The Aston Martin Valhalla: And it's legal for the road, too.

When you meet Ondrej Jirec on the Circuito de Navarra in Spain, you immediately notice the contrast between man and machine. While the Valhalla crouches on the tarmac and looks like a predatory hypercar, Jirec is exceptionally polite, down-to-earth and taciturn. But don't let his modesty fool you. His boss, Aston Martin's Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, put it bluntly during our interview: "Ondrej is a genius. You can write it like that." While he stood next to the "living object" and the engines roared in the distance, Jirec gave us a tour of a car that looks like a prototype racing car but is nevertheless road-legal.

Ondrej, we know the Aston Martin Valkyrie as an extreme, uncompromising hypercar that comes from racing. What was the core idea when you started the Valhalla project?

Ondrej Jirec: We asked ourselves: what if we took the coolest things about the Valkyrie – the Formula 1 feel, the seating position and the technical dominance – and made them suitable for the road? The Valhalla is a global car. It combines comfort and beauty with technical excellence. We wanted to create a universe that rests on two pillars: Ultra-luxury and high performance.

How do you translate two such different worlds into one visual language?

You can see this immediately from the division of the car into two zones. It is a two-colour concept. The painted surfaces symbolise beauty and luxury – we treat them like a sculpture. There are no cuts, no door handles, no visible air intakes. All technical elements take place in the carbon zone. We call the light-coloured areas Formed by Nature and the black carbon areas Controlling Nature, because they use the airflow for downforce and cooling.

That sounds like a tough battle between designers and aerodynamicists. Were there any moments when the design almost compromised the function?

You have to understand the requirements of the technology in order to solve them aesthetically. A good example is the rear haunch. We really wanted to have an absolutely clean surface there without air intakes. The engineers told us: "Then we won't get any cooling." Together we found a solution: A tunnel now runs directly through the door behind the panelling. This has increased the efficiency of the oil coolers by 50 per cent without us having to destroy the beautiful sculpture with holes.

The Valhalla is the first mid-engined sports car in Aston Martin's main product range. How does that change your work as a designer compared to a classic GT like the Vantage?

It changes everything! In a GT car, the long bonnet is emphasised, it looks elegant and set back. A mid-engined car has to look like it's ready to attack at any moment. It is in "attack mode". The proportions are wedge-shaped: low at the front, high at the rear.

You have a background in fine art. To what extent does this influence your vision of a 1,000 hp hybrid hypercar?

I went to art school in Prague before moving to Los Angeles to study transportation design. For me, Aston Martin is the perfect brand because it combines these two worlds. In my spare time, I often do "concept art" – cars on steroids, Star Wars level.

Star Wars? Can we find any of that in Valhalla?

Maybe not a specific component, but the basic setting. In films, you often only see a vehicle for two or three seconds. In that time, the design has to be so strong that you immediately understand it and remember it. The same applies to the Valhalla: when you see it at the other end of the racetrack, the graphic separation between the bodywork and the carbon is so iconic that you recognise it immediately. It has to burn itself into your memory like a good song.

There are details on the Valhalla that you would expect to see on a Le Mans prototype – for example, the transparent opening in the front wing. How do you get something like that through road homologation?

(laughs) That's the secret. It looks like it should be illegal, but it's road legal worldwide. You have to know the rules very well to be able to interpret them. Take the diffuser or the visibility of the rear tyres: Normally that would be impossible because of the impact regulations. But we worked together with the Aston Martin F1 team. They found a way to curve the bumper beams and reinforce them with a metal honeycomb structure, making the sculpted shape possible without compromising safety. It's a show car for the road.

We see the car here today in a very technical configuration. But your customers like to use the Q by Aston Martin department to realise their own dreams. Are there actually any limits to the personalisation of the Valhalla?

Almost none. With Q you can let off steam completely. It's exciting to see how different the car can look. In a modern "Andromeda Red" it looks like a spaceship, but if a customer chooses a classic Aston Martin teal with a cream-coloured interior, they are suddenly the rightful heir to a DB5 Volante. Making this palette possible without losing the aggressive basic shape was a big task.

Those familiar with the Valkyrie will know that it's a racing car with a number plate – you almost need headphones to have a conversation in the cockpit. Is the Valhalla civilised in comparison?

Let's put it this way: in the Valhalla, you no longer need internal communication headsets to understand the person sitting next to you. We wanted these 999 cars to actually be driven – and often. Getting in is much easier than in the Valkyrie. In the Valhalla, we have gullwing doors that raise part of the roof as well. But don't underestimate it: with over 1,000 hp, it accelerates like a racing car. It's more accessible, yes, but the drama and raw power of a real combustion engine are still at its heart.

Last question: If you had the keys for a whole weekend, where would your first journey take you?

Directly home to my son. He's three years old now. I would show him what his father has been working on. He loves cars, even though he'll probably still need hearing protection with the volume at Goodwood this year!