Why the Aston Martin Valhalla is an all-time great #307
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Brand
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is a British car company that makes luxury sports cars. The episode is about an Aston Martin car, so knowing the brand helps you understand the kind of performance and design they’re talking about.
Concept
embargo is lifted
Car launches often have a “don’t talk about it yet” rule for reviewers. When the embargo is lifted, they’re finally allowed to share what they learned and filmed.
Concept
999 of these things
Saying they’ll make only 999 cars is a way of keeping the model rare. Rarity can make the car feel more special and helps the company plan pricing and profits.
Concept
Make more expensive cars
They’re saying Aston wants to sell more expensive cars. The idea is that even if they sell fewer, they make more money on each one.
Car
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a sporty BMW sedan made for fast driving. It’s designed to handle well and feel exciting, not just to look good. It’s brought up when people talk about how much money they’re willing to spend on performance cars.
Car
Ferrari F80
The Ferrari F80 is a very high-end, limited supercar from Ferrari. It’s the kind of car people can spend a lot of money on, especially if they choose expensive options. The podcast mentions it to explain how buyers can add even more cost on top of the car’s price.
Concept
plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid is a car that uses gas and electricity. You can charge it like a regular electric car, and it can also run on gas when you need more range.
Concept
straight line vs cornering
The speaker contrasts straight-line speed with cornering ability, emphasizing that the car’s appeal isn’t just about acceleration. This is a common way to discuss supercar performance: traction, balance, and chassis behavior matter as much as top speed.
Part
carbon fiber
Carbon fiber is a very strong, lightweight material. Using it helps a supercar stay lighter, which can make it faster and easier to handle.
Concept
undercuts... on price
“Undercuts on price” means the Valhalla is positioned cheaper than direct competitors. In supercar markets, pricing strategy can matter as much as performance because it affects perceived value and who can realistically buy in.
Concept
carbon car
They’re talking about building the car with carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is strong and lightweight, so it can make the car faster and more responsive.
Car
Aston Martin Valhalla
The Aston Martin Valhalla is a very special, high-end Aston Martin supercar. The hosts are talking about how many of them Aston Martin plans to make and whether they might make more if buyers want them.
Concept
tariffs
Tariffs are extra taxes on imported products. If cars or parts cost more because of tariffs, it can make buyers hesitate and make it harder for automakers to sell as many cars.
Concept
develop very specifically for that car
This describes tire development tailored to a specific vehicle’s requirements—such as grip targets, steering response, and how the tire handles heat and load. It’s a key reason why OEM tire packages can feel different from standard retail versions.
Concept
resurfaced the track
Resurfacing means replacing or redoing the track surface, which can improve grip consistency and reduce irregularities. That matters for evaluating a supercar’s traction and stability because tire behavior depends heavily on pavement condition.
Concept
glass house
“Glasshouse” is the automotive term for the cabin’s glass area—windshield, side glass, and roof glass. A narrow glasshouse and short windshield can limit outward sightlines and make the driver feel like they need to duck to see.
Brand
McLaren
McLaren is known for designing supercars with driver visibility as a priority, which the speaker contrasts with the Valhalla’s more restrictive sightlines. This is a practical ergonomic choice that affects confidence and ease of driving.
Concept
EV
EV stands for electric vehicle. The speaker notes that when you “fire it up,” nothing happens immediately—because EVs don’t start like an internal-combustion engine (no idle, no engine start sequence), so the experience is different.
Concept
ride quality
Ride quality is how comfortable the car feels over rough pavement. The speaker is saying this supercar feels surprisingly smooth.
Concept
storage space in the cabin
This is about how much stuff you can carry. The speaker is saying the Valhalla is great to drive, but it doesn’t have much room for luggage or even practical everyday storage.
Concept
tailored luggage
“Tailored luggage” refers to custom-fit bags or cases designed to match a specific car’s storage compartments and shapes. For supercars with limited trunk space, this can be the difference between being able to travel comfortably versus having to compromise on what you bring.
Concept
steering feel
Steering feel is how the steering wheel and car respond when you turn. If the feel is “right,” you can place the car accurately and react confidently to what’s around you.
Part
ABS
ABS (anti-lock braking system) prevents wheel lockup during hard braking by modulating brake pressure. When it “pulses,” it’s working to keep the tires rolling so the driver can maintain steering control.
Term
hybrid drive
Hybrid drive means the car uses an engine plus an electric system. Here, they’re saying the electric part helps boost the total power even higher.
Term
flat plane crank v8
A flat-plane crank is an engine design that affects how the cylinders fire. That firing pattern can change the engine’s sound and how it feels when you rev it.
Car
McLaren 750S
The McLaren 750S is a fast supercar from McLaren. The speaker is using it as a benchmark for how different engines sound.
Car
Ferrari 296 GTB
The Porsche 296 GTB is a hybrid supercar from Porsche. They bring it up because hybrid V6 setups can sound different than a traditional V8.
Car
Aston Martin Valkyrie
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a very extreme, high-tech Aston Martin hypercar. The speaker is saying it would make sense for something like that to feel special and different from a normal Aston Martin.
Concept
gross margin
Gross margin is the percentage of revenue left after accounting for the direct costs of producing the product (before operating expenses like marketing, R&D, and overhead). When the hosts say Aston Martin is aiming for a gross margin in the high 30s, they’re describing profitability at the product level, not the final bottom-line profit.
Car
Aston Martin Vantage
The Aston Martin Vantage is one of Aston Martin’s main performance models. It’s usually the more sporty option in their lineup, and it’s mentioned here to show that Aston Martin has strong cars across different segments.
