Aston Martin Valhalla now can be opened to the gods

Ok, how fast is this Valhalla Spider?

Very, in a word. Aston Martin quotes a v-max of 350km/h, for starters, while 0-100km/h takes just 2.5 seconds.

The Valhalla coupe, with its bespoke carbon tub, was Aston’s first ever PHEV and the Spider uses the same system, employing three electric motors and a twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine. Along with that maximum power figure, this system can also put out up to 1,100Nm of torque.

There’s an electric motor for each of the front wheels and another within the eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission. Interestingly, that gearbox has no reverse gear, as that’s taken care of by the electric motors up front.

And before you ask, the Valhalla’s hybrid battery – described as a High-Performance Battery by its maker - is actually very small (just over 6kWh), allowing for an electric-only range limited to about 15 kilometres. The hybrid system is designed for performance, not efficiency.

Is the roof easy to take off?

We’ve not tried it ourselves as yet, but it admittedly sounds a little fiddly in Aston’s release. A black fabric top is standard, which can be removed and stored in the car, while a carbon-fibre alternative is also available.

A wind deflector is manually clipped into place to assist the aerodynamics and cabin comfort when the roof is off, while the control of the active aero elements front and rear has been tweaked to suit.

Oddly, while you can in theory hit the Valhalla’s top speed when the roof is removed, unimpeded by anything other than concern for your hairdo, it’s limited to 200km/h (glacial) when the fabric roof is in place.

The carbon-fibre option doesn’t come with such limitations, and Aston says that there’s up to 600kg of downforce created to keep the Valhalla on the road at such a pace.

Anything else new?

See that air intake above the cabin at the back? Aston calls that a snorkel as it feeds air to the engine beneath. Well, it has been reprofiled and is 35mm taller on the Spider than on the coupe.

There are also new “stowage apertures” in the side sills accommodating up to 15 litres, designed to hold the folding wind deflector more than anything else. We don’t imagine many owners carry their charging cable around.

The dramatic dihedral-opening doors of the coupe have been carried over to the Spider, with a removal of their window frames and a slight tweak to make ingress and egress more elegant.

Oh and in the snug two-seat cockpit, the Valhalla Spider comes with a new ‘Touring’ seat as standard. This is still backed by carbon fibre but designed to be easier to get in and out of than the more extreme chairs of the coupe. Masochists can specify those for their Spider if they wish.

But if you’ve not yet started the ordering process, you may be too late, as only one in four examples of the Valhalla Spider will be produced, which means they'll be in short supply.

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