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Aston Martin Valhalla: A 1,064-HP Masterpiece of Engineering and Performance “So, how was it?!” It’s a question that’s been posed to me countless times since I drove Aston Martin’s nearly $1.1 million, 1,064-horsepower Valhalla. But in the realm of modern supercar reviews, this traditional automotive inquiry has often veered into the surreal. When friends and colleagues asked about the 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla, I paused briefly before replying, “Er, exactly as you would expect.” I realized that this response, while not flippant, makes perfect sense only to those fortunate enough to have experienced the pinnacle of supercar engineering firsthand in the 2020s. A Dream in the Making Seven years ago—though the timeline feels even longer due to the mind-bending effects of the isolation period in the early 2020s—Aston Martin unveiled the AM-RB 003 at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. That original name, later replaced by the Norse mythology-inspired “Valhalla” (the glorious afterlife realm for heroic warriors, also conveniently starting with a V to maintain Aston’s naming tradition), stemmed from the automaker’s then-sponsorship ties with the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. Much has changed since, both in name and substance. Aston and Red Bull ended their sponsorship after the 2020 F1 season, when Aston’s then-new boss Lawrence Stroll rebranded his Racing Point F1 team as Aston Martin. More importantly, the automotive landscape was evolving rapidly, as was Aston itself. Chaotic changes within the company led to a transformation in the Valhalla’s powertrain. Initially conceived as an in-house-designed turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 with performance rivaling hybrid hypercars of that era, such as the LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder, the Valhalla was ultimately equipped with a hybridized Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series-derived twin-turbo V-8. Compared to the GT Black Series, Aston equipped it with larger turbos, a new intake manifold, stronger pistons, and different camshafts, boosting the output by nearly 100 hp and 50 lb-ft. The Valhalla is now the exclusive home of this bespoke engine. When I sat in a mockup of the car on the Pebble Beach Concours’ lawn in August 2022, the projected specifications for the V-8-based powertrain had jumped from a combined 937 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque to 1,012 hp and an undisclosed torque figure. Aston emphasized that nothing was final at that stage, but even then, the specs were enough to make me say, “Please, I want to drive it, whenever it’s ready.” A Worthwhile Wait Based on Aston Martin’s initial development timeline, I didn’t expect another three and a half years to pass before I experienced the Valhalla. However, the production version’s hardware has exceeded all expectations. The flat-plane-crank, dry-sump, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 produces 817 hp. Combined with the 248 hp from two Aston-designed radial-flux permanent-magnet motors on the front axle and a third motor integrated into the new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox—an Aston first—the peak outputs are 1,064 hp and 811 lb-ft. Along with the motors, the hybrid system includes a 560-cell battery pack, which engineers say is an off-the-shelf AMG battery that represents the only hybrid component Aston did not design in-house. This battery is cooled by immersing the cells completely in dielectric oil. The simplified benefit of this technology, as chief engineer Andrew Kay explained, is that “We’re able to push energy into the battery and cycle it out very quickly [meaning recharge and deployment of electrical energy]. This is very good for track use, in particular.” Unlike the original Valhalla concept and its larger sibling, the Valkyrie, the production model is also a plug-in hybrid, capable of driving in EV-only mode for up to 8.7 miles at an 80-mph top speed. The Supercar vs. Hypercar Conundrum While discerning readers may question the term “supercar” to describe the Valhalla, Aston Martin refers to it as its first-ever mid-engine supercar. However, with the existence of the Valkyrie—which rivals the Valhalla in terms of exotic luxury, price tag, and limited production—marketing descriptions regarding “firsts” often default to “super” rather than “hyper.” Regardless, the Valkyrie is barely a street-legal car, and its starting price tag of over $3 million, combined with a production run of only 285 examples, makes the Valhalla’s million-and-change MSRP and 999-unit inventory seem relatively pedestrian in comparison. This absurd comparison speaks to a broader trend in modern high-performance automobiles, both in terms of price and capability. While younger enthusiasts—millennials, Zoomers, and Gen Alpha—may be accustomed to seeing a new million-dollar car populating their social media feeds almost monthly, each boasting unprecedented power, torque, acceleration, and tech features, those of us who are older but far from retiring recall the shockwave created by something like the $800,000-ish McLaren F1 in 1993–94. Even more so, the Bugatti Veyron just two decades ago—the car generally regarded as the first million-dollar, 1,000-hp hypercar. Nowadays, since I sat in the Valhalla prototype at Pebble Beach, we’ve driven the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, which has roughly half the horsepower and overall “exotic” technology but brings so much racing-derived aerodynamics and hardware to the fight that it requires pro-level skills to maximize on a racetrack. Its suitability as a road car is debatable, given its suspension setup. Stepping up in price, construction, and technological features, MotorTrend has recently sampled the Ferrari F80, 849 Testarossa, Czinger 21C VMax, and even the more “everyday” Porsche 911 Turbo S, to name just a few. You can even buy a hybrid Corvette ZR1X with 1,250 hp, something nobody saw coming when the Valhalla was but a brilliant spark in Aston Martin’s and then-Red-Bull F1 design guru (and now Aston F1 managing technical partner) Adrian Newey’s collective imagination. A Driver’s Perspective It’s with all this context in mind that “comparison is the thief of joy” has never been more relevant in supercar terms. It’s also coincidence here because we know the odds of orchestrating a proper comparison test among the vehicles listed above, perhaps other than the ZR1X, are nil, thanks mostly to Maranello’s long-standing aversion to supplying publications like ours with cars for head-to-head showdowns. (Shame on you, Ferrari.) No matter, because given how high the dynamic limits are, it’s a far more satisfying endeavor to drive something like the Valhalla on its own merits and for whatever experience it provides. Make no mistake, the overall experience is crucial in a car like this. For quite some time now, it hasn’t been enough to be pleasant and thrilling on the road while performing like understeering crap on the racetrack, or mesmerizing on the track while delivering a chiropractor’s billable-hours wet dream on the road. We already knew, mostly, that this Aston Martin was a winner on all fronts after MotorTrend’s Angus MacKenzie sampled a “prototype” that was pretty much the finished article, save for some transmission calibration, a few months back. On the Road Unlike Angus, who only drove it on the Silverstone Circuit’s Stowe layout in the UK, Aston provided us with a 50-minute road loop to begin. Looking at the Valhalla’s F1-inspired supercar appearance and low, wide stance, you might expect a compromised daily driver. However, that’s not the case. At least, apart from the utter lack of luggage storage; there are some small cubbies in the door cards but no frunk, as that space is occupied by three high-temperature radiators, the electric motors, and a racing-style, pushrod-actuated horizontally mounted inboard suspension layout. Aston executed the latter solution in part due to the F1-style driving position; you sit so low that a conventional suspension would have raised the bodywork’s height too much to maintain an entirely clear sightline ahead. There’s no backrest angle adjustment, so you must adapt to the seating position, and the seats are bolted so low into the carbon-fiber monocoque tub that there’s no motor beneath them to slide yourself forward and back. Instead, you pull a leather strap between your legs and push to and fro to make those adjustments. You get used to the driving position quickly—it really isn’t that extreme—and you realize within two miles that the Valhalla-specific Bilstein DTX active damper system and overall suspension setup (the rear end uses a five-link layout) make for a remarkably comfortable megacar of this variety. The Spanish road route we drove was hardly a rough one, but neither was it infinitely smooth and perfect, yet there wasn’t a wide gap between the suspension’s Sport and Sport+ settings—a