Car
Aston Martin DB12
The Aston Martin DB12 is Aston Martin’s newer grand tourer. It’s built to be fast and comfortable for longer drives, and it’s mentioned here as part of a lineup that’s trying to be “best in class.”
Concept
reliability problems
Reliability problems mean the car isn’t lasting through the whole race. Something breaks or the system doesn’t work well enough to finish.
Concept
wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is used to test aerodynamic performance by measuring how air flows around the car. In F1, building a new wind tunnel is a major step because aero development depends heavily on accurate airflow data.
Company
Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey is one of the most famous race car designers in Formula 1. The speaker is saying he’s involved, which should help the team’s car development.
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Welcome back to the intercooler podcast everybody episode
307 of the intercooler podcast. That's the podcast powered by car finance specialist jbr capital
Um dan and andrew with you here andrew. We're actually doing this one remotely. We're not in our studio today
Our sound engineer has been unwell this week. So joe. We hope you feel better soon
We will be back in the studio next week
So there's there's no video of this episode all of you who are in the habit of watching the podcast
You have to bear with us. We'll be back next week in the studio and you can watch along
As usual we used to do this podcast remotely, didn't we? Yeah, um, and it feels a bit strange to we do
I mean i'll weekly podcast the ask the intercooler and we always do
Remotely and that's fine. But just seems a bit strange to be back on this one doing it remotely
But as I say, it's a it's a one-off. Hopefully. Yeah, and we'll be back in the studio next week
We will we will. Um, so this episode is all about Aston Martin
There's a lot going on at Aston Martin some of it wonderful as we'll come to
some of it not so wonderful
We're going to talk a bit about f1 because goodness me there's a lot to say there
There are some financial results that I want to run through quickly. Um, we we want to talk about the current model lineup
We've said before that it's the best Aston Martin's model lineup has ever been
And there are some new additions coming very very shortly that we
You're going to be driving one of them sooner. You there are s variants of
several models
So we'll we'll preview that
We're going to spend most of the time there talking about the Valhalla because you have driven it
On-road and track and you can the embargo is lifted it lifted earlier today. So you can tell us everything
That you can about that car
Can you
Why is that car a big deal? Uh, why is it important to Aston? Why is it also a different kind of Aston?
Uh, right gosh, um quite a few questions. Um,
So why is it a big deal for Aston?
I mean, I don't think we want to spend a huge amount of time dwelling on the on the money side of things
Although obviously we need to a bit
um, but I think it is important for Aston in terms of
repositioning the brand as a sort of not quite mass market. Um, also I'd say I mean mass production, but they're going to make
999 of these things so many many many more than say the Valkyrie
Um, and each is going to sell for eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds an Aston Martin strategy
for the future is to
Make more expensive cars because even if that then means they sell fewer of them
The margins on those cars will be sufficiently greater
And I think that all the lessons from history, particularly with brands like Aston Martin
Is that you know, if you're going to be a sustainable profitable business
um
It's all in the margin
More so than in the volume
So I think it is from a business perspective. I think people getting comfortable with Aston selling
Essentially a thousand cars for eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds each. In fact, it won't be eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds
I was talking to
The marketing director
um
And he told me that the average transaction price will be at 1.1 million
So that's about a quarter of a million spent on options and various qubits, which is
I mean, it sounds like a ridiculous amount of money. They're a quarter of a million grid
Just think of what kind of car you could buy for quarter of a million pounds
But actually up there in that sort of stratosphere
um
I don't think it's nuts at all. I think you'll find people
Specking their Ferrari f80 so you could spend maybe spend another million or I don't have no idea. Um, so
Well, the math is quite easy to do, isn't it? You know average transaction price of 1.1 million pounds and you sell you sell a thousand of them
That's a
Over a billion quids worth of revenue, isn't it? Yeah
They're not all sold yet
um
They are I think sold out for this year. I think they'll be made this year and next
I think they're sold out for this year for give me Aston Martin if I've got that wrong
What I do know is that they absolutely believe
That once and they're doing big drive programs with customers that once customers drive the car
And once particularly journalists like me report on what it's like
um
whatever
Numbers remain to be sold will then sell
So they fully anticipate the run to sell out and not to be
In that slightly embarrassing position that you know Jaguar founded itself in with the actually 220 of the early 1990s of having to sort of
Discount hypercars to people who you know need to be persuaded to buy them
Aston is very confident that that's not going to happen here. We shall see
um
So why is it different? Well, it's a okay. It's not different to a Valkyrie, but if you compare it to any other Aston Martin
Uh, you know, it's a mid-engine car. It's a mid-engine plug-in hybrid four-wheel drive
to see
carbon fiber supercar. It's about as different to what
We traditionally expect and understand the Aston Martin to be as as can be
And I think and if you go on to the website or app if you subscribe to the intercooler
Which frankly you absolutely should because it is I'm not bigging up my own words here
I'm just bigging up the product because the product which which I'm responsible for a tiny part is excellent
Anyway, go on to the website and that read my whatever it is. Well, I think I've written 3 000 words
I think Andrew English has also written about another five or 600 words because he is one of very very few journalists to have driven
Both Valhalla and the Ferrari 849 tesla rossa, which has a similar power similar performance
But a very different price point costs half the price the Ferrari
go on there and
Yeah, I to me the fundamental point of that car what interested me about that car was frankly
Not how fast it isn't a straight line or how quickly it can get around the corner
Those things don't interest me about this car for two reasons. One is we know it's going to be unbelievably quick
And we know that a thousand horsepower is a ridiculous amount of power and we know it's going to be really quick through
corners
But also that's not to me what Aston Martin has ever been Aston Martin's have never been
They never sold because they've been the fastest cars in the world apart from my guess the Valkyrie, which is the real outlier
Or Aston Martin's product history
Aston Martin's have sold through a sense of occasion a sense of style a sense of belonging
Um, you know how you feel when you look at your window and you see it there. That's what an Aston Martin is
So I went to northern Spain
To drive it to find out whether
A mid-engine carbon fiber two-seat four-wheel drive car with a flat-plane crank va engine
Could somehow still convince
as an Aston Martin
That to me was the job and that's what I mean about
Well, um, we'll come on to that and anyone who's read Andrew's accident story
We'll already know the answer, but we're we're going to sort of
Flesh it out a little bit here. I hope. Um, but I'm I'm glad you mentioned the 849 Testerosa
You already mentioned the McLaren w1 and the f80 because the the Valhalla sort of occupies its own territory, doesn't it?
