Hope announced that she had officially left Forrester to join Logan right on Eric’s runway B&B

The Aston Martin Valhalla: An Object Lesson in Modern Hypercar Absurdity A million-dollar, 1,064-hp supercar that feels as mundane as a daily driver—when you realize how far we’ve come, you’ll wonder why we ever thought this level of performance was possible. A Long Time Coming It’s been seven years since the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, when Aston Martin first unveiled what was then called the AM-RB 003. The name changed to Valhalla—the realm of heroic warriors in Norse mythology—but the car itself changed just as much as its title. When the Valhalla was first previewed at Pebble Beach in 2022, it had a projected output of 1,012 hp, but Aston’s engineers have managed to squeeze even more power out of it. The new version has a 4.0-liter flat-plane-crank V-8 with 817 hp, plus two Aston-designed radial-flux permanent-magnet motors on the front axle and a third on the rear axle, giving a combined output of 1,064 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque. Unlike the original concept, the production version is also a plug-in hybrid, capable of 8.7 miles of EV-only range and a top speed of 80 mph. But that’s not even the craziest part. Something Else Happened Along the Way When I sat in the Valhalla prototype, I noticed the seats were so low they were like a reclined Le Mans racer—and the legs were raised to match. You can’t move them, either; you have to pull a strap between your legs to slide forward and back. But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds; the Bilstein DTX active damper system and overall suspension setup make for a surprisingly comfortable ride on the Spanish roads we drove. That’s where the real fun began. On a long, open stretch of country road, I put the Valhalla into launch mode. Aston says 0–62 mph happens in 2.5 seconds, so figure on a 0–60 run of 2.4 seconds. The speed is no less shocking than in other similar cars, but the flat torque curve means 90 percent of the peak 811 lb-ft is available from 2,500 rpm to 6,700 rpm. It never lets up. The only relative disappointment is the lack of high-revving noise. The redline is set to 7,000 rpm, and the engine sounds a bit muted, but that’s likely because it’s so well-tuned. Valhalla on the Track We also took the Valhalla to Spain’s Circuito de Navarra, a 2.7-mile road course with a good mix of corners and braking zones. This closed environment really showed off the Aston Martin Valhalla’s trick torque vectoring, aerodynamics, and monster braking system. You want to run the car in Race mode, not just because it’s named as such, but because of how the hybrid system works. In Sport+ on the road, the car dumps a huge amount of electric boost to the wheels, draining the battery quickly so you can go again the next time. However, on a track, Race mode meters the electric assist via a recharge strategy that holds back up to 15 percent state of charge to prevent you from ever running out of battery. That’s where the real magic happens. The Valhalla feels as benign as a Vantage, thanks to its stable platform that never feels like it’s about to kick you off into the weeds. And because of the front-axle torque vectoring and rear e-differential, the chassis rotates into and out of corners with minimal fuss, enticing the driver to push harder and harder while maintaining their confidence in the car. To the point: When the lapping sessions were over, all I wished for was another hour or three on the track because I had just begun to feel like I knew both the circuit and car well enough to begin truly edging somewhere near at least approaching the limit. In other words, there was no feeling of relief over having managed to drive a million-dollar, 1,064-hp machine reasonably quickly around a racetrack without stuffing it into the fence. So, How Was It? There’s so much to unpack with modern cars like this that despite all the above words, there’s plenty more going on beneath the surface. Even chief engineer Andrew Kay acknowledged over dinner that it’s practically impossible to delve into it all outside of writing a full book on the subject. Even when you know all this, and even when you’ve driven other examples of contemporary supercars and hypercars, you still need to experience the latest one to confirm it hits the mark. This one more than does, on racetracks and on public roads. So, in retrospect, responding to the question with something like, “Exactly how you expect it to be,” does the Valhalla and automobiles like it—even ones that, on paper, occupy a rung below—a great disservice. A better, entirely literal answer is, “Not long ago you wouldn’t ever have believed it.”