How Would You Configure Your Aston Martin Valhalla?
Race car brash or restrained elegance? The choices are nearly endless, and we got to see the decision-making process up close.
Aston Martin calls its new mid-engine Valhalla the son of Valkyrie. “It’s a supercar with hypercar attributes,” explains design director Miles Nurnberger as we look over a prototype in the lobby of Aston Martin’s VIP customer center, at the front of the factory where just 999 Valhallas will be hand-built.
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In simple terms, Aston sees the Valhalla, the price of which will start at about $1.02 million (excluding any Trump tariffs) as the bridge between its mainstream cars – Vantage, DBX, DB12, and Vanquish – and the ultra-exotic, barely streetable, $3 million Valkyrie. It certainly looks the part. And the hardware under the skin promises performance to match.
The Valhall’s plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain delivers a total of 1064 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque. The AMG internal combustion engine accounts for 816 of those ponies—at 204 hp per liter, it has the highest specific output of any engine fitted to an Aston—with the three e-motors contributing a total of 247 hp. That’s grunt enough to zoom the Valhalla from zero to 60 mph in fewer than 2.5 seconds on the way to an electronically limited top speed of 217 mph.
The artfully surfaced upper body overlays racecar-style spoilers and side skirts, flics and diffusers. The central air intake on roof eliminates need for big intake scoops on bodyside, which gives the car a very clean profile. It also allows for the surface between the crown of the rear fender and the roof to be hollowed out, improving airflow to the two-piece active rear wing as well as reducing visual mass. The hood and front fenders appear detached from the rest of the bodywork, their outer form disguising vents and venturis designed to channel are under the car, around the front brakes, and along the bodysides.
Specialists at Aston Martin Performance Technologies (AMPT), the consulting arm of the Aston Martin Aramco F1 team, helped define and refine the Valhalla’s aerodynamics. And as with an F1 car, the aerodynamic devil is in the detail: Those flics in the side skirts just ahead of the rear wheels, for example, aren’t there for show. They genuinely increase downforce. AMPT engineers also honed the Valhalla’s active aero system, which can vary the angle of attack of the wings at the front and rear of the car to help maintain aerodynamic balance across a broad performance envelope. The Valhalla’s aero hardware and software help it develop more than 1,320 pounds of downforce from 149 mph through to 217 mph.
The Valhalla’s teardrop cabin sits proud of the body, just like on a Le Mans Hypercar. The view from behind the wheel is a lot like that of a Le Mans Hypercar, too. The header rail is quite low, and windshield bulges forward, supported by contorted A-pillars. The doors cut deeply into roof. They angle forward when opened, to reduce the chance of banging you head when getting in and out.
You don’t exactly need the limbo skills of a pro race driver to get behind the wheel, but more generously proportioned owners will find the Valhalla’s cabin a very tight fit. There’s ample leg and headroom for drivers over 6ft tall, but you sit inboard, nestled up against a narrow center console, snugged in hip-hugging one-piece lightweight carbon fiber seats, your feet at the end of raised footwells that set your ankles closer to your H-point. The firewall separating you from that snarling V-8 is right at your shoulder blades and the back of your skull. It’s an intimate place.
There is a cupholder and two small storage compartments under the armrests in the doors. And that’s it, in terms of luggage capacity. If you want to road-trip a Valhalla you’ll be doing it solo, your soft overnight bag jammed in the passenger footwell.
As you’d expect, Aston Martin Valhalla customers can have their car painted and trimmed exactly the way they want. Their first decision, says Valhalla product manager Tom Barker, will be whether to have the carbon fiber body painted. If they want the full carbon look, they can then elect to have a gloss or matte finish. Beyond that, Aston’s in-house personalization shop, Q by Aston Martin, can add a blue, red, green, or purple tint to the finish.
If you want paint, there are 60 base colors to choose from, and if none of those appeal, Q can paint to sample or create bespoke shades or tints in six to 10 weeks. The Valhalla can also be finished in several shades of Q Ultra paint that delivers wild three-way color flips, though as Q Ultra paint is hand sprayed, the factory can only do two cars a week. On top of that, Aston offers a choice of six standard livery themes – combinations of contrasting stripes and highlights – though Q will do bespoke liveries, too. Three different interior environments are available: all Alcantara; Alcantara and leather; all leather.
Decisions, decisions... To get an idea of what’s involved when ordering a Valhalla, Aston Martin invited MotorTrend to specify one at Gaydon, in the room where customers get to look at actual paint and leather samples and then see them put together in life sized, high-resolution exterior and interior renderings on a screen that covers an entire wall. The exterior renderings can be set in 11 different digital environments, from the Amalfi Coast to New York City to Silverstone and the Las Vegas F1 track, to give the customer an idea of how their car might look in landscapes or lighting scenarios that might be familiar to them.
We ended up configuring two cars to show the different moods of Valhalla. The Digital Purple car has a Vivid Orange livery—Theme 4—and exposed carbon fiber on the roof, lower bodysides and around the tail. The wheels are the optional forged magnesium alloys (26 pounds lighter per wheel than the standard forged alloys) in textured titanium finish.
Inside, the leather cushions on the seats are trimmed in Dark Knight, a dark blue, with orange contrast stitching, and purple highlights are used on the rotary knob and on what Aston calls "the ampitheater line" that runs up the doors and around the dash.
A wafer-thin Aston Martin badge—just 70 microns thick, in fact—embedded in the clear coat on the nose just like on the Valkyrie is the finishing touch. This a race-face Valhalla. The number 76? A nod to the fact MotorTrend celebrates its 76th birthday this year.
The Ghillies Green used on the other car is a classic Aston Martin color, and it inspired a Valhalla with a more measured vibe. It has a black roof and the subtle Theme 3 livery in Copper Bronze that’s echoed by Q-rendered bronze highlights on the diamond cut faces of the forged alloy wheels. Those bronze highlights are picked up in the interior, which features another goodie from Q’s box of tricks: seat cushions trimmed in a replica of the vintage tweed used on 1950s Aston Martin sports racers.
Race car brash, or restrained elegance. Decisions, decisions… even if this peek into the process of buying one of the rare Astons is as close as we'll ever get to, well, that process.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More