Um, I mean it massively undercuts the McLaren and the f80 on price
Um, they're building more of them than the w1 and f80 will the numbers those will be built in
But also as you said it's double the price of the 849
Yeah, so not an awful lot more than
The Ferrari will the numbers the Ferrari will be met a lot more than the McLaren
What's the what they'd mean? I think are they making 799 Ferrari's because it was a 7 doesn't it? I believe you might be right
As she is it's yeah, it's not just a handful is it?
No, but that's 3 million pounds. Yeah before extras
So it's quite possible that some people will be spending four times on their f80 what they would spend on the Valhalla
Um, and you're absolutely right. It does fit into a very
um
Well, I think I think probably quite well identified these because there's nothing else really there
I mean the McLaren is
a couple of million
The Ferrari is 3 million the
Sorry, the f80 Ferrari is the 849 Testerosa is half the price of the astronauts 400 and something thousand pounds
Now so you might think to yourself well hang on a second. It's got the same sort of power
It too is a mid-engine four-wheel drive
Sort of quasi hypercar with a four liter twin turbo plug-in hybrid powertrain
Why is Ferrari why is either for Aston charging so much or why is Ferrari charging so little? I mean there are
The there is to me. Well, there are
Two differences one crucial one perhaps not the one difference is is the
The Aston as a carbon car
Um, and I think that does add a level of exclusivity. Um, only Ferrari's
most limited edition cars from the
what
f50 onwards
Have been carbon fiber, but the crucial difference. Um, it's simply that
Ferrari will make as many 849 Testerosa as it thinks it can sell
Um for as long a period of time as they can maintain interest in the model
Whereas Aston Martin will make 999 Valhalla's and that will be it
There is of course
There is of course the question of it. Will that really be it?
Yeah, um, because because will they're not actually then be if the Valhalla goes well
In fact, they would have to be this decision already. So if Aston Martin already know whether there will be for instance of Valhalla spider
Yeah, um, you know Aston Martin would have been very careful in their wording and say we will only make
999 Valhalla coupes
for words for that effect
They will certainly give themselves enough wiggle room to
Do another thousand cars if they think the demand is there to support it. So
With that proviso that is still a big difference between
certainly in terms of
Perception the Ferrari and the Aston. So that's and I think that as I said, I think it's quite smart to position the Valhalla there
um
Not least because there's nothing else in that space
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Yeah, I think it's a clever move um and we'll get onto
Aston's financial performance a little bit later on and you'll see from those numbers why
The Valhalla is so important and why if they think they could sell them and get away with it
They'll they'll do an open top version as well
And Andrew's right
It's as though the the sort of chasing volumes hasn't really worked for Aston. It's never really worked
So if they can instead focus on very high margin high ticket price cars
Like the Valhalla, perhaps that's the the sort of bedrock of the the company the performance of the company going forward
But we'll come to that. I think I think I think the problem with
I mean, they've not chased volume like, you know, Ford has chased volume or indeed like McLaren chased volume in the early days
Or like Bentley chased volume when the continental GT came out
but I think the problem is if you
become dependent
More on volume than margin
When things go wrong in the world, which they tend to when you are caught out by
Events entirely beyond your control and we'll get on to this but clearly
Things like what's going on in the Middle East the slowdown in the Chinese economy economy the tariffs into
Um introduced by Trump. All of these things Aston Martin have absolutely no control of
If suddenly demand disappears
And you've been just selling as many cars as you can that makes life very difficult
And then what you get is you get stockpiles that torpedoes your residuals confidence flies out of the market
and
um, it takes a very long time to get back
So I think it is absolutely the right
um strategy for a company like Aston Martin to make fewer cars and to make more money out of each one that they produce
I'm sure that's what they'll be trying to do. Um
Listen, we'll come to all those numbers in a little bit. Let's talk Valhalla. You went to northern Spain on the launch
You drove it on road and track. I think the weather
um, wasn't ideal, but actually it gave you a an opportunity to
Thoroughly appraise the car in different conditions, isn't it?
