Growing up in the 1980s, we had a choice of four television channels – or just three before Channel 4 first aired in 1982. If you didn’t like what was on, you had to read a book, kick a football around the garden or watch some paint dry. Today, there are hundreds of TV channels and streaming services, plus millions of videos on YouTube and social media. Yet finding something to watch seems harder than ever.
This abundance of choice is also a dilemma facing high-end car buyers. Now, I don’t expect you to summon much sympathy for those spending £1 million (including a few options) on an Aston Martin Valhalla, but the process of configuring a bespoke car isn’t easy. Trust me, I tried it.
If you ever wondered what it’s like to create your dream, money-no-object hypercar, this story will hopefully give you some insight. Spoiler alert: having built my Aston Martin in the virtual world, I didn’t get to drive home in the real thing. Shame, I know.
Valhalla gives you wings
I arrive at Aston Martin’s headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, where all the company’s sports cars – from the Vantage to the Valkyrie – are assembled. Production of the Valhalla will commence here almost imminently and 999 cars are planned, priced at £850,000 each (before extras, natch).
If you’re not familiar with the Valhalla, this is Aston’s riposte to the Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1. It began as a joint project with Red Bull Racing, but was brought in-house when Aston Martin launched its own F1 team. Ironically the car’s original designer, Adrian Newey, also moved from Red Bull to Aston Martin earlier this year.
Powered by a flat-plane twin-turbocharged V8, a 6.1kWh battery and three electric motors – two on the front axle, plus a third integrated into its dual-clutch gearbox – the Valhalla develops 1,079hp and 811lb ft of torque. With a dry weight of 1,655kg, that means 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and a 217mph maximum. It’s enough to make even the 835hp Vanquish look a tad feeble.
‘Imagine a reclothed F1 car’
Before I enter the VIP suite to configure ‘my’ car, I’m shown around a pre-production Valhalla prototype by Sam Holgate and Adam MacKerron, who led the exterior and interior design respectively. Their enthusiasm at being part of the project is obvious – it must be a car designer’s dream.
The Valhalla’s basic shape echoes Adrian Newey’s 2016 AM-RB 001 concept, but all the details are different. Holgate points out the layered front splitter, serrated sills and central roof scoop – all elements seen on this year’s AMR25 F1 racer.
Sculpted by airflow, which exits via an adjustable T-shaped wing and two huge venturi tunnels, the Valhalla looks ruthlessly functional. Yet there is beauty here, too: such as in the traditional Aston Martin side strakes, refashioned as air outlets for the front wheelarches. “It’s about duality of character,” says Holgate. “Imagine an F1 car that’s been clothed with something flowing and beautiful on top.”
Inside the Aston Martin Valhalla
I lift the large dihedral door – which incorporates sections of the roof and sill to aid access – and drop into the driver’s seat. Unpainted carbon fibre is everywhere, but this isn’t a barely tamed beast like a Valkyrie. There is an audio system, wireless phone charging and infotainment with Apple CarPlay connectivity. Perhaps Aston Martin will, in time, produce a track-focused AMR Pro version, but this ‘standard’ Valhalla seems quite civilised.
Sitting in a padded hard-shell seat, the driving position is low-slung like a racing car, with your heels just 70mm lower than your hips. The rectangular steering wheel is clearly F1-influenced, while the graphics on the two digital displays were designed by tech experts at Aston Martin Racing. Your view ahead is through a shallow, letterbox-like windscreen. To look behind, there is a rear-mounted camera.
“We brought a lot of the Valkyrie AMR Pro to Valhalla,” explains MacKerron. “This car leads the way in terms of our future interior design language.”
Parked in the pit garage
Then it’s time to visit the VIP studio and configure my own car. Located in a leafy courtyard at Gaydon – there are similar facilities at Aston Martin ‘Q’ stores in New York and Tokyo – the room is dominated by an enormous 7.5 x 2.8-metre screen, which takes up an entire wall. As I build my Valhalla, it fills the space in life-size 5K clarity.
The car can also be rotated through any angle and displayed in a variety of real-world scenes, including a mountain road, the French Riviera and on-track at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. As you can see in these images, I chose Aston Martin’s F1 pit garage to show off my chosen spec.
Guiding me through the process is Nicole Gee from Q – Aston Martin’s bespoke division, named with a knowing nod to James Bond. She is armed with an array of paint and fabric swatches to show just some of the options available, from tinted carbon fibre to leather matched to the colour of your shoes. The possibilities are almost limitless.
Badge of honour
Still, some decisions need to be made or we’ll never leave this room, so we start with paint. I’m tempted by the idea of naked carbon fibre, but eventually settle on Spectral Silver: a pearlescent ‘flip’ finish that looks white in some lights and sparkling silver in others. I combine it with an exposed satin-effect carbon for the roof and lower body.
Now I can choose from one of six liveries that introduce a contrasting colour. I go for a relatively subtle option, combining a full-length stripe with highlights around the side scoops. And what better hue than Podium Green, as seen on the company cars of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll?
Furthering the motorsport theme, I reject the three ‘regular’ forged alloy wheel options in favour of lightweight, 10-spoke magnesium rims with a ‘liquid titanium’ look. I want to drive my Valhalla on UK roads year-round, though, so I wrap them in Michelin Pilot Sport tyres – rather than semi-slick Cup 2R rubber.
As we work through more elements of the car’s exterior, I select a machined aluminium front grille with a dark chrome finish, body-colour mirror caps, titanium grey exhaust tips, clear side window glass and brake calipers in AM Racing Green. Finally, it’s time to choose a badge. The standard green and white Aston Martin ‘wings’ seem too obvious, while the custom Union Jack version looks a bit ‘Brexit’. So I go for the minimalist aluminium script, just 70 microns thick, which sits beneath the paint lacquer. If it’s good enough for the Valkyrie…
Devoted to driving
Another smorgasbord of choice awaits inside my virtual Valhalla. In contrast to some of Aston Martin’s recent press cars, I decide to tone things down, with an environment devoted to the serious business of driving. Or that’s how it played out in my head, anyway.
For the seats, I select grippy and tactile Alcantara, with other areas of the cabin trimmed in Onyx Black semi-aniline leather. Only the Eifel green stitching and seat belt stripes – again, inspired by F1 – add a splash of colour. The metallic switches and air vents have a satin dark chrome coating, while the gear shift paddles are carbon fibre to match the steering wheel.
Even the carbon itself can be customised. I go for a more familiar chequered ‘2×2 Twill’ in my Valhalla, but you could have marbled ‘chopped carbon’ instead – a material pioneered by the Lamborghini Huracan Performante and more recently used in the Land Rover Defender Octa. Perhaps AM and neighbouring LR compared notes over the fence at Gaydon.
Stretching into seven figures
I’m not presented with a price for my finished Valhalla, but with the fancy paint, magnesium wheels and plentiful carbon, I think we can safely budget in excess of £1 million. Mind you, compared to the £2 million McLaren wants for a W1 and the £3.1 million Ferrari F80, that could almost be considered a bargain.
Designing my own hypercar has been a lot of fun. But the pressure to get it ‘right’ (feel free to disagree and comment below) was quite draining. It all comes back to having so much choice. After a couple of hours immersed in all things Valhalla, I’m ready to go home for a rest. Perhaps I’ll see what’s on TV…
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