Mid-engined Valhalla could be the final piece in the Aston Martin jigsaw puzzle

We mention Lotus for a reason. The Valhalla might be three years in the making, but talk of a mid-engined Aston long predates that, back to when Aston Martin signed Lotus’s chief engineer, Matt Becker, in January 2015.

Becker had been responsible for making mid-engined Lotus models do what they do – their agility, soft-touch ride, steering purity and brake feel – to a greater or lesser extent since he started as an apprentice at Hethel in 1988. Now it seems Becker's expertise in making mid-engine machines handle beautifully will be put to good use building the Valhalla, ironically, more than two years after he left Aston Martin.

And there's plenty to get the gearheads frothing at the mouth in anticipation. Starting with the powertrain. The Valhalla serves up 1,079PS (793kW) and 1,100Nm (811lb ft) of torque courtesy of a 4.0-litre 'hot' twin-turbo Mercedes V8 and three electric motors. The engine alone – the same flat-plane crank unit from the old AMG GT Black Series, but with a new intake and exhaust – produces 828PS (609kW) with the extra 251PS (184kW) coming from electricity.

It's a combination that means the Aston is "predicted" to get from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds (as ‘luck’ would have it, it's the same time as a Ferrari SF90 Stradale) on its way to a 217mph top speed that eclipses Maranello's plug-in hybrid supercar by 6mph.

But there's more to this Aston than just the raw performance.

Its mid-engined balance should serve corner-entry fluidity and exit traction alien to anyone who has driven a front-engined Aston. Technology plays its part here, too. Each front wheel gets its own electric motor, which opens an as-yet-untapped world of power distribution and torque vectoring. A third motor is sandwiched inside the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, torque-filling the time between you pressing on the accelerator and the turbos pumping the big V8's lungs as it sends power to the car's rear wheels via its electronically controlled limited-slip differential.

Whether Aston can give its own plug-in hybrid the character lost in the SF90's technological mist remains to be seen. What it does mean is that the Aston can drive silently on electric power for short distances, as expected of an eye-wateringly fast modern supercar. In the case of the Aston, it has an eight-mile electric range at speeds of up to 80mph. The front electric motors also serve as a reverse gear to save weight. The battery's capacity will likely be under 10kWh, but Aston hasn't confirmed it yet.

The downside of all the clever tech – a well-trodden path of the plug-in hybrid supercar – is weight. The Aston comes in at a relatively lardy 1,655kg dry – 100kg more than initially planned – and that's despite it using carbon fibre for the body panels, with aluminium subframes hanging off a carbon fibre tub that has a “lower section” weighing less than 75kg. McLaren's Artura comes in at a comparatively featherweight 1,395kgs.

Much like many of McLaren's cars, the Aston Martin's styling suffers from the over-familiarity of a car that has, in some way or another, been talked about and teased for three years now. Perhaps it's just as well that the bodywork is as much about downforce as it is about style. An active front and rear spoilers, not to mention a vast venturi-ducted diffuser, mean the Aston can generate 600kgs of downforce at 149mph. The Aston's WRC-style roof scoop feeds air to the car's charge coolers, and the four-pipe exhaust splits between two funnels in the engine cover, with a pair of exits feeding directly into the diffuser. Even the car's pushrod front suspension setup has aero in mind, bringing the bulky components inboard and away from the wheel assembly.

On wheels, the Valhalla gets 20-inch rims at the front and 21s at the back, hiding 410mm and 390mm ceramic discs, respectively, with Michelin Pilot Sport S 5s supplying the grip. Or you can upgrade to a set of magnesium alternatives that shave 12kg of the car's unsprung weight and come shod in Cup 2s. 

It all sounds racy, and you can imagine the Aston will feel it from inside. In pictures, the Valhalla looks much narrower than one of its front-engined big brothers with interior space; you can imagine, compromised to the benefit of aerodynamics. There's a built-for-a-purpose feel to the interior design, too, with bare carbon fibre replacing the thick leather in one of the company's GTs. Jewel-like physical controls make way for two large screens, a row of conventional buttons and a pair of centre-console-mounted air vents. Decent usability should be guaranteed because the car comes fitted as standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

And that's about everything we can tell you for now. Aston will build just 999 Valhalla's with prices starting from £850,000. Whether Aston's new mid-engined supercar can mix it with the likes of McLaren and Ferrari remains to be seen, but it's hard to argue that the company is in a stronger position than it has been for years. Big things are expected from its cash-rich, Adrian Newey-employing F1 team, and its latest GTs – the Vantage and Vanquish – now have the performance (and interiors) needed to mix it with the big boys. The Valhalla could be the final piece in the Aston Martin jigsaw puzzle.