It what it actually did to me as a working journalist the weather was ideal because I drove it in
on road and on track
At various times both environments were wet, damp and dry
The only limitation was I couldn't drive it on
Cup twos because the track was never dry enough to to support
To get I mean the cup two that they use all the tires are now bespoke for Aston Martin
You know the valkyrie didn't have a bespoke tire on it
Yeah, a valkyrie. How strange the shelf cup two are on it
Um, so the cup two if you order your Valhalla with a cup two on it
It is a cup two. It looks like a cup two, but but its compound is essentially cup two are
Oh, okay
And you will know as well as I know what cup two ours are like when the weather's not great
um
So I think they they very sensibly decided to park the the wheels with the cup two ours on them and stick on the sets with the
um, Michelin pilot sport 5s, um, which again
Don't bear
Much relation to a 5s you might go and get from your local tire factor. These are very special tires develop very specifically for that car and its requirements
um, so yes, I like drove it
Northern Spain one of the best places to launch a car because the roads there
It's it's everything that you could want. Um
They are fantastically challenging. They're very open
There's nobody on them
Um, and you can just go and go and go now what you can't do is take a car like a Valhalla with a 1076 horsepower
Um and come back and say, oh, yeah, you know, I've driven that to the limit on the public road
Well, you could do that, I guess, but you should be locked up
um
Even so you can get in a car like that and head off down a decent road and really think to yourself
I'm getting as much out of this car and this environment frankly as anybody safely could
Which I think is all that can be asked
And then I drove it round the Navarra track which has been bought by Jonathan Palmer
Oh, and is an excellent place to go and do a track day. Um, just get a flight to Bilbao
It's about an hour and 20 minutes outside Bilbao or get the overnight ferry with your car 24 hours from
Is it Portsmouth? I don't know. There's a 24 hour ferry to go straight to Bilbao
Uh, and the Navarra circuit he spent a lot of money on it. Uh, all the facilities are really good
He's extended and changed and resurfaced the track. It's a really good
Circuit I tell you what's really great about it. I'm I'm not here to talk about one of Jonathan's tracks
But what's really great about it is it's got it's got a lot of corners, which means it's got a lot of everything
There's quick stuff slow stuff medium stuff
There's quite some gradient too
But weirdly and I can't really work out why this is
But even an idiot like me who cannot learn tracks to save his life
I found my way around it quite quickly. I think it's got 14 or 15 turns
So does that mean it has a kind of a natural sense of flow? Is that what's going on?
I guess I guess it does you always kind of but I also think that topographically it changes quite a lot as you go around
So it's not like it all looks the same. So you'll go over a brow of a hill and you'll suddenly see the scenery
I think oh, yes, I know I am and therefore this corner must turn it or whatever and you know, I found myself in five or six laps
um
Really pretty much knowing which way it went and then you can start
You know refining your lines and figuring out your break points and where you turn in all that sort of stuff
um
And what that means why that's important for a review of a car like an Aston Martin Valhalla is if you're in something like that
You don't want to be spending your time
Wondering which way the track goes
Um, you certainly don't want to be going up to corner thinking
Oh, I'm not quite sure about this because if you get it wrong you might bin it
And you don't want to be thinking about anything other than the car that you're driving
So for all those reasons, it was a really good location for that Lord. Do you want me to talk about what the cars like to drive, don't you?
We'll get to it. Um, well, let's do it now. So
We're 20 minutes in I haven't even got I haven't even done that yet. So we start on the road
um
Well, let's just uh
My first impressions of the car
I do love the way that it looks
um
Weren't that great to be honest
Because I sort of sat in the thing. It's very comfortable. It's got these incredibly thin seats
And it's a very initially strange driving position
Because your feet are higher than your bum. Um, it's a very much a sort of racing car driving position
But you realize very quickly why it's like that
And how natural it feels. So that was all good
But it's got this
The glass house is very narrow. The windscreen is short and if you're tall like me
You kind of feel like you have to sort almost duck down a bit to see out the thing
And if you put a sun visor down, you can't see anything at all
Um, and it's the kind of opposite of the approach that McLaren
takes where you know visibility is all
And it's one of the reasons McLaren's are so beautifully easy to place on the road and I did worry about it
I did think oh my god, it feels more like a sort of an eventador in here in terms of the view out
Um, and over the shoulder visibility
Isn't that great?
I also you know going back to my theme about does it feel like I'm Aston Martin?
um, there's just a oblong screen in front of you which looks like it could have come out of
You know a run over crossover EV frankly
um
And it's quite a spare
I wouldn't call it spartan, but it doesn't feel like a luxurious
interior
um
And it doesn't to me or certainly the cars that I drove. I'm sure if you asked the q department to trim them in
You know the finest bridge of wear whatever
um
You could help create some of that impression
But that didn't really scream Aston Martin to me
um
You then fire it up and of course nothing happens
Because it's an EV. I have to kind of wait a bit and get my head around that
Um, and then you kind of like toddle off, but I have to say that once you're moving
um
Almost all your reservations do kind of scatter to the winds very quickly
Um, and it's not because you're just going oh my god. This is so fast. Um
Because although it is that to me is the least interesting thing about this car
um
Driving on the road just sort of driving out of the track up towards the hills. I was struck
by
The fact that if you put it into eighth gear it is
quite enough
I was struck by the fact that as long as you keep it in
Sport, which is the default mode
um
The ride quality on its bill stein dtx adaptive dampers is really pretty good
And you sit there thinking to yourself. Oh
I could do a distance in this as I think to yourself. This is not a toy
This is a car that you want to go again. I mean if somebody said to me
um
This will seem like a stupid thing to say but you know drive your valhalla from here to Rome tomorrow
I I'd you know, I wouldn't think a bit. It would be a lovely thing to do
the only drawback is um
And it pains me to have to say is
You'd have to choose between taking someone with you or taking some luggage because you can't do both
There's no space in it. Yeah, there's very little storage space in the in the cabin
There's nothing in the back. There's nothing in the front. Aston martin say that they will
um
Provide the car. I'm sure at additional cost with tailored luggage
And some of it will go under the seat and apparently there's a bit of space behind the seats
But you know if it is it's
It's really very little
um
And as I said in the story if you are going away with someone in it
You're going to have to do it on the basis that you're hoping not to be wearing very much while you're away because
it's
And and it's a shame
It's exactly the same observation I made about the sf 90 when I first drove it
um
Because that too although I have other reservations about the sf 90 but that too rides well
um
And is reasonably refined and is the sort of car that you want to do
