The most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased is my car, which I bought from a friend for $9,000 five years ago after a brief negotiation. But imagine you have $3.2 million, and you’re in the market for the new Aston Martin Valkyrie, of which just 150 will be made. Here’s what it’s like after you pull the trigger.
Top Gear talked to Aston Martin to get a sense of what buyers will go through when they plunk down all that cash. You get a supercar, but you also get a custom livery, aided by Aston Martin’s designers. Which is good, since rich people also tend to be even more tasteless than the rest of us, and could use some help not designing a car that isn’t utterly hideous.
Do you want the track pack or not? This is a bigger decision than it seems at first blush, since the Valkyrie with the track pack isn’t street legal, and takes a few days to install or uninstall.
Virtual reality is also involved:
The whole experience seems like what you would do with a configurator on a manufacturer’s website, but instead you’re guided by professionals at every step of the process, so you don’t make too big a fool of yourself.
One thing that might be unavoidable is all the gold the Valkyrie packs in, which can be its own sort of cheesy if it’s too much, but in small doses it looks nice. The Valkyrie will be hybrid, but mostly powered by a naturally-aspirated V12 putting out over 1,000 horsepower and aided by a battery system built by Rimac.
This is all much, much more exciting than the only other time I bought a car, 10 years ago, a goddamn Saturn Ion.