Aston Martin Valhalla review: SIX years after it was announced... has Aston bested the SF90 and Revuelto?

Finally… you’ve driven the Valhalla.

Yes, hot on the heels of its 2019 announcement, the Valhalla is finally here. Almost. Clearly this is still a prototype. A few more months, we’re promised. What we have here, says chief engineer Andrew Kay, is “100 per cent finalised for hardware, about 85 per cent for software”.

But we’ve driven it and the news is good. Great, actually. Aston has managed to pick a line between rivals such as the Ferrari SF90 XX and Lamborghini Revuelto to create a supercar that feels like nothing else in the class, despite having a very similar technical template.

Explain the underpinnings to me.

Well, like both Italians it mates an internal combustion engine with a trio of electric motors – one between engine and gearbox and one each for the front wheels. Like them it has a carbon tub and a twin clutch gearbox – Aston’s first ever. Thanks to those electric motors the Valhalla is also Aston’s first ever 4WD sports car. We don’t count the DBX 707, amusing as it is.

It develops 1,064bhp and 811lb ft. 247bhp of that comes from the e-motors, the rest (817bhp) from the AMG-sourced 4.0-litre twin turbo V8. Which barely has any AMG about it these days, seeing as Aston has reworked intakes, exhaust and engine internals. And no, your eyes don’t deceive you, there are two exhausts in the normal place and two more poking out the back deck. The internal routing must be mad. The latter are the quiet pipes, while bigger noises come straight out the back. We just wish those noises were better.

More on that please. But first, how fast is it? What does it weigh?

Back when the Valhalla was first announced (initially as the RB-003) in 2019, it was going to be powered by a 3.0-litre twin turbo V6 with Valkyrie-style KERS hybrid and weigh 1,550kg. Given it now sports a pair of extra cylinders and full plug-in capability for 8.7 miles of e-range (the first Aston ever to be able to drive on electric alone), a weight increase of 115kg to 1665kg, isn’t bad.

OK, that’s a dry weight in lightest trim, so you’ll be looking at 1,800kg, but again that’s ballpark for SF90 and Revuelto. And so is performance, with Aston claiming 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and a 217mph max.

What’s going on with the aero?

There’s a lot of it, that’s what. First the stuff you can see. The rear wing rises 255mm on hydraulic stanchions in Race mode and then pivots up and down at will to act as air brake or to bleed off drag. For instance the Valhalla develops 600kg of downforce at 155mph, but above that speed reangles the wing to maintain that, rather than develop more.

Meanwhile under the front another active wing acts in co-operation with the rear. None of this is stuff we haven’t seen before, but a lot of it is new to Aston. As Kay told me, “we’ve put an awful lot of technology into the car, and the car’s really a statement of intent of where Aston is going – following the direction Lawrence Stroll has set – pushing more for performance, more for technology.”

Come on then, what were your first impressions?

Firstly, that the car it most reminds me of visually is the AMG One. Something to do with the 90s Group C vibe maybe, less edgy and be-slatted than most modern stuff, more covered-up and fuller surfaced. Means Aston has to do clever stuff to get the heat out of the engine bay – check out the YouTube film for more geeky detail on that, as Andrew Kay gave me a full walkaround.

Anyway, the carbon doors swing up to create huge apertures that cut well into the roof, making access easy. Just watch how far you have to drop to the seat – Aston claims your hip point is 25mm lower in Valhalla than any rival.

Yet the view forward is good. Not quite McLaren good, but you’ve got good down-angle onto the road. Nothing out the back, you’re relying on a camera there. No issues with the driving position, which is brilliant, and the oddly shaped steering wheel only really caused issues when I was skidding about. Personally I can’t stand the chopped carbon, but if you want your cockpit to mimic the kitchen worksurface from a 90s bachelor pad, you’ll be in heaven.

Is it as compromised as a Valkyrie inside?

It’s a world away. The engine isn’t rigid mounted to the bulkhead here, so shrieking noise and vibration have been banished. It’s not only calm but spacious enough for two with elbow room to spare. There’s a cupholder on the centre console, a bit of stowage too, and usefully large lidded door pockets.

Unfortunately the Valhalla has torn an unwanted page out of the Valkyrie’s owner’s manual. There’s no boot. Or frunk. Or anywhere else to put so much as a change of undercrackers. This is a mistake Ferrari made with the SF90. We didn’t expect to see Aston repeating it with the Valhalla.

Why is it such an issue?

Because unlike the Valkyrie, the Valhalla would lend itself beautifully to long trips. From what I can tell on track, it rides really nicely on its Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers (mounted on inboard pushrods and visible through the bodywork). There’s a bit of roll in the softer modes, it feels calm and composed and I reckon it would be really fluent down your average French N-road. It’s the kind of car that feels designed to do a road trip in a way the more urgent SF90 doesn’t quite. And yet Aston has tied the Valhalla’s hands behind its back and that’s annoying.