You know not just a track day in or you know
A quick trip of a weekend, but you'd want to do you know 3000 miles touring around european and I can't see
Unless you are that wealthy that you can afford to send your
Personal person ahead with your stuff so that you can have your suitcases unpack when you arrive
I can't see how I can't see how you're going to do it. Um
Which is a shame
um
But anyway, so that were those were sort of the initial thoughts and then we got to the decent roads
and
There's that moment down which you all remember we were actually saying okay
well the mucking about is over and I'm like I have to actually try and
Do my job now and drive this thing and
The conclusions that you come to are actually quite important
and deploying anything that sort of size
With that sort of power on a public road
There's a level of responsibility that goes with that particularly if the weather's not great. Um, which it wasn't
um
But the further I went and the faster I went in it the more confident that I became and
For me that was never going to be a given because as I've said certainly written about many times on the website
When you can't see out of a car properly the first thing that goes is confidence
And in cars like that the most important thing is confidence. I think it's probably
The single reason that I
Have liked almost every McLaren I've ever driven that and their hydraulic
Parasisted steering it's because you always know where you are
You always you can always place the car to the millimetre because you can see and you can't see out of the Valhalla that well
And what staggers me about the Valhalla is it's the only car like that I've ever driven where it doesn't seem to matter
Um
And it doesn't have hydraulically assisted steering
It's got not only has it got electric power steering, but it's got driven front wheels
Which are a bit of a recipe for messing up your steering feel
But it's just beautiful
You can place that car as accurately as you can in McLaren
You whilst there is so much feedback coming through the chassis
You are so aware of your surroundings
that you can commit with a confidence that
I'd never thought possible when I first got in the car
and
You find yourself getting to the end of a sort of combination of corners
Wondering whether you've got time to turn around and just go back through them again because
The car is so
Planted but agile it's stable, but um incredibly nimble
And the stuff it does I mean we also forget this is a heavy car
Yeah, there's all this bloody smoke and mirrors about you know
Aston Martin have joined the the ranks of manufacturers who won't tell you what their car actually weighs. It's so annoying
They'll only tell you what it weighs in a form which it cannot be driven
i.e. with every lightweight option fitted and with no oil fuel or water in it at all
Um, but we think it weighs probably about 1750 kilos
I think well the the actual number is uh
My guest actual number is in the story if you want to go and have a look at that
um
But the way the
Front axle which is entirely separate from the rear. There's no connection between the two at all. It is purely driven by electricity
The way that
That allows the car to be positioned
Also combined with the active torque vectoring that front axle provides
I was talking to
Andrew caves its chief engineer and he was saying they don't do this
But if they wanted to it would be no problem at all to get one wheel to rotate forward and the other wheel to rotate backwards at the same time
Um, yeah, which just demonstrates how effective the system can be at
Overpowering one wheel on the front axle or whatever exactly so you can do whatever you like and they have and this is very Aston Martin
Is they have tuned it
Beautifully
I mean, it's quite difficult to I probably I'll probably do it better in the story because
I think I'm better at the written word than the spoken word, but
um
It is very hard to explain
Just how impressive it is
given
What I talked about the weight of the car the fact it's front axle
Um is driven the fact that it has an electric power steering
You know, you think of those ingredients and you're going to think well, it might be very quick
They could probably make it feel quite agile, but you'll never get the feedback. It'll never feel like
Um, you're properly in touch with the road. You absolutely are
Um, and I loved it for that
um
It's got an amazing gearbox in it too
Okay, this is because there's something really weird about the gearbox
It is I think at the moment it is the first it is the only gearbox on sale
um
With an electric motor where the electric motor is mounted not ahead or behind the gearbox, but in it
Okay
Now this is the weird thing
The electric motor for reasons I don't understand
Can only drive even numbered gears. It can only drive second four sixth and eighth
Okay, yeah, I I can't get my head around this
Okay, so the question is so what happens when
You're in first third fifth or seventh so the the internal combustion engines is is in an odd numbered gear
But the electric motor is in an even number gear and what happens is it's absolutely fine
So
The Valhalla unless I've got this completely wrong
But I don't think I have because I didn't speak about this to the people who were short small for it
Is if you're in an odd number gear the Valhalla is
In two gears at the same time and somehow they make it work
Please don't ask how
Okay, let's leave that there. Let's just accept that it's true. But what it does is is it just
avoids all the shortcomings that you usually get with
Having to put the electric motor either ahead or behind of the gearbox
so then we got back and
I went out on track with an instructor and she very kindly sort of
Showed me around
helped me learn the circuit and then
It was great actually because
They just let it go on with it. Um, you just got I think I've got another 20 laps or something in two separate sessions
so a real proper go in the car and
Yeah, of course, it's really fast. There's a big long straight and you know, you're going
Down there watching telephone numbers appear on the screen in front of you. It was all very impressive
But again, they were just about the most difficult conditions
You could drive such a car in because not only was the track at times wet damp
And dry and quite often all three at the same time, but also where
Jonathan has put new bits down you can get some unbelievably dramatic
differences in grip levels on the circuit
And to cope with all of that it was as it was as tough a test of a car like that as I could possibly dream up
And there was one occasion because nobody told me about the the grip change where I did find myself sort of sailing towards
A load of gravel with the car just the abs just pulsing away
But once I'd realized what was going on it was fine after that
and and again, I just grew and grew in confidence and it is the most
You find yourself driving the car
I'm just having an absolute whale of the time and it doesn't really matter how you drive it
You can drive it very precisely and if you put it into race mode and use all the aero
And try to
You know do as quick a lap as you can that's one form of enjoyment
If you put it into sport plus which reduces the level of aero
But also in certain circumstances actually increases the amount of power
And then you dial back the it's got 10 spates
It's got 10 stage traction control on it and you dial that back to something quite silly
Um, you just you just go skidding about your heart's content in it and you're doing this and after a bit
You'll just think to yourself
I'm actually doing this in a
1076 horsepower four-wheel drive mid-engine two-seat car
And you think you were doing it in something with you know a front engine rear drive car. It's that level of engagement
and fun and controllability
And I absolutely bloody loved it
It does sound
Excellent. It sounds like they've knocked it out of the park with this car. How's the um, how's the engine?
