Aston Martin ( ARGGY ) is now offering customers one of the most efficient cars in its century-long history.
Valhalla is not just a hypercar. It’s a mission statement, a financial lifeline, and, as it turns out, a truly incredible machine to drive. Starting at just over $1 million, it sits at a crossroads — big enough to trade punches with the Ferrari ( RACE ) F80, but composed enough to, in theory, drive it to get its dry cleaning done.
Anyone who would actually be is beside the point. The real question is whether this unprecedented beast can raise cash for Aston Martin buyers.
Pull into a Valhalla, and people stop. They may look at a typical luxury car in an appreciative, not humble, way. stop
The car looks like someone took a Daytona prototype, narrowed it down a bit, and made it street legal. Deeper lower air dominates the nose. A prominent intake scoop rises from the roofline to feed the rear-mounted engine. And then there’s the wing – a giant rear spoiler that fully deploys in race mode, adjusting in real time to generate 600kg – more than 1,300 pounds – of downforce.
It’s purposeful rather than good aesthetics, though the line between those two things quickly blurs at this level of exotic.
Under the carbon hood (behind the driver, of course) is Aston Martin’s most sophisticated powertrain to date. A 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank V8 — and if you’ve heard one of those, you already know why it matters — is paired with three electric motors in a plug-in hybrid system that has nothing to do with fuel economy.
Two motors sit on the front axle, one per wheel, enabling true torque vectoring. The third integrates directly with the transmission, handling the torque dip during gear changes and covering the gap before the turbos spool. Combined system output is 1,064 horsepower, down from the F80’s incredible 1,200hp.
The results on the track are astounding. Valhalla is fast, frighteningly fast, but never feels hostile. Front torque vectoring is key.
Overcook a corner and the system reads the situation, turning the outside front wheel to turn the car and pull it back into line. It shrinks around you, feeling smaller and more docile than its display numbers suggest. Combined with a perfectly flat cornering attitude and zero perceptible push, it’s a serious track weapon.
The suspension architecture helps: Formula One-style pushrod double wishbones up front with inboard-mounted springs and hood (a nice piece of engineering theater), rear multi-link dampers. Active aerodynamics round out the package — a system so effective it’s actually banned in most forms of motorsport, though Formula One has only recently begun exploring it.
