Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.
From the May/June issue of Car and Driver.“The pits' is old-school slang for something that's terrible. Alternately, it's the place a driver goes when exiting a racetrack. And when you're angling toward pit lane on your final lap around Spain's Circuito de Navarra in the Aston Martin Valhalla, both meanings apply.
Because the Valhalla is not the cold-hearted cyborg track dissector that you might expect based on its numbers—1064 horsepower, 217-mph electronically limited top speed, and 1345 pounds of downforce, to name a few. Yes, Aston clearly employs many people who are good at math, but the Valhalla retains a quality that can elude cars of this ilk: It's fun. As a guiding philosophy, that's a fine one to embrace and surprisingly uncommon when it comes to cars devoted to speed above all else. Valhallas will probably accrue above-average mileage for the million-dollar genre for the simple reason that driving one doesn't feel like feeding prompts to an AI model—or juggling chainsaws.The initial Valhalla concept car featured a V-6, but then Aston evidently remembered that it doesn't need to comply with Formula 1 design constraints for its road cars, so in went a dry-sump, twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 with a flat-plane crankshaft. This engine traces its lineage to the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, where it made 720 horsepower. Aston considered that a good start, increasing the size of the turbochargers and indulging in other hot-rodding tricks to bump output to 817 horsepower. The V-8 breathes through a snorkel on the roof, which looks the business and probably gives the Valhalla very respectable water-fording capability. The remainder of the thrust is provided by a trio of electric motors, two on the front axle and one incorporated into the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The goal for the hybrid side of the powertrain was to juice performance without drawing attention to itself. You never feel a lunge of instant EV twist, and the front-end torque vectoring is tuned to keep the steering feel natural rather than impart the physics-bending shove that's possible when you can theoretically spin the front wheels in opposite directions. That's largely because the front motors can turn 19,000 rpm and are geared to provide torque all the way to top speed, so they're always in the mix. Aston cares so much about steering feedback that it notes that the optional magnesium wheels, which save a claimed 26 pounds total, transmit a different feel than the aluminum ones.One car was displayed with its active rear wing up, but you can't actually park it that way—there's no peacock mode. In fact, the wing only deploys in Race mode when the car is moving. It fills most of the digital rearview mirror except under heavy braking, when it angles up as an air brake and fills all of the mirror. Working in unison with active aero in the front, the wing helps the Valhalla generate 1345 pounds of downforce at 149 mph. As speeds rise from there, the system trims the wings as needed to maintain consistent downforce all the way to the claimed 217-mph top speed. This approach means that the springs and Aston-spec Michelin tires needn't accommodate crushing downforce at high speeds, a design requirement that would come at the detriment of low-speed drivability. Besides Race mode, the Valhalla offers Sport, Sport+, and EV. In EV mode and reverse, the Valhalla is front-wheel drive. In a presentation, Aston said this makes the Valhalla the first front-wheel-drive Aston Martin, and we were too polite to remind them of the Scion iQ–based Cygnet. Should you wish to plug in to charge, the port is on the driver's side, under a nacelle beside the snorkel. The panel on the opposite side conceals the fuel filler.Climbing into the Valhalla is easy enough thanks to dihedral doors that cut deeply into the roofline. Once you've dropped into the carbon-fiber seat, you'll feel like your pants need a skid plate—your hip point is actually lower than your heels. Yet the view forward is expansive because the front suspension uses inboard springs and dampers that peek through the bodywork up front. The view back is not quite as nice, given there's no rear window. Also absent is a trunk of any kind—best have the luggage sent ahead in the DBX. Sport and Sport+ feel similar, but Race mode is something else entirely. It summons the active aero elements while cutting output by up to 37 horsepower on the electric side to allow the 6-kWh battery to retain a healthy charge during constant lapping. Aston didn't bother giving the Valhalla a qualifying mode that would drain the battery but provide full power for one lap. If you're good enough that missing a few dozen horsepower from the more than 1000 available shows up in your lap times, please send a résumé to Mr. A. Newey.On the track, the Valhalla is as viciously quick as you'd hope for a machine with four-digit horsepower and a curb weight around 4000 pounds . The V-8's flat-plane burr sounds appropriately exotic if not shriekingly loud, and it's easy to run into the 7000-rpm redline in manual mode because the revs climb so quickly. Best practice on corner exits is to go a gear higher than you'd expect and let the 811 pound-feet of torque go to work rocketing the car toward the next braking point. Which, incidentally, will be later than you think it is, thanks in part to the downforce and air brake. Given all the variables at play— hybrid energy deployment, torque vectoring, airflow management—it's incredible how natural the Valhalla feels. It flows. The steering talks. As with the exterior styling, there's cohesiveness out of complication. And this isn't an ornery track special. The Valhalla is perfectly livable on the street too, with a fine ride and a front-axle lift system for speed bumps and steep driveways. For the 999 fortunates who will own one, the Valhalla could make for a happy, if overqualified, daily driver. Yes, the $1,051,700 price is formidable, but entry to the namesake Valhalla of Norse mythology has a steeper price. Compared with having to die, or the cost of a Ferrari F80, a million bucks seems reasonable for a car that's so alive. ➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.Shop New Cars Shop Used Cars
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