Aston Martin 1,000+hp Valhalla Readies for Series ProductionAston Martin 1,000+hp Valhalla Readies for Series Production

Aston Martin’s most radical street-legal track car, the Valhalla, enters its final on-road and circuit shakedown tests ahead of commercial production as its chairman seeks to raise more than £125 million ($161.9 million) cash injection for the automaker.

Chairman Lawrence Stroll aims to juice up Aston Martin’s brand to offset growing operating losses and attract new capital, which is being raised through his own investment firm. Lawrence is also selling his Formula One racing team, Reuters reports.

It’s the sixth time Stroll has been forced to raise capital for the brand, a total of £600 million ($770 million), since taking over in 2020 and has had to cut 5% of the company’s workforce so far.

Supply chain issues, delivery delays and depressed demand in China have plagued Aston Martin in recent years so Stroll’s Yew Tree Consortium will invest a further £52.5 million ($67.68 million) by purchasing 75 million shares at 70 p ($0.90) per share.

The deal will increase his stake to about 33% from about 27.7%, and Aston Martin says Yew Tree had expressed interest in potentially raising it up to 35%.

It added that the sale of a stake in the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One team would help it realize a premium to the current book value of about £74 million ($94.3 million).

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Meanwhile, Aston’s Valhalla “hero model,” boasting a combined power output of 1,064 hp from its plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain, is undergoing final validation on U.K. roads and also on a racetrack near Barcelona in Spain.

This track-day focused machine is being put through its paces by three-time Le Mans class winner and Aston Martin development-driver Darren Turner aided by other company engineers.

Validation processes include multiple sites at the IDIADA proving ground in Spain, with high speed and wet and dry handling circuits assessing the car’s steering calibration and active aerodynamics, as well as its braking system’s ability to cope with high temperatures without suffering fade.

At the same time, another model is having its suspension set-up pushed to its limits on U.K. roads where many other top sports-car brands conduct final suspension calibration in the knowledge that the nation’s roads are known as among the worst maintained and most challenging of any developed European nation.

The Valhalla claims series firsts, including being Aston Martin’s first series production mid-engined supercar, first plug-in hybrid and first production vehicle with dedicated all-electric range capability.

It is also the marque’s first model to use a bespoke 4.0L twin-turbo flat-plane crank gasoline V8 engine, the highest performing V8 engine ever fitted to an Aston Martin, and the first use of the automaker’s new 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT), which incorporates an e-Motor and electronic rear differential (E-diff).

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It’s also the first use of new front-axle twin motors which facilitate torque vectoring and contribute to the all-wheel drive system.

Simon Newton, director of vehicle performance and attributes, says: “For the engineering and dynamics teams, the unprecedented dynamic bandwidth that distinguishes Valhalla from its rivals has presented many new opportunities during development."

“To harness and refine the power to deliver an exceptional supercar experience on both road and track has meant tireless work has gone into the integration of active aerodynamics and integrated control systems,” Newton says. The model’s series production will be limited to 999 units.

Aston Martin has seen vehicle sales almost double in ten years, though it firmly remains a boutique brand. Sales in 2014 were 3,661 while sales were 6,030 in 2024.