Henry Catchpole has been waiting a long time to drive the Aston Martin Valhalla. When he first saw a prototype it was still called the AM-RB 003 and it was slated to have a V6. Now it has a 4-litre twin turbo V8 as part of a 1064bhp PHEV drivetrain that has three electric motors. Costing £850,000 (or about $1.1million) it both competes with and sits somewhere between a Lamborghini Revuelto or Ferrari SF90 and a McLaren W1 or Ferrari F80. Is it a supercar or is it a hypercar? Probably a bit of both. But it’s definitely a step forward for Aston Martin.
Today Catchpole is driving the prototype around the Stowe Circuit at Silverstone, on the doorstep of the Aston Martin Formula One Team’s HQ. And that’s appropriate because much of the Valhalla’s development has been carried out with the help of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, the engineering arm of the F1 team. In particular the carbon fibre elements, which include the monocoque and the bodywork, and the active aerodynamics, which can generate up to 600kg of downforce, have the hand of AMPT on them.
The Valhalla’s top speed is 217mph and it has a claimed 0-62mph time of 2.5sec. Testing out both those figures is off the table this time, but we do get to try the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and the air brake as well as both Sport and Race modes. Turning off the traction control it is also possible to see how the Valhalla’s torque vectoring allows it to behave on the limit and over it – with such massive performance, can it also be fun?
As well as getting behind the rounded-rectangular wheel of the Valhalla, we talk to Andrew Kay, the Chief Engineer on Valhalla, Miles Nurnberger, Director of Design at Aston Martin and Product Manager Tom Barker, who takes us through the myriad ways you can spec your Valhalla. We try everything from an absolutely base car with no options, to traditional 007 DB5 Silver Birch, to some really wild colour combos.
What are your thoughts on the Aston Martin Valhalla Prototype? Let us know below.
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