Aston Martin Valhalla Spider Revealed with 1,079PS and 217mph Top Speed

• Aston Martin’s new Valhalla Spider keeps the Coupe’s full 1,079PS hybrid output and reaches its 217mph top speed with the roof removed.
• The folding fabric roof comes as standard, with an optional carbon fibre hard top, and both versions keep the car’s active aerodynamics untouched.
• UK deliveries of the open-cockpit supercar start in the third quarter of 2027, a year after the Valhalla Coupe reached customers.

An Open-Top Supercar That Gives Up Nothing to the Coupe

Most convertible supercars trade top speed for open-air driving. Aston Martin built the Valhalla Spider to skip that trade entirely. Revealed this week at the Concours at Wynn Las Vegas, the roofless version of the mid-engined Valhalla hits the same 217mph top speed as the closed Coupe, whether the roof is fitted or stowed in the boot.

Most drop-top supercars cap their speed once the roof comes off, as wind buffeting and structural limits take hold. Aston Martin’s engineers instead built a wind deflector that clips into place when the roof panel is removed, redirecting air over the cockpit and down into the engine’s snorkel, which sits 35mm taller than the Coupe’s to compensate. With the standard black fabric roof fitted, top speed drops to a still-rapid 124mph, a limit set by the fabric itself rather than the drivetrain underneath it.

Customers who want the full 217mph figure with the roof up can specify a carbon fibre hard top instead, which comes as standard equipment on cars sold in the United States. A soft rain cover ships with every car for when the fabric roof is off and the weather turns.

The Hybrid V8 That Makes 1,079PS

Under the Spider’s carbon fibre tub sits the same powertrain as the Coupe: a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a flat-plane crank, producing 828PS on its own, paired with three electric motors that add a further 251PS. Combined output reaches 1,079PS and 1,100Nm of torque, routed through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. Aston Martin puts the 0-62mph sprint at 2.5 seconds, a predicted figure ahead of independent testing.

Two electric motors drive the front axle and handle torque vectoring between the front wheels, while a third sits inside the gearbox and assists the V8 at the rear. There is no mechanical link between the front and rear axles, so a dedicated control system decides moment to moment how much power each wheel gets, reading suspension, braking, steering and aerodynamic inputs dozens of times a second.

Removing the roof meant retuning the aerodynamics and stability systems rather than simply cutting a hole in the body. Aston Martin says the Spider still generates more than 600kg of downforce with the roof fitted, and the moveable aero surfaces front and rear continue to shift that balance depending on which of the car’s four drive modes the driver selects: Sport, Sport+, Race or EV.

Where It Sits Against Ferrari and McLaren

Aston Martin has not released a price for the Spider, but the Coupe starts above 850,000 pounds in the UK, and the open-top version typically carries a premium over its closed counterpart on cars at this level. That places the Valhalla Spider alongside the Ferrari 296 Spider and McLaren 750S Spider on paper, though neither of those rivals matches Valhalla’s claimed output or its roof-off top speed. The McLaren tops out at 206mph with its roof retracted; Ferrari does not publish a roof-down figure for the 296 Spider.

What separates the Valhalla from both rivals is its F1-derived input. Aston Martin Performance Technologies, the technical arm that also works on the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One team, worked on the car’s dynamics, aerodynamics and materials, and the carbon fibre tub uses the same resin-transfer moulding and autoclave processes AMPT applies in motorsport.

Inside, the cabin swaps little for the roofless layout. A new carbon fibre touring seat comes as standard, chosen for easier entry and exit with the roof fitted, though buyers who want the more aggressive bucket seat from the Coupe can specify it at no extra cost. The dihedral doors carry over too, now with smoother hinges and a frameless glass top edge that makes climbing in and out easier.

UK Availability and What Comes Next

Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark said the Spider builds on what the Coupe introduced, pointing to the car’s design language and its mix of road comfort and track capability as the foundation the open-top car builds on. Deliveries begin in the third quarter of 2027, with right-hand-drive cars for the UK market following the same production slot as left-hand-drive cars built for Europe and the US.

Both the Coupe and Spider are built at Aston Martin’s Gaydon plant in Warwickshire, alongside the brand’s Vantage, DB12, Vanquish and DBX models. Buyers can already choose from ten exterior livery themes, four of which are reserved for cars specified with the hard top, plus a wide range of carbon fibre, paint and interior trim options that let owners build a car that looks distinct from the next one off the line.

For a brand that sold its first mid-engined hybrid car only this year, the Spider is a quick follow-up, and it signals how Aston Martin plans to keep expanding the Valhalla range rather than treating the Coupe as a one-off flagship. UK buyers wanting one should expect order books to open well ahead of that 2027 delivery window, given how quickly Aston Martin’s limited-run cars tend to sell out.

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