duPont REGISTRY January 2024

The designer of the Aston Martin Valhalla is the same one who drew the Valkyrie. He is also the same mad genius behind Red Bull Racing’s black magic F1 designs. He is Adrian Newey, a quiet Englishman with a cutting wit and a bald head. Among aerodynamics aficionados—people such as myself—he is referred to in hushed tones as “the man who can see air.”

When Sebastian Vettel went on his four-year championship run in Red Bull from 2010 to 2013, he did so in large part due to Newey’s reinvention of how exhaust gas blows over the diffuser deck, creating off-throttle downforce in corners that gave Vettel an unbeatable handling advantage in corner entry (and elsewhere; it’s complicated). After the FIA outlawed that trick, Newey needed a few seasons to find a secret source of aero advantage that continues to baffle the competition to this day. Vettel’s replacement, Max Verstappen, is now demolishing all winning records with the ease of a quiet summer breeze.

Like the Valkyrie, its wilder, less road-friendly predecessor, the Valhalla is a Newey creation. It doesn’t have a blown diffuser, but Newey drew up the plans for how it harnesses and shapes the wind—the way it takes flight. Powered by a powerful plug-in hybrid powertrain, the Valhalla was teased as a V-6 hybrid, like the McLaren Artura and the Ferrari 296. But when it was finally unveiled, the Valhalla was equipped with a brawnier twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 and a bewitching flat-plane-crank design sourced from the engineers at Mercedes-AMG’s Affalterbach shop.

Without diving too deep into the guts of the car—Ed Jones does that on page 12—here’s a tip my cap to Newey, whose hands are all over the Valhalla. It has a FlexFoil rear wing, which tweaks the Aston Martin’s downforce without changing the angle of attack. The wing is integrated into the bodywork. According to its designer, it generates no drag or aerodynamic turbulence. It is perfectly efficient.

Why am I going on and on about aerodynamics? Aside from being a massive Newey nerd, I’m also a huge fan of how air generates lift, and how lift makes aircraft possible. And this, dear readers, is duPont REGISTRY’s Aviation issue, in which we walk you through all the options out there for discerning buyers of fixed-wing jets and propeller planes, helicopters, and the services you need to access them immediately—from the nitty-gritty of ownership to the ease of club membership.

We also dive into the Maserati MC20 Cielo—arguably the best version of the best car that Maserati has produced since 2004. Back then, two industry titans, Frank Stephenson and Giorgetto Giugiaro, joined forces to reinterpret the Ferrari Enzo and ended up with the MC12, a homologation car of sorts that was so successful a design it took until now to make a car nearly as good. 

This is the first issue of duPont REGISTRY that will have my name on the masthead. Working here is a lifelong dream of mine. The team that makes this brand so successful is legendary in the business, a mix of energy and gravitas, of high style and deep knowledge. The best part is, they are indistinguishable from the readers: true luxury car enthusiasts who live the lifestyle others only dreamed about as kids. 

Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff. This is going to be a fun trip.