The United States is in the midst of a fascinating automotive shift, and not everyone agrees on the best path forward. While many traditionalists are resisting the move to electric vehicles (EVs), the reality is that the industry is rapidly electrifying, and now is the best time to start thinking about what to buy.
The Aston Martin Valhalla: A Masterpiece of Modern Performance
For automotive enthusiasts who appreciate the pinnacle of modern automotive engineering, the 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla represents a leap forward in what’s possible in a supercar. At nearly $1.1 million, with 1,064 horsepower, it’s a vehicle that pushes the boundaries of speed, handling, and technology. But as with any cutting-edge machine, it comes with its own set of trade-offs.
A 7-Year Journey
It’s been a long road for the Valhalla. Seven years ago, at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin unveiled what was then called the AM-RB 003. This name reflected the automaker’s sponsorship ties to the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team at the time.
However, a lot has changed since then. Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing eventually ended their collaboration, and the automotive landscape began evolving quickly. Aston experienced some internal churn, and the Valhalla’s original plan for an in-house-designed turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 gave way to a hybridized Mercedes-AMG-derived twin-turbo V8.
When I sat in a mockup of the car at the Pebble Beach Concours in August 2022, the projected specs for the V8-based powertrain had jumped from 937 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque to 1,012 hp and an undisclosed torque figure. None of this was finalized, Aston said, but it was enough to convince me to say, “Please, I want to drive it, whenever it’s ready.”
Worth the Wait
Based on what I was told about the Valhalla’s development cycle, I didn’t expect another three and a half years to pass before getting behind the wheel, but the production version’s hardware exceeded all those earlier expectations.
The flat-plane-crank, dry-sump, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 makes 817 hp. Combined with 248 hp from three Aston-designed radial-flux permanent-magnet motors (one on the front axle and one integrated into the new eight-speed dual-clutch transmission), the total output is 1,064 hp and 811 lb-ft. The motors are fed by a 560-cell battery pack (engineers say it’s an off-the-shelf AMG battery, the only part of the hybrid system Aston doesn’t make) cooled by dielectric fluid immersion. The simplified result, as chief engineer Andrew Kay told us, 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 concept and its Valkyrie sibling, the production model is also a plug-in hybrid, capable of driving in EV-only mode for up to 8.7 miles with an 80-mph top speed.
But Something Else Happened Along the Way
Über-nerdy/semi-pedantic readers might already be wincing at the term “supercar,” but the company itself refers to the Valhalla as its first-ever mid-engine supercar. Surely, though, it’s a hypercar? Yes, except for the Valkyrie’s existence, which apparently paints the automaker into a corner where marketing “first ever” claims are concerned. Whatever. The Valkyrie is barely a street car; its $3-plus million starting price tag and production run of 285 examples make the Valhalla’s million-and-change MSRP and 999-unit inventory seem relatively pedestrian.
That’s an absurd statement in the real world, of course, but it speaks to something bigger in the realm of modern high-performance automobiles, in terms of both price and capability. Perhaps car enthusiasts among millennials, zoomers, and Gen Alpha are long accustomed to another new million-dollar car popping up on their social media feeds on a seemingly monthly if not weekly basis. Each one spits out once-unheard-of 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. But for those of us older than Gen Z, it’s easy to recall the shockwave dealt by something like the 627-hp, $800,000-ish McLaren F1 back in 1993–’94. Or even more so the Bugatti Veyron just 20 years ago, the car generally considered to be the first million-dollar, 1,000-hp hypercar.
Nowadays? Since the day I sat in the Valhalla prototype at Pebble Beach, we’ve, as just one example, driven the Porsche 911 GT3 RS that only has about half as much horsepower and overall “exotic” tech but brings so much racing-derived aerodynamics and other hardware to the fight that it requires pro-racer skills to maximize on a racetrack. Stepping up, to varying degrees, in price, construction, and tech war-chest levels, MotorTrend in just the past few months has sampled the Ferrari F80, 849 Testarossa, Czinger 21C VMax, even the more “run of the mill” Porsche 911 Turbo S, to name just a few. Hell, you can buy a hybrid Corvette ZR1X with 1,250 hp no one really saw coming back when the Valhalla was but a brilliant spark in Aston Martin’s and then-Red-Bull F1-design-God partner (and now Aston F1 managing technical partner) Adrian Newey’s collective eyes.
Just Drive It
Whether or not Teddy Roosevelt originated the proverb, it’s with all this in mind that “comparison is the thief of joy” has never been a more appropriate jumping-off point in hyperc… ahem, supercar terms. It’s also coincidentally appropriate here because we know the odds of ever orchestrating a proper comparison test among the vehicles listed above, perhaps other than the ZR1X, are zero, thanks mostly to Maranello’s longtime aversion to supplying publications like this one with cars for head-to-head showdowns. 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 matters in a car like this. It’s no longer good enough to be pleasant and thrilling on the road but crap on the racetrack, or mesmerizing on the track, but a chiropractor’s billable-hours wet dream on the road. We already knew 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 the Valhalla on the Silverstone Circuit’s short Stowe layout in the U.K., Aston gave us a 50-minute road loop to begin with this time around. You might naturally look at the car’s pseudo Le Mans Hypercar appearance and low, wide stance and indeed expect a compromised daily driver, but that’s not the case at all. At least, other than the utter lack of luggage storage; there are some small cubbies in the door cards but no frunk due to that potential cargo space being eaten up by three high-temp radiators, the electric motors, and a racing-style, pushrod-actuated horizontally mounted inboard suspension layout.
Aston executed the latter solution in part because of the F1-style driving position; you sit so low that a conventional suspension would have raised the bodywork’s height too much to maintain a 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 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 dang 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 welcome, usable trait we’ve praised on other new Astons, like the Vantage. Race mode introduces a harsher ride you’d probably grow tired of, but you can absolutely live with it, too, especially on a well-maintained, fast sweeping road when it’s playtime.
The square-ish steering wheel feels mostly nice to use, but the molded-in crease/edge that runs vertically up the backside where your fingers naturally bend around to help give you a more-positive grip than does a rounded surface might not be the most comfortable for everyone. The steering feel itself is intuitive, maintaining a lovely weight that’
