WHAT IT IS Developed off the back of the extreme, Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie hypercar, the Valhalla is Aston Martin’s second mid-engine production car and its second hybrid. The Valkyrie cost $3 million and only 275 will be built, yet the Valhalla will be a part of the lineup for some years to come, Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll says. The Valhalla will still be expensive and exclusive, however—it will carry a high six-figure price tag, and 999 will be produced.
WHY IT MATTERS The Valhalla was originally intended to be the link between the Valkyrie and a higher-volume mid-engine Aston Martin sports car—the Vanquish—which was intended to compete with cars like Ferrari’s 296 GTB and the McLaren 750S. But the mid-engine Vanquish program has been axed, and the name will now be used on a successor to the front-engine, V-12-powered DBS; as a result, the Valhalla will now be used to highlight Aston Martin’s Formula 1 effort. It will also form the basis of several hand-built, special-bodied cars Aston plans to release each year. “It will ultimately come in many variants, not just the one we’ve introduced,” Stroll says.
PLATFORM AND POWERTRAIN The Valhalla shares elements of the Valkyrie’s carbon-fiber chassis, but not its shrieking V-12. Instead, the Valhalla will have a 1,012-hp hybrid powertrain based around a mid-mounted flat-plane-crank version of the Mercedes-AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8. Most of the output will be funneled to the rear wheels via an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, though Aston engineers are also looking at twin front electric motors to help with performance and handling. Target curb weight is 3,640 pounds, and the car is expected to produce as much as 1,400 pounds of downforce at 150 mph.
ESTIMATED PRICE All of this insane performance doesn’t come cheap. Expect pricing to begin somewhere in the $800,000 range to start.
EXPECTED ON SALE DATE Figure on a market arrival sometime in 2024. And we’re betting they will all already be spoken for by then.
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