Aston Martin have unveiled their new hypercar, named Valhalla, and now there’s one more item to add to the list I like to call ‘things I’ll never own’.
The new car will set you back a cool £1.5 million, but if you’re willing to splash the cash you’ll be one of just 500 lucky owners.
You’ll also have bragging rights for days because the new Aston Martin is set to star alongside Daniel Craig in the next James Bond film. Fingers crossed it’s a David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider kind of scenario.
The car was initially called the Aston Martin AM-RB-003, but opting for a more catchy name, the company settled on Valhalla instead, to keep in line with their Norse mythology and ‘V’ theme. Previous cars include the Valkyrie, the Vanquish, and the Vantage.
Andy Palmer, chief executive at Aston Martin, told Forbes:
Norse mythology contains such powerful language and rich storytelling it felt only right that the AM-RB 003 should follow the Valkyrie’s theme.
For those fortunate enough to own one I’m sure they will recognize and appreciate the name’s connotations of glory and happiness, for there can be few more hallowed places than the driver’s seat of an Aston Martin Valhalla.
The hypercar has been developed in collaboration with the F1 team Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and features a mid-engine design, lightweight carbon fibre body, and a specially-developed tubrocharged V6 petrol engine, linked to a battery-electric hybrid system.
The Valhalla has a top speed of more than 200mph, and is believed to have around 1,000bhp – enough to go from zero to 60mph in less than three seconds.
Good news for classic car lovers though, as the Valhalla isn’t the only Aston Martin to be featured in the new James Bond film. It’s also been revealed two older models will be making an appearance, featuring signature Bond gadgets, guns and ejector seats, as MailOnline reports – the DB5 and the V8 Vantage.
Bond has long been a lover of Aston Martins, first driving the iconic DB5 in 1964’s Goldfinger. While the V8 Vantage was featured in the 1987 film The Living Daylights.
As the car company said:
Named after the warrior’s paradise celebrated in ancient Norse mythology, Valhalla follows Valkyrie on Aston Martin’s journey into the highest echelons of road car performance.
Together with the recently announced Vanquish Vision Concept, Valhalla continues this proud, seven decade old ‘V’ car naming strategy, providing an evocative and powerful moniker fit for one of the world’s most compelling ultra-high performance cars.
Let’s just hope Daniel Craig recovers well from breaking his ankle on set so he gets to drive the hypercar himself. He has already adopted a cleaner lifestyle to get in shape for what is expected to be his final outing as the Martini-loving spy.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.