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The Aston Martin Valhalla: A 2025 Spectacle of Hybrid Supercar Mastery “So, how was it?!” This is the predictable, time-honored question posed to anyone lucky enough to get behind the wheel of Aston Martin’s nearly $1.1 million, 1,064-horsepower Valhalla. Yet, this long-held tradition of reviewing supercars—already a somewhat frivolous pursuit—has become increasingly surreal in recent years. When four different friends and colleagues asked me that exact question after I spent time with the 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla, I hesitated before answering with some variation of, “Er, exactly how you’d expect it to be.” I realized instantly that while this wasn’t meant to be flippant, it only makes sense if you’ve actually experienced the state of the supercar art here in the 2020s. A Long Time in the Making Seven years feels like an eternity, no doubt exaggerated by the mind-bending isolation of the pandemic years that shattered linear time for many. But that’s how long it’s been since the 2019 Geneva Motor Show where Aston first showed off what was then called the AM-RB 003. That original name, since swapped for one from Norse mythology (Valhalla is the afterlife realm where heroic dead warriors go to prepare for an epic final battle; it also conveniently starts with a V, honoring Aston’s naming convention), reflected the automaker’s sponsorship ties with the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. A lot has changed since, and not just the name. Aston and Red Bull parted ways after the 2020 F1 season once the brand’s new boss, Lawrence Stroll, rebranded his Racing Point team as Aston Martin. More importantly, the automotive landscape was transforming rapidly, and so was Aston. There was internal turnover, and the Valhalla’s hybrid powertrain—originally envisioned as a proprietary turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 designed to compete with rivals like the LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder—was revamped. It now features a hybridized Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series-derived twin-turbo V-8. (Compared to the GT Black Series, Aston fitted larger turbos, a new intake manifold, stronger pistons, and revised camshafts to boost output by nearly 100 hp and 50 lb-ft; the Valhalla is the exclusive home for this specific engine.) When I sat in a mockup of the car at the Pebble Beach Concours in August 2022, marveling at the Valhalla’s F1-inspired reclined and elevated-leg seating, the projected specs for the V-8 powertrain had already jumped from a combined 937 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque to 1,012 hp and an undisclosed torque figure. Aston claimed none of this was final, but it was more than enough for me to say, “Please, I want to drive it, whenever it’s ready.” Worth the Wait… Based on Aston Martin’s development timelines at that time, I didn’t anticipate another three and a half years passing before I got my chance. However, the production version’s hardware significantly exceeds those earlier expectations. The flat-plane-crank, dry-sump, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 produces 817 hp. Combined with a total of 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 output is a breathtaking 1,064 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque. In addition to the motors, the hybrid system uses a 560-cell battery pack. Engineers confirm it’s an off-the-shelf AMG battery, the only part of the hybrid system Aston doesn’t manufacture. The cells are immersed in dielectric oil for cooling. Chief engineer Andrew Kay explains the advantage: “We’re able to push energy into the battery and cycle it out very quickly [meaning fast recharge and discharge]. This is particularly beneficial for track use.” Unlike the original Valhalla concept and its legendary big brother, the Valkyrie, the production model is also a plug-in hybrid, capable of purely electric driving for up to 8.7 miles at speeds up to 80 mph. For a detailed exploration of the technology, you can refer to our previous article. …But Something Else Happened Along the Way The more discerning or academic enthusiasts might object to the term “supercar,” but Aston Martin itself calls the Valhalla its first mid-engine supercar. Surely, though, it’s a hypercar? Yes, except for the existence of the Valkyrie. This seemingly forces marketing teams into a corner where “super” is preferred over “hyper” for “first-ever” claims. Regardless, the Valkyrie is barely a road car; its starting price of over $3 million and production run of 285 examples make the Valhalla’s million-dollar price tag and 999-unit inventory seem relatively pedestrian. This is an absurd statement in the real world, of course, but it speaks to a larger trend in modern high-performance automobiles, both in price and capability. Millennials, zoomers, and Gen Alpha may be accustomed to yet another million-dollar car appearing on social media almost weekly. Each one boasts unprecedented power and torque figures, acceleration and lap times, and a list of tech specs, features, options, and bespoke luxury choices longer than the Nürburgring’s full endurance layout. For older enthusiasts, however, it’s easy to recall the shockwave caused by the 627-hp, $800,000-ish McLaren F1 back in 1993–94. Or even more so the Bugatti Veyron just twenty years ago, generally considered the first million-dollar, 1,000-hp hypercar. Nowadays? Since the day I drove the Valhalla prototype at Pebble Beach, we’ve, for example, tested the Porsche 911 GT3 RS with roughly half the horsepower and exotic tech but featuring so much racing-derived aerodynamics and hardware that it requires professional driver skills to maximize on the track. Its suitability as a road car, given its suspension setup, is debatable. Stepping up in price, construction, and technological firepower, MotorTrend has sampled the Ferrari F80, 849 Testarossa, Czinger 21C VMax, and even the more “mainstream but dizzyingly fast” Porsche 911 Turbo S, among others. You can even buy a hybrid Corvette ZR1X with 1,250 hp, something nobody predicted when the Valhalla was merely a brilliant idea in Aston Martin’s and then-Red Bull F1 design guru (and current Aston F1 technical partner) Adrian Newey’s minds. Just Drive It Whether Teddy Roosevelt coined the proverb or not, in the context of supercars/hypercars, “comparison is the thief of joy” has never been more fitting. It’s also coincidentally relevant here because we know the odds of orchestrating a proper comparison test among the vehicles listed above—perhaps aside from the ZR1X—are zero, thanks largely to Ferrari’s long-standing refusal to provide publications like ours with cars for head-to-head showdowns. (Shame on you, Ferrari.) No matter, because with the performance limits so high, it’s more satisfying to evaluate something like the Valhalla on its own merits and the experience it delivers. Make no mistake: the overall experience matters in a car like this. For a long time, it wasn’t enough to be pleasant and thrilling on the road but handle like a sub-par, understeering mess on the track, or be mesmerizing on the track but give you a chiropractor’s bill in the mail. We knew, mostly, that this Aston Martin was a winner on all fronts after MotorTrend’s Angus MacKenzie drove a “prototype” that was nearly identical to the final car, minus some transmission calibration, a few months prior. On the Road Unlike Angus, who only drove it on the short Stowe Circuit at Silverstone in the UK, Aston gave us a 50-minute road loop to start. You might expect a compromised daily driver based on the Valhalla’s Le Mans Hypercar styling and low-slung profile, but that’s not the case at all. Well, except for the utter lack of luggage space; there are some small cubbies in the door cards, but no frunk because that space is occupied by three high-temperature radiators, the electric motors, and a racing-style, pushrod-actuated horizontally mounted inboard suspension layout. Aston implemented this suspension solution partly due to the F1-style driving position. You sit so low that a conventional suspension would have raised the bodywork too much to maintain a clear forward sightline. There is no backrest angle adjustment, so you must adapt to the seating position. The seats are bolted so low into the carbon-fiber monocoque tub that there’s no motor underneath to slide them forward or back. Instead, you pull a leather strap between your legs and push to move yourself forward and back. You quickly get used to the driving position—it’s not extreme—and within two miles, you realize the Valhalla-specific Bilstein DTX active damper system and overall suspension setup (the rear uses a five-link layout) make for a surprisingly comfortable megacar.