So amg
twin turbo v8 flat plane crank very unusual for an astin
Is it a good character full thing?
No
No, and that I guess if there's a sadness and I probably didn't make this point strongly enough in the story
I'm sure there's a reason they felt the need to have the flat plane crank in it now that engine as we know
Was a recently developed by Mercedes for the amg
GT black series
Um, astin martin
Um, were allowed to use it
They put in new intakes
Pistons bigger turbos everything else
and got the power up from
720 horsepower to
850 or and then they added the hybrid drive to it hence over a thousand horsepower
but the thing is
flat plane
Why do why would you put a flat plane crank in a v8 engine?
because in
Harmonic turns it turns it into two four cylinder engines and you lose that wonderful sort of
Thunder that growl that all astin martins have
Well, you do it because that way you could spin the engine much higher
You know lamborghini the temerario that I pronounce it goes to 10,000 rpm
You know the maclarons out there go to eight and a half thousand rpm. You won't find a
crossplane crankshaft v8 of any kind
Um
Going to those sorts of numbers and obviously if you can't rev it that high the harder the the greater the greater the power
But this engine only goes to seven
Which I've got amg i've got an amg gt 55 outside which has the same basic engine in it
um with 478 horsepower
And that goes to seven too
So
They're not doing it for those reasons
I did ask
Why wouldn't go beyond seven thousand?
um
and one
Astin engineer told me that it was something to do with gas flow inside the engine, which I didn't understand
um, and another just told me uh, that engine is not allowed to go past seven thousand
um, I'm I'm sure that amg would absolutely stipulate whatever speed it be allowed to go to
but then I'll ask yourself what are you then gaining if you can't rev it and
It's a terrible thing to say, but it is
It is the worst sounding astin martin you can buy now
It's not bad sounding and in fact compared to other flat plane crank v8. It certainly sounds better than um
Something like a 750 s mclaren
um
And it certainly to me sounds worse than v6 hybrid engines like the one in a 296 gtb
um
And it definitely sounds worse than any v8 or v12 in any astin martin you can think of
um, so
I guess it might be something to do with strength longevity
um, and maybe even if you're
Not revving it that high
Producing that amount of power
From that configuration of car you need to have the flat plane crap. I don't really understand it, but
um
You drive it and you think well, this is the kind of noise that you'd expect a carbon fiber mid-engine
2c
v8 twin turbo
Super car to make
But it's not the sort of noise you expect master martin to make
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Okay, so noise aside some engine character aside
Where does the Valhalla belong in the sort of pantheon of great Aston martins?
Of any kind
Oh, I was completely out there. Um completely and utterly out there for its
For the engagement it offers for the performance it provides it is it is it is astonishing
Um
And to go back to answer my original question which I asked myself was is this car an Aston martin?
um
The things that militate against it
um
The interior to an extent the fact you can't really do very long distances in it because of the luggage capacity
Are there and they are real but?
What is very Aston martin about it is the way that it?
provides obviously huge performance, but
sensationally
Engaging handling it is a all speed issues aside
It is a wonderfully entertaining indulging and fun car to drive and yet at the same time
It is comfortable and if you stick it into eighth gear it's quiet enough and those are very Aston martin values
So obviously, you know, if you think of I don't know a dbx at one end of the scale
Valhalla is quite clearly very much at the other end of the scale
um, but to me it still falls absolutely within
the cartilage of what
I
Want an Aston martin to be in a way. I imagine and I haven't driven one
So I don't know but I can't see a valkyrie. I can see a valkyrie being one of the most extraordinary road cars that if I'd driven one
I'd ever driven
But I can't see it sitting here thinking. Oh, yeah, this is a real Aston martin
Or this is this feels to me like an Aston martin
It feels to me like
A car adrian newies attempt to do a car the ultimate road car and they and he happened to do it with Aston martin
And so that's the badge that it wears
So it is an Aston martin. It is the most extreme Aston martin. I've driven but actually
thinking back to all the
Dozens possibly hundreds of Aston's I've driven over the years. It's absolutely up there with the very best
Wow, well bravo everybody at Aston martin. It sounds like a hell of an achievement. I can't wait to have a go
And let's let's do some of the financial results because
You'll understand why the Valhalla is such an important car to Aston martin
So these are the latest results for 2025. They were published late last month
And the TLDR long story short is that 2025 was a difficult year for Aston martin
Revenue fell 21 percent from 1.6 billion to 1.25 billion pounds
CEO adrian hallmark described challenging macroeconomic conditions, which is a massive understatement
The world's a basket case at the moment all four corners, you know, it's just
It's so difficult for particularly high-end car makers and it has been for a long time
Um, so it's no surprise that Aston martin is struggling
Volumes were sales volumes were down 10 compared to the previous year that around five and a half thousand units
Um, that that won't that won't necessarily bother them that much if they're making more out of each car more money out of each car
That they build but yeah, so yeah, um, so the company lost 189 million
Um gross margin fell
But to 29 percent 29 percent is good. Isn't it in the in the car industry even at this sort of level?
