New Aston Martin Valen is a V12 Vanquish with added attitude
Imagine you are one of Aston Martin’s wealthiest customers, looking for a new addition to your car collection. Do you have the Vanquish, an elegant, decadent GT with a full-cream V12 up front? Or do you choose the Valhalla, a fiercely focused supercar with a mid-mounted, hybrid V8? It’s a textbook example of what social media calls a (hashtag) first-world problem.
Putting its hand up with one possible answer is the new Aston Martin Valen: a super-GT that bridges the gap between these two very different flagships. Based on the Vanquish, it combines that car’s brawny engine and hedonistic character with the lightweight ethos and dialled-up dynamism of the Valhalla.
Problem solved, then? Well, there are a few caveats, such as the fact that only 150 examples of the Valen will be made. Oh, and buying one will cost you upwards of £1.5 million. For those lucky enough to join the queue, though, this promises to be one of the most exciting Aston Martins of recent years. Read on for everything you need to know.
A project for the SVO division
The Valen has just made its world debut at the glamorous, champagne-fuelled Monterey Car Week in California, but I attended a secret preview inside Aston Martin’s Gaydon design studio last month. Tea and coffee were provided, even if champagne was in short supply.
Alex Long, director of Special Vehicle Operations (SVO), walked me around the Monterey show car pictured here, development of which began in 2023 – before the latest Vanquish was even launched. ‘SVO’ is a set of initials more often associated with Aston Martin’s next-door neighbour in Gaydon: Jaguar Land Rover. On this side of the fence, however, it pertains not to gaudy Range Rovers with pop-and-bang exhausts, but a small team tasked with designing and hand-building limited runs of very special cars.
“We create exquisite and timeless vehicles, offering an end-to-end service for clients who often have a direct relationship with the factory,” explains Alex Long. “Valhalla introduced us to a new type of customer. These people are looking for technical differences, not just a coachbuilt body.” So far, SVO’s projects have included the DBS-based Valour (110 units) and track-oriented Valiant (38 units). Long says the Valen pushes the envelope again, existing “right on the edge of what an Aston Martin can be”.
The design mood board, ever-present inside the studio, contains words such as ‘ruthless’, ‘ominous’ and ‘anti-hero’ in a bold font. As Long pulls back the car cover, I’m not sure what to expect.
First look at the Aston Martin Valen
First thought: nobody will mistake this for a Vanquish. The cars might be based on the same bonded aluminium structure, but the Valen’s carbon fibre panels – available painted, or with an exposed or tinted carbon finish – are all-new.
At the front, the Vanquish’s understated curves give way to aggressive angles. Slim LED headlamps are hooded beneath a jutting bonnet with a pronounced ‘eyebrow’ that extends into the front wings.
Aston Martin’s signature side strakes have evolved into vents that extract air from the wheelarches, directing it along the doors towards fulsome haunches and jagged, Valhalla-style vortex generators cut into the side skirts.
The rear-three-quarter view is definitely my favourite, though, and marks the biggest departure from the original Vanquish. For starters, Aston Martin has dispensed with the rear window, replaced by a carbon fibre tailgate with an integrated reversing camera. A glowing red light bar doubles up as a Gurney flap, avoiding the need for an elevated spoiler, while a brutal diffuser sweeps upwards from underneath.
Slash-cut vents also provide a lascivious peek at the 325-section rear tyres – semi-slick Pirelli P-Zero Rs developed specially for Aston Martin, with Cyber Tyre technology that links into the car’s stability systems.
A ruthless anti-hero
Even so, the coolest design detail on the Valen has to be its quad tailpipes. The high-mounted pair operate whenever the engine is running, then the lower two join the chorus at high throttle loads. “They give a very high perceived increase in sound, up by 50 percent versus the Vanquish,” says Long. “The noise on the over-run is thunderous.”
The engine itself is a 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12, which drives the rear wheels via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, carbon fibre propshaft and electronic limited-slip differential. A peak output of 850hp (up a token 15hp versus the Vanquish) makes this the world’s most powerful front-engined production car, with peak torque quoted as 738lb ft from 2,500rpm.
Drive like a ruthless anti-hero and you’ll reach 62mph in 3.1 seconds, then a top speed of 214mph. ‘Valen’, incidentally, is derived from the Latin word valens, meaning ‘powerful’ or ‘strong’, so it seems apposite. It also continues a tradition of Aston Martin ‘V’ names dating back to the first Vantage of 1951.
Engage Sport mode
The Valen won’t challenge a Valhalla when it comes to ultimate lap times, but it should offer a sharper, more visceral driving experience than a Vanquish.
That starts with a kerb weight around 93kg lighter than its showroom sibling, aided by “motorsport-inspired materials” such as magnesium alloy wheels and a titanium exhaust system. You can also specify the lightweight package, which adds machined-from-solid aluminum suspension arms and knuckles, plus titanium chassis bolts, to save an additional 16.9kg.
With its mighty V12 positioned well behind the front axle line, the Valen has a well balanced front-to-rear weight distribution of 53:47. It rides on Aston Martin’s tried-and-tested Bilstein DTX semi-active dampers with new springs and a solid-mounted rear subframe. “We have forgone some ride comfort for extra agility,” adds Long.
Aston Martin chassis guru Simon Newton, has also recalibrated the Valen’s steering to “make it behave like a shorter and lighter car”. Brakes are huge carbon-ceramic discs (410mm front, 360mm rear), with a booster to maintain pedal pressure when worked hard. The driver can also toggle between three modes: Sport, Sport+ and Track. The Vanquish’s easygoing GT mode is notable by its absence.
Inside the Aston Martin Valen
At odds with many of today’s shrink-wrapped supercars, Alex Long says Aston Martin customers often want to go touring – so the Valen offers luggage space to suit. Its boot holds a moderately practical 170 litres, plus you will find leather-lined pods big enough for shopping bags behind the driver and passenger.
To differentiate it from the Vanquish, the Valen has a simplified, less cluttered dashboard, with slimmer centre console that shifts some switchgear to the central touchscreen. “We wanted to celebrate negative space,” says interior design lead, Adam McKerron. You can choose between redesigned Sports Plus seats or lightweight carbon fibre buckets, with the former option shown here.
McKerron and his team are particularly proud of a new, 3D-printed metal called Scalmalloy, which comes from aerospace and combines an intricate, sculptural appearance with the lightness of aluminum and strength of titanium. Expect to see it filter down to more ‘mainstream’ Aston Martins in the future.
Driving the dream
Ready to place your order? Assuming you have the requisite seven-figure bank balance, you can visit the Gaydon factory and use the special offline configurator, which allows almost every aspect of the Valen to be customised, with experts on-hand to offer advice. You can also access the configurator at boutique ‘Q by Aston Martin’ stores, such as those located in New York and Tokyo.
Aston Martin might be making up the numbers in Formula 1, but its range of road cars goes from strength to strength. Click the links to read all of our Aston Martin reviews and discover our tested and rated Best Supercars of 2026.
Tim Pitt writes for Motoring Research