Aston Martin has confirmed its new mid-engined hypercar will be called the Valhalla. Due to launch in 2021 the British brand’s rival for the McLaren Senna was first previewed as a concept at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.
Aston Martin Valhalla production will be limited to 500 coupe examples, with each costing around £1 million. It is a collaborative project between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, borrowing technology from the latter company’s Formula One racing experience.
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The Valhalla shares a lot of its DNA with Aston’s flagship model, the Valkyrie, including its name; Valhalla is adopted from Norse mythology and refers to a large hall were Valkyrie’s lead the souls of chosen warriors.
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The Valhalla adopts the Valkyrie’s wide, exposed front bumper, pronounced haunches and large rear diffuser. Also like the Valkyrie, the Valhalla is based on a carbon fibre monocoque and clad in carbon fibre body panels to keep weight to a minimum. Despite this, Aston’s design director Miles Nurnberger said the Valhalla is a “distillation of the Valkyrie and not a dilution.”
The hypercar features a range of active aerodynamic fixtures to deliver ‘outstanding’ levels of downforce, including a new technology called FlexFoil. The tech, which is a first for a production car, has been validated by NASA and is used on the car’s rear wing to improve the amount of downforce generated by physically altering the shape of the wing at speed.
Following the launch of the 003 Concept, Aston boss Dr. Andy Palmer told Auto Express: “People will view Valkyrie in the same context as LaFerrari and Senna – its not. It’s a different world altogether. I don’t think there has ever been a car like Valkyrie and I don’t think there will ever be again, because legislation won’t allow it.
“The 003 is the bridge – it’s in the £1million area so does directly compete with Senna and LaFerrari. It uses Valkyrie technology and aerodynamic construction and matches that with a V6 which will be used in our Ferrari 488 competitor.”
Aston Martin is yet to announce full performance and engine specifications for its new hypercar, but it has confirmed the Valhalla is driven by a turbocharged V6 petrol engine and a battery-electric hybrid system. It’s expected to be paired with a KERS system, similar to that found on Formula One cars, to boost performance under hard acceleration.
As the Valhalla has been designed as a road car, its interior features several changes over the Valkyrie’s. A section of the roof has been incorporated into the dihedral doors to make getting in and out easier, while a redesigned 3D-printed centre console gives passengers more shoulder room.
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A digital instrument cluster sits atop the steering column, while Aston Martin’s solution to in-car entertainment is to “bring your own,” with the Valhalla offering a smartphone mount in place of an integrated infotainment system for maximum “simplicity and flexibility.”
The Valhalla is the latest “V-badged” car in the British brand’s line-up, following a seventy-year tradition dating back to the high performance variant of the 1951 Aston Martin DB2, which was unofficially badged as the Vantage. Since the fifties, a host of “V-badged” cars have joined the fold, including the Virage, the Vanquish, the Vulcan and the Valkyrie.
Palmer added: “The ultimate mid engine car is an F1 car, but I didn’t fancy running an F1 team – Red Bull is a perfect partner for us. We have a design studio on the Red Bull site and have 130 engineers based there doing advanced engineering for the cars. So the legitimacy of our mid-engine range comes with working with [Red Bull F1 designer] Adrian Newey and the team and the osmosis of having your lunch with an F1 team.”
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