um
But what they I'll I'll I'll return to that in a moment
One issue here. I mean you spoke about the slowdown in the chinese market
China only represents five percent of total sales for Aston martin these days
These days. Yeah, I wonder what it was 10 years ago
Small isn't there? It's not a big market. Yeah, it's amazing. It's not a big market
No, um last year the company announced that it was cutting 500 jobs around a fifth of the workforce
Targeting roughly 40 million pounds in savings
um
So 2025 was a a very difficult year
but
They're they're saying that 2026 is going to be a recovery year
For Aston martin and actually the final quarter of last year was pretty good because
The company delivered
A really good number a three low three digit number of valhalla's
So a huge amount of revenue came in that way and throughout 2026 several hundred valhalla's will be delivered
um
And so they're aiming for a gross margin in the high 30s because of that car
So this year looks like being a strong one for Aston martin
Perhaps even a small profit. We'll have to wait and see
um, yeah, of course, of course all these results were calculated before
Some orange tinted bloke in the white house decided to
attack
Yeah, the middle east anyway, there is that so iran. Yeah, just when companies like Aston martin were hoping for
You know more settled trading conditions
Along comes the warner on this
Yeah, it's incredible really for them and and the problem the problem just briefly on that
I promise you i'm not going to launch into some political terrain here the problem for manufacturers
Pretty much of anything but particularly luxury goods which Aston martin on questionably is
Is they are a purchase of choice?
And there is nothing
To make you less likely to go ahead and buy something you don't really need to have you just quite want to have them uncertainty
Um, because people will just think well, you know, I'll just hold off for a little bit because if this really blows up
a
My financial situation is going to look
Worse and be do I really even want to be seen driving around in a flash new million quid car?
If all the people I employ are really really hurting and i'm having to lape it
It's just not so it's just one of those things that you can just
Not do or delay doing and that is what I think is so dangerous with the situation at the moment
Is there's just you know because you have iran saying one thing and you have trump saying yeah almost the polar opposites
Nobody knows what's actually going on and you know, nobody knows whether this is going to literally this could end
By the time you listen to this podcast it could be over or it could still be going in
Years time nobody knows and while you have that uncertainty out there
You know, it would be the most understandable thing in the world for someone thinking well
I'm about to spend a million pounds on a car like this
Do you know what I think I'll just wait and see
Whether about to be pitched into a global recession
Oh blimey
Yeah, well said um
and so given that
Q4 last year was actually the only the court only quarter that astermarten
Generated any positive free cash flow as a result of those 152 val hallers that were delivered
You can see why and given that 2026 is
Should be
Around war notwithstanding a more positive year for astermarten because of those 500 or so val hallers that will will be delivered
You you understand why that car and cars like it are so important and why
They are surely going to have to be derivatives or you know
Something along similar lines at some point in the future because astermarten is going to become dependent on cars like that
I would say
um
so
Yeah, I'm not a financial journalist
So I'm not trying to be but that's the sort of headline summary of um astermarten's latest financial results clearly
Challenging really challenging conditions, but and let's just touch on this briefly. It's not because the cars aren't any good
Point no means as we said at the top of this podcast
Vantage db12 vanquish dbx valhalla
I mean there's not a car in the astermarten range
Which doesn't have at least a claim
To being the best car in the class now. We might not always agree agree that it is
Yeah, um, you know, I think you and I would think that that well, we had a v8 vantage and
An arturo didn't we um and a few other things?
We might not necessarily agree, but
Astermarten can say this car is the best in class and no one's going to laugh no one's going to say don't be silly
They might say well, I understand why you might say that
But every car is credible
Um in that role and is a possibility
um for being the best
Of that kind of car that is out there and that is that is astonishing if you think
What is it achieved without having some massive oem saying? Oh have this platform have this technology have access to these suppliers
Have this money
Um, you know, I I am lost in admiration for the job that
Astermarten's designers and engineers have done
And it pains me not as much as it pains the people of astermarten
Um, but it pains me to see the company still after all these years like I don't think really
There might have been the odd year here and there like certainly in my professional career
And also I've written a book about astermarten going back to the very start
um
And I can't remember a time
When the company ever returned a consistent profit
And I think it was founded in 1913
So that's 113 years of struggle
And it's still going on and it shows that it doesn't matter even if you make the best possible cars you can make
Cars which are so much better than they frankly have any right to be given the resources that are at its disposal compared to those of its rivals
And even that seems not to be enough
um, and it really pains me because
You know if those cars sold on merit alone astermarten will be making bazillions
Yeah, yeah
And so the the current range is excellent and there there are new s variants aren't there coming of the vantage db12 dbx
I think you're driving at least one of them soon. Um, I know drive the db12 s which I think is a
Sharp it'd be interesting to see actually because I love the db12
um
One of the one of my most memorable drives
Which is strange really because I felt awful through almost all of it was on the world because I
I think I'd eaten something at the mall and I'd had to go home
And I very luckily had a db12 and the way that car got me home as quickly as you could possibly imagine while really looking after me at the same time
Um, it's just one of those strange journeys, which you never forget. Um, so the db12 s all the s models are sort of slightly sharpened up versions
um of
The car they're based on now the the reason that they exist is
You know adrian hallmark when he arrived
Realized that what astermarten was doing was making it absolutely, you know
massively class competitive car and going right there you go
Anybody who were p and then three years later when the lease deals ran out all people got bored
Didn't have anything else to offer them
Yeah, um, and so there was no reason to buy another astermarten
So they went and bought something else instead. So that's what that's the commerce behind these s models
It's to just go to people. Well, well, you think your db12 was go try this and when you know
And give them the opportunity to upgrade
And to be yeah, and to not be seen as the person who doesn't have the s model
um
So I don't think I don't expect them to be
transformations
Like them wildly faster or wildly better than the cars they're based on but I think they'll probably be just sort of nicely optimized
We will um, we will see
Yeah, you'll report back on that soon
Well, we do need to wrap this one up fairly soon. I promise we touch on formula one
um
And astermarten would probably prefer that we didn't it's
Let's just do a few minutes on this. It's been shambolic, hasn't it utterly utterly shambolic to start to this new 2026 season these new regulations
um
It's hard to know where to lay the blame really because the issues are with the honda power unit
um, the
Well, that's what that's what that's what the astermarten formula one team say are you honda obviously say something very different
Well, perhaps the drivers have been qualifying two or three seconds off the the pace
Which is an enormous margin and then they haven't been completing races. Um reliability problems
Also the vibrations from the honda pu
Um, the drivers just can't tolerate it for a full race distance. It's extraordinary. I don't
I don't remember hearing anything like it in the sort of modern era of formula one
um
It's I feel for all the people working out that silverstone team
Because it's a good team, you know, and so much has been invested in it by
Lawrence stroll. It's an amazing new facility new wind tunnel
And it was not supposed to begin like this was it?