OK, what about the real driving, then?

I drove it on track at Stowe circuit, Aston’s test facility inside Silverstone. It’s a tight triangular circuit, with a pair of short straights and a good wiggly section. When Aston launches the car proper it will do so on a proper fast downforce circuit where it can really hit its stride.

However, Stowe is a good test of traction, engine response, torque, gearshift and brakes. And despite the track’s compact dimensions the Valhalla still manages to hit over 140mph down the back straight.

Yep, it’s perfectly capable of delivering big speed. But the engine is the weak link in the package for me – odd, you may think, when it’s usually the strongest part of an AMG. But here, as in the AMG GT Black Series, it’s configured with a flat plane crank, which does away with the iconic V8 roar. And in being mounted behind it seems to have lost its voice. It could be a V6. It doesn’t stand out or grab you. And the 7,000rpm limiter is just too low – I kept hitting it as the powertrain was still in its sweet spot, pulling hard.

Don’t get me wrong, it hits immediately and hits hard, but it doesn’t pack quite the same low down wallop as the SF90, nor dig itself out of corners with quite the same tyre-tearing urgency. And it doesn’t sing anything like as beautifully as the nat asp V12 in the Lamborghini.

It does speed fine, but could do with more drama, more sense of crescendo. But the powertrain is also smooth, obedient and you get the feeling it would be effortless on-road. It’s easy to overlook these less glamorous elements, but they make a big difference to the car’s usability. Apart from an occasional shunted gearshift from first to second that I’m sure will be sorted before production, the transmission had no issues dealing with the complex hybrid powertrain.

I’m guessing the chassis is the star here?

It completely is. You sit so low and snug in the Valhalla that you assume it’s going to be properly hardcore, but it’s way more usable than that. There’s a bit of bodyroll – enough that I found myself ramping up through the modes to stiffen the suspension and gain a bit more turn-in bite. Even when I did it rounded off bumps well and remained composed and stable.

No matter how hard I hit the brakes or accelerator, it didn’t upset the chassis’s balance. Until I wanted it to. At which point I discovered the Valhalla has an enormous skidding sweet spot. Still 4WD, but the blending of electric front axle with petrol rear is done superbly well. I know that’s irrelevant outside the world of social media but it speaks to a wider truth: this is a friendly, playful car, rather than a locked down track monster.

But what if I want to go chasing lap times?

Change the tyres. I only drove the car wearing the standard Michelin Pilot Sport 5 S tyres. If you’re going to be doing more track work Aston offers Cup2s (and magnesium wheels for you weight weenies out there).

Grip was limited on the PS5S’s – tasked with managing 1,064bhp they were always going to be the weak link and I suspect you’ll need the Cup2’s to really unlock the chassis’s capability. But still I don’t get the impression the Valhalla would lose its fluidity and flow on the Cup2s. The steering is accurate, it’s not afraid to allow a bit of movement into the chassis which means it communicates more naturally and clearly with you. And you feel good in there, sat low amongst the wheels as you charge around.

So you liked it then?

I really liked it. I can pick a few holes in it dynamically – the steering’s a bit light on weight and feel for instance – but the software’s only 85 per cent remember, Aston is still nailing down the last lines of code.

But despite its lack of luggage space I think it’s a car that understands its role and position better than the Ferrari SF90. It’s not as savage and reactive as the Ferrari, nor as anarchic and mad as the V12 Revuelto, but on this evidence it’s better balanced and smoother to drive than either of them. And like the Valkyrie it’s also got a real sense of occasion to being in it and around it.

The last sticky bit to talk about is the price. Because while the Lambo starts at £450k and the SF90 XX at £673k (£733k if you want the Spider), Aston is up beyond both of them at £850,000. I know it’s a limited edition with only 999 being built, but for a firm that’s never built a car in this class before, to go in at the top of it is a punchy move. Especially for a company with well publicised financial wobbles.

But the supercar/hypercar divide is a tricky area, one where price isn’t decided by power and performance so much as exclusivity. If Lambo was only building a thousand Revueltos they’d be charging the earth for them. If McLaren wanted to sell a few thousand W1s rather than 399, they couldn’t be £2 million each. Aston just has to hope that demand will outstrip supply.

Does the Valhalla justify its price?

Not with that chopped carbon cabin. Happily you can replace that with the proper woven stuff instead. But put that to one side and let’s be serious for a second. Aston dealers are going to have to do some persuading to convince wealthy buyers that the residuals will hold up. The Valkyrie has done good work there, so things are heading the right way.

It boils down to this: has Aston Martin risen to the challenge of developing a top end supercar? Yeah, it really has. The Valhalla isn’t a copycat, but a genuinely exciting new supercar that can go toe to toe with the Italians. It feels different, special. And more than that the Valhalla feels like a genuine Aston Martin. It’s not far off as exciting to sit in and be around as the Valkyrie, yet has the same comfort and usability as one of the front engine coupes. Luggage space aside.