The Aston Martin GT12 is the company’s response to the plethora of other manufacturer’s GT3 sports cars on show at track days, according to design director, Marek Reichman.
In fact, the GT12 would have been given the moniker of GT3 if weren’t for the fact that Porsche indicated that they felt some sort of ownership over the ordering of the two letters and a number.
The GT12 it is then – and ironically, the slight distancing the name change gives the car makes it stand out even more. Standing out is what it certainly does, as the GT12 is based on the supremely good Aston Martin Vantage, taking core aspects and adding to it, to give us Aston Martin’s version of a GT3.
Before you grab your chequebook thinking that £250,000 (before any options are added) isn’t all that much for a car of this calibre, note that only 100 will ever be made and all of them are – unsurprisingly – already sold.
The GT12 is a full 50cm wider than a standard Vantage and sits lower too. It’s also 100kg lighter. This all makes for a great handling and good cornering track day car. The extra weight saving comes in the form of optional plastic windows for both the rear screen and rear quarters, carbon fibre bonnet, bumpers and front wings – you can even opt for a carbon fibre roof as well.
Conversely you might think, the top speed drops from 205mph to 185mph. But this is a balance between speed and handling; the splitter (look at how prominent this is on the image above) coupled with the diffuser creates such ground hugging downforce that some of the top speed is knocked off in lieu of being able to stick to the road like a limpet. 0-60mph also falls by 0.2 seconds to 3.5 – and if you claim you can notice that, then I’d suggest you’re not in the zone and enjoying the ride.
As you might expect, all this weight saving goes hand in hand with a bit of extra power – and 592bhp from the V12, 5.9 litre engine is pretty impressive. It’s actually an increase of 27bhp over the Vantage S.
You get 3 modes with the Aston Martin GT12; Normal, Sport and Track. Adjustable dampers take care of the handling and ride quality for each.
The GT12 looks absolutely stunning in carbon fibre, white and orange. I once sat in a meeting with a design agency that told us that certain colours evoked certain feelings of quality, aspiration and even cheapness. They told us that orange was not a ‘wealthy’ or ‘classy’ colour. I couldn’t have disagreed more and zoned out at this point in the meeting. There’s a reason so many supercar manufacturers use orange as a colour for their concepts and show cars – and it isn’t to evoke ‘cheapness’ I can assure you.
The Aston Martin GT12 is a great car – and you get a titanium exhaust system too; what more could you ask for?
Images: carmagazine.co.uk, autocar.co.uk
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