5 Of The Fastest Cars Aston Martin Has Ever Made, Ranked By Top Speed

If ever there were an automotive brand to be associated with the concept of "posh," it would be Aston Martin. Originally founded out of a small workshop in London in 1913, the brand has become synonymous with the very best (and most expensive) that British automotive engineering has to offer. Aston Martin is the brand that created the first car utilized by James Bond; that's how you know this is a manufacturer that knows a couple of things about style.

Of course, style isn't all that Aston Martin has going for it. After all, style without substance is meaningless flash, and Aston Martin's modern supercars and race cars are more muscular than they may appear. To drive an Aston Martin supercar at top speed isn't just driving about getting from place to place in an expedient fashion, it's a commitment to both panache and function, a "personal statement," to crib a few words from "Skyfall." Naturally, some of those personal statements resound a bit louder than others, with top speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour.

In ancient mythology, Vulcan, also known as Hephaestus in Greece, was the Roman god of fire and forge, the father of the practices of smithing and metalworking, not to be confused with the pointy-eared guys from "Star Trek." Anything that would bear his name would have to be an exceptional piece of craftsmanship, fine-tuned to the millimeter to deliver utmost excellence. Aston Martin took a hearty crack at pleasing the Roman pantheon with the Aston Martin Vulcan.

The Vulcan is quite the fireball of a vehicle, a supercar purpose-built for use on the track. The Vulcan featured a 6.0-liter V-12 engine, capable of going from 0 to 60 in a little under 3 seconds. If you put the pedal down and really get the fire burning, you're looking at a top speed of about 208 miles per hour. Theoretically, if you were to remove the large rear wing to reduce drag, it might be able to go even faster, though that would be outside of the vehicle's specs and expectations of performance.

It could be said that every race car and supercar on the market are locked in a perpetual, vicious conflict, a never-ending battle for superiority. If you're looking to win such a battle, it would make sense to give your vehicle a name that implies superiority in the warmaking arts. When you want to send a message to your competitors, you do it concisely, and with the Aston Martin Vanquish, the implication is rather obvious.

The 2024 iteration of the Vanquish comes equipped with the latest tech the engineers of Aston Martin can dream up, with the highlight being the 5.2-liter V12 Twin-Turbo engine. With 835PS and 1000Nm of torque, this beast of a machine pushes the limit with a top speed of 214 miles per hour, one of the highest top speeds ever seen in an Aston Martin production vehicle. In the brand's own words, the Vanquish is the result of years upon years of careful development and iteration, with performance specs doubling those of its previous-generation V12-equipped vehicles.

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is the hall of Odin, greatest of the Norse gods and king of the realm of Asgard. In Valhalla, gods and honored warriors ate, drank, and made merry in perpetuity. Valhalla is pretty much the coolest, most fun place in the universe, so trying to name a car after it is a bit of a tall order. Nevertheless, Aston Martin gave it a swing with its own Valhalla to showcase both high-speed performance and technological development.

The Valhalla is Aston Martin's first hybrid supercar, utilizing a proprietary combination of gas and electric motors to deliver a new kind of performance. A V8 engine is teamed up with a pair of battery-powered 150 kW/400 V e-motors, delivering a grand total of 998 horsepower. That adds up to a top speed of 217 miles per hour, going from 0 to 60 in about 2.5 seconds. It may be a hybrid, but the Valhalla can tear it up as well as any gas-guzzler.

Many of the supercars and race cars produced by Aston Martin incorporate certain design sensibilities, from sharp, wind-cutting angles to fierce, pointed profiles. These designs are all cool, certainly, but sometimes, less is more, as the saying goes. As a luxury brand, it's on Aston Martin to bring out the style in whatever design it creates, even one that's a bit more subdued than some of its siblings, and all without sacrificing performance.

The Aston Martin One-77 is the product of that stylish know-how, featuring a minimalistic design with strategically placed swoops and curves. Of course, a minimalist design doesn't mean minimal muscle, which is why the One-77 packs a 7.3-liter V12 engine. Combine that with a lightweight carbon fiber and aluminum body, and you get top speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. There's a reason the One-77 won the design award for Concept Cars and Prototypes at the 2009 Concorso d'Eleganza Ville d'Este: it's quite a stylish ride, which is probably why only a handful of them were made.

Returning once again to the realms of Norse mythology, the Valkyries were a group of warrior women who answered directly to Odin, flying across battlefields on their steeds to select worthy combatants for entry into Valhalla. The Valkyries were figures of awe and respect for all Norsemen, which means if you're planning on taking their name, you'd better not be approaching the matter half-heartedly. At the risk of incurring Odin's wrath, Aston Martin offered up the Valkyrie.

The limited-run Aston Martin Valkyrie flies across the racetrack at impressive speeds thanks to its hybrid framework, including a 6.5-liter V12 engine and a torque-enhanced electric motor. These two powerhouses team up to deliver a mighty 220 miles per hour of top speed, rocketing from 0 to 60 at about 2 seconds and change. While the base model's top speed is roughly equivalent to that of the One-77, the Valkyrie breaks ahead of the pack thanks to its latent potential. Specifically, the AMR Pro model, tuned specifically for high-intensity racing, can push the limit even further to a top speed of 250 miles per hour. That's definitely not street legal, but who has the guts to tell a Valkyrie to slow down?