Aston Martin Valhalla review

There was a time when the idea of driving a car with a thousand or more metric horsepower, an ability to hit 60mph in two and a not very big bit seconds with a top speed of two hundred and plenty miles per hour would have stopped every motoring hack, self-respecting or otherwise, dead in his or her tracks.

Problem is, for a company like Aston Martin launching its first remotely road-sensible car capable of such feats, that time was over 20 years ago. And I was there, full of trepidation born of fear and wonderment of that moment the dial on the dash of the Bugatti Veyron showed the 8-litre, 16-cylinder, quad turbo motor to be producing 1000 pferdestärke, or 986 good old fashioned horsepower. When it happened, on a short straight on a dual carriageway on a Sicilian coast road, I could barely believe it possible.

Today Aston Martin needs half the capacity, half the cylinder count and half the number of turbos to provide actually rather more horsepower in a car weighing at least a quarter of a tonne less. But now? That’s far from what I’m most interested in finding out about the Valhalla. Such is the relentless march of time. But there’s something else going on here too.