217mph
0-62mph: 2.5 seconds
Power: 1,067bhp
Economy: 20mpg (or 9-mile all-electric range)
Did you get a lot of attention driving it?
I drove it in northern Spain, where I witnessed a young man at a zebra crossing whose jaw nearly shattered on the pavement when he saw the car, and who grabbed his skull with both hands as if to prevent his brain from exploding. That’s the reaction you would hope for.
Would I like sitting in it?
If you’re used to the ambrosial leather and polished walnut of 20th century Aston Martins, I’m not sure you would. It’s rather austere. The square-edged instrument screen and touch screen don’t feel very integrated on account of the scuttle being so low. The massive dihedral doors require long arms and some muscle to open and close — my poor mother would be trapped inside. Ingress and egress are surprisingly easy — there’s loads of space to swing your legs. The exposed carbon-fibre seats are praiseworthy: skeletal with thin soft padding that’s in all the right places. The seating position is excellent and at least 20mm lower than its rivals.
Storage space is less than a mouse’s bedsit. There is no boot, just a couple of tiny cubby holes in the cabin. This rather spoils Valhalla's tremendous potential as a continent-crushing hyper-GT, but I suppose you could always send your trunks ahead with your valet. At the end of the day, it can’t be a Tardis. The lack of luggage room is a result of the inboard suspension springs, e-motors, hidden spoilers and the engine behind your back. You’re buying it for that, not its practicality.
Is there anything else wrong with it?
The steering wheel has been optimised for road use rather than track. There are buttons on the central arms for the usual everyday stuff, and I kept accidentally pressing them as I grappled with the wheel through tight turns. You don’t want to lose your rev counter and gear graphic and replace it with the radio station while pulling a few Gs through a corner, especially when you might rely on the shift lights so as not to snag the abrupt rev limiter. It sneaks up on you. Also the big indicator stalk looks like it would be more at home in a Mercedes S-Class. Jeremy Clarkson will disagree with me here, but on a quick-steering car like this I prefer to have Ferrari-style indicator buttons on the steering wheel that I can tap with my thumbs.
Finally, I’m not sold on the sound. That’s due to the flat-plane crank — a compact motorsport-derived solution which is lighter and higher-revving. The downside is they’re not known for their musicality. The Valkyrie’s normally-aspirated V12 sounds like Pavarotti stepping into a scalding bath. The turbocharged V8 Valhalla sounds less Luciano, more like an X Factor finalist doing yoga. It’s a little muffled and strained and difficult to get excited about.
Ok, the most important question: What colour should we buy it in?
That tension between aggression and elegance is the car’s defining aesthetic. Order it in a restrained colour is my advice. I’d go for a nice shade of silver or green, with the Valhalla’s grille in silver too, not black, to reinforce that handsome David Brown DNA and make it look that little bit more Aston-y. For a long time silver was the most popular colour for Astons, of course, but now it’s green. Formula One’s Fernando Alonso now has more influence than Britain’s most famous fictional spy; a sad indictment of our national defence capabilities.
Is that a reference to our Royal Navy having a depleted fleet of just 63 vessels, none of which work properly?
How did you guess.
But you like this car? You would say it’s a good car? You would not laugh or cry if your friends were about to buy one?
This is the most accomplished Aston Martin ever made. And given Aston Martin is the coolest car brand in history, this is a car I like very, very much. As an investment, there are better options. Too many are being built to enable you to flip it for £2 million in two years, for example. You may even lose money. But next to the Ferrari F80, it represents outstanding value. It’s also, dare I say it, much classier than your average hypercar. I don’t know anyone who’d be embarrassed to be seen in it.
