We’ve already told you everything you need to know about the stunning new Aston Martin Vantage, but get set to start drooling all over again, because now we’re gonna show you its track-focused sibling: the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE.
It was developed in parallel to the road car you’ve already seen, but it takes things further by ramping up the power and bolting on a load of racy exterior options.
Under the bonnet is the same twin-turbo four-litre V8 you’ll find in the regular Vantage, but instead of 503bhp, it can pump out more than 530bhp, while torque climbs from 687Nm to 699Nm.
There’s no update on its acceleration capabilities, but considering the standard Vantage can cover 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds, that extra 30bhp or so could see it dispatch the benchmark sprint a third of a second quicker.
All of its power is sent to the rear wheels and ditches the eight-speed auto gearbox in favour of an Alcon multi-plate racing clutch, Xtrac six-speed sequential ‘box.
The chassis is based on an aluminium frame from the road car, while the carbon fibre body improves on the regular Vantage’s curves by introducing a jutting front splitter, massive bonnet air vents and a rear wing you could do your streets’ ironing on.
The car has completed more than 13,000km of testing so far, including a 30-hour run at the Spanish circuit of Navarra, and it is destined to compete in the GTE Pro segment of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2018.
All of Aston Martin Racing’s current drivers have contributed to the test programme, but it will be driven by this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE Pro class winners Darren Turner and Jonny Adam.
Aston Martin Racing’s technical director Dan Sayers said designing and developing the racer had been “an extremely satisfying process”.
He added: “Attention to detail has been a priority at every step of this process and we’ve made big improvements in each area of the car.
“We’ve spent every second optimising the design right until the build of our test car, which has paid dividends during our current testing schedule.”
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