So while those big active wings can make big downforce, Aston reduces their effect past 150mph, rejecting a tremendously high headline downforce number so that it can avoid incredibly stiff suspension to resist the aerodynamic loads. I mean, it’s still making 600kg of invisible push from 150mph to its 217mph top speed, but above 150mph it bleeds off the wing effect, which means its suspension can have a lower natural frequency so remain softer and smoother-riding. I’m for this.
I’m told I won’t need to use the nose lift on any of the speed bumps I encounter here in northern Spain, and I’m quite keen on that too. The Valhalla has the makings of one of the more habitable of the prototype racer-style road cars. And I think that’s important in a carbonfibre-shelled car, because the material is so rigid and uncompromising when it comes to stiffness and harshness. Aston doesn’t want its cars, even these ones, to feel raw; it wants its drivers to feel good, not intimidated.
There are four regular drive modes, namely EV, Sport, Sport+ and Race, and you can select your preferred suspension stiffnesses and drivetrain responses in a preset too. After a brief flirtation with EV (still quite noisy in the cabin but the mode of choice for not waking the neighbours), I try Sport on the road. It makes for a very natural-feeling blend of characteristics. Like Ferrari with the Testarossa or even Audi with the new RS5, Aston is living in the realm of complexity versus complication.
It wants a complex car to feel uncomplicated to drive, and on the road at least it has nailed it. There’s a flow to the Valhalla, an evenness of response, a slickness of steering and ride and a linearity of engine/motor urge. Excitement? Sure, that too. Flat-plane engines don’t produce traditional Aston V8 growls but at, say, 30mph, selecting third gear and giving it beans elicits tremendous immediate response as the turbos spool, and you hear it all. It’s right behind you and the tub is carbonfibre, after all.
But really it takes a race track to get a feel for the whole caboodle and, in the conditions I found one (rather wetter than those pictured here), even then there are limits to how far around the rev band in higher gears one can go. The sound? Quite hollow; less raspy than a flat-planed Ferrari, perhaps. Not spine-tingling, but I liked it. I won’t routinely use enough of it that I’m likely to trouble the 410mm front and 390mm rear brake discs to anything like their thermal limit, either.
