Aston Martin has revealed inside its first series-production mid-engine supercar, the Valhalla, for the first time in Australia.
It comes with a caveat though. The car is still a work in progress, with remoter changes and inclusions likely coming surpassing consumer deliveries start in 2024, in both left- and right-hand drive.
Technically, it’s the next iteration of the Valhalla concept we saw in Australia close to a year ago. That car (or pre-production dummy) had its forward-hinged dihedral doors shut tight to hibernate the fact the interior had not yet been finalised.
Affectionately nicknamed Son of Valkyrie without its Cosworth V12 sibling, the Valhalla is flipside car which has been designed off the when of Aston Martin’s Formula 1 program.
The dihedral doors unshut upwards and forwards making it relatively painless to waif into the carbon-fibre skillet seats made well-appointed by perfectly contoured Alcantara cushioning, well-constructed with highlights to match its Verdant Green paint.
In fact, scrutinizingly anything inside Valhalla which isn’t exposed carbon-fibre is wrapped in the same stitched upholstery – that’s the dash, steering wheel, door cards and centre-console.
There’s moreover a stock-still metal pedal set which is truly exquisite, as is the beautifully contoured steering wheel – which looks as though it might have started out as a racing-style yoke, surpassing someone thought otherwise and widow the top and marrow sections as a increasingly useful compromise.
Incidentally, the footwells have been raised for a low hip-to-heel seating position like an LMP or F1 car.
In front of the suburbanite is a widescreen display, while a new Aston Martin infotainment system will full-length on a inside touchscreen (yet to be fitted to this build) which will moreover incorporate Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
A floating stat underpass will likely house a circular momentum mode selector as well as the start button. Remoter when looks to be a small gear selector with storage receptacles behind.
It’s not just the interior that makes its debut in Valhalla. In the past year we’ve seen significant changes to its plug-in hybrid powertrain, which now uses three electric motors (up from two); two for the front trestle and the other on the rear.
The hybrid system is there to supplement the rear-mid-mounted 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 by providing an spare 177kW. Aston Martin says it’s the most advanced, responsive, and weightier performing V8 overly fitted to one of its cars.
Featuring a flat-plane crankshaft for maximum responsiveness and revving to 7200rpm, the engine develops increasingly than 588kW sent to the rear wheels through a bespoke eight-speed dual-clutch transmission for the first time in an Aston Martin, featuring e-reverse.
The combined system output stands at 744kW of power and 1012Nm of torque. That’s should be unbearable to send the Valhalla from standing start to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds, and its top speed requirement has been ramped up from 330km/h to 350km/h. Track aspirations include a sub-6:30 lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Valhalla can run in pure EV mode too, but only for a loftiness of up to 15km at a top speed of just 130km/h. It moreover has the worthiness to uncontrived 100 per cent of shower power to the rear wheels.
Despite its significant length and width (those measurements haven’t been officially released), Valhalla maintains a dry-weight target of less than 1550kg.
Instead of big wings and spoilers to create its downforce, the car has a relatively wipe surface by relying on zippy aerodynamic features and thoughtfully controlled underbody airflow through huge tunnels at the rear, and sculptured channels lanugo the side of the car.
Out when you’ll moreover find a stunning lightweight exhaust, top-mounted with zippy flaps for adjusting frazzle note levels.