No, it wasn't but you know, I think we did say on some
Probably more than one earlier podcast that to think that you could put all those pieces of a new factory new wind tunnel
um
and obviously new
Uh, well, he big he was the team principal, wasn't he? Um, but you know, basically, you know chief car designer and adrian newy
And expect it to gel
Automatically and for them to come out and be winning rated. I mean, I think that was always naive
um
It's quite clear also from what adrian has been saying
Um, and I know adrian a little bit. Um
And he is nothing if not a straight talker and if he says, you know
because of
When he joined and the way things were their program was at least four months behind those of anybody else. Um
You know when you are talking about a it wouldn't have mattered so much last year
Because the because the rules
Um were so mature by then there was very little that could be gained
Whereas at the moment the learning curve is basically vertical and if you started four months behind everybody else, they're almost out of sight
Um, so I think that is a large component of what we are seeing here
um
I'm going to make a prediction
Which is I think I well, okay
The first thing I'm going to say is which is something positive about the astro marketing formula one team is that I think it is very good news
Indeed that adrian has stepped down as being team principal
Yeah, um, I never saw the point of that other than
Maybe as some kind of you know ego flattering whatever
um
It's like having your best batsman being
Making making him captain of the cricket team. Yeah, but I think it was always a sort of caretaker role
There wasn't it? I think the the point for me is that knew he was protecting
The future of the team he didn't want some team principal coming in that he did not feel he could work with long term
Oh, maybe yeah, he decided to step into that role until someone could be recruited and that's someone
According to media reports. We don't know yet is jonathan wheatley who has just left oudie
Well, I mean it is going to be jonathan wheatley, isn't it? I mean never denying it
Yeah, um and with these things it is what's not said is always just as important as what is said
Nobody's denying it. So it's so it's going to be here. Obviously and it and it's just sort of contract reasons alone that
um
Means it can't be formally announced yet
um, but why else would you have left oudie? Um, so
um
Okay, so my prediction is
It's going to come good. Um, I think
Aston martin will make more progress this season than any other team you might say they need to which is absolutely fair enough
Um, but I think by the end of the season and please by all means just come back on and remind me just how
Stupid I am in saying this but I think that by the end of this season
That they wait. I don't think that'll be top four, but I wouldn't
Put it beyond the bounds of possibilities that they might be somewhere around best of the rest
Um, I think that's enough frankly. I can't see them being top four
Even if everything else started to work
Um without some new drivers
Um, I'm afraid but you know, it's not the first time we've said that and it's a very bus a very familiar theme
isn't it everybody knows that
um, the lance is not the
Gracious driver on the grid and the Fernando although he still seems to have an amazing amount of get up and go in him
Um, you know like all frankly sports people at whatever he is 45. He's past his prime
Yeah, no shame in that
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No, um, I I agree with you. I don't know if it'll be this season, but I do think the building blocks are in place
They've got newy. Um, they presumably will have a new very capable team principal soon
They've got the amazing facility. They've got a works power unit deal
Um, I think the building blocks are there the blocks are just sort of scattered all over the place at the moment
And it's going to take time. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, that's where we're putting it
Okay, well, we'll see we'll see how aston martin's formula one season progresses now
If you want to go and read andrew's valhalla review in full and you can also read read the other andrew's
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About this episode
A remote Intercooler chat dives deep on Aston Martin’s Valhalla, framing it as a brand-defining pivot toward high-margin, limited-run hypercars. The host who drove it in northern Spain and at Navarra praises its mid-engine, carbon, 4WD hybrid setup for delivering McLaren-like confidence and precision—even with tricky visibility and a flat-plane V8 that sounds “wrong” for Aston. They compare it to the Ferrari 812/“Testarossa” and McLaren W1, then connect the hype to Aston’s tough 2025 finances and F1 struggles in 2026.
Original notes
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel review the stunning new Aston Martin Valhalla hypercar, the £1m, 1000bhp+ machine with which the British marque is taking on Ferrari and McLaren. But what is the Valhalla's one big shortcoming? Dan and Andrew also consider the health of the company overall by analysing its latest financial results, and they consider the Aston Martin Formula 1 team's dreadful start to the new season.
Use coupon code pod20 at checkout to get 20% off an annual subscription to The Intercooler's online car magazine for the first year! Listen to this podcast ad-free, and enjoy a subscriber-only midweek podcast too. With a 30-day free trial, you can try it risk-free – https://www.the-intercooler.com/subscribe/
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The Intercooler
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel
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54:01