Over the years, Aston Martin has built and released the Vantage GT4 for competition in European GT4 races. This year, the British automaker is releasing the newest version of the Vantage GT4, only this time, it’s bound to unleash its fury on American soil for the first time.
It’s an ideal time for the Aston to release the Vantage GT4 in the US, especially after its successful return year to the American LeMans series where it bagged wins with the Aston Martin DBR1-2 prototype in a number of races, including Long Beach, Mosport, Mid-Ohio, Road America, and Laguna Seca.
For the 2012 racing season, the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 will be built and raced by Toronto-based partner Multimatic Motorsports. The car itself will be re-dissected for racing purposes, which means that all of the luxury amenities of the road version will be removed in favor of race-spec equipment. Certain parts will also be added, including a new splitter that increases downforce at the front of the car, as well as a new carbon fiber diffuser, and a redesigned underfloor that creates an area of low pressure under the rear of the car, increasing the car’s overall downforce.
One thing that will remain with the car though is its 4.7-liter V8 engine, which Aston has used ever since it began building the Vantage GT4 back in 2008.
For the 2012 season, Multimatic Motorsports will be fielding two cars, which will be driven by some noted drivers, including Scott Maxwell, Joe Foster, Ston Martin, chief engineer Chris Porritt, and Hollywood actor-slash-racer Patrick Dempsey.
UPDATE 01/25/2012: Aston Martin has announced that the beginning of its Grand-Am campaign will be on Friday, January 27th during the first round of the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) at the Daytona International Speedway. The company will join forces with Toronto-based Multimatic Motorsports to enter a pair of Vantage GT4s in the Grand American Road Racing series. "The first round of the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Daytona will see Aston Martin realize a long-held desire to have the Vantage GT4 competing regularly in North America. Aston Martin Racing has built and sold nearly 100 Vantage GT4s since we raced the first one at the Nürburgring 24 Hour race in 2006, and it’s great to be present at last in such an important market with such a strong and experienced partner as Multimatic."
We kinda feel bad that the North American International Auto Show is being pushed to the side by all this buzz surrounding the Geneva Motor Show. But such is the case with arguably the biggest auto event in the world; only Frankfurt can match Geneva in magnitude.
But that’s neither here nor there at this point. What’s important is that automakers are slowly revealing their company plans for Geneva, even if its still three months away. One such is Aston Martin, which, according to GTSpirit, is prepared to unveil a roadster version of the vaunted V12 Vantage at Geneva. There’s not much in the way of details, but news of the V12 Vantage Roadster’s arrival has been years in the making, as evidenced by spy shots of the car dating all the way back to a few years ago.
The wait for this car has definitely taken longer than any of us expected, but at the very least, we can finally mark down our calendars to see what kind of supercar this is shaping to look like.
Numbers have yet to be confirmed, but the word is that the V12 Vantage Roadster will carry a 6.0-liter V12 engine producing 510 horsepower and 420 lb/ft of torque.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates as far as Aston Martin’s plans are for this car. Just keep crossing your fingers and hope that Aston does have plans for the official unveiling this coming March.
Aston Martin will be going to the races in 2012 with a new Vantage GT3 race car, which was just unveiled by the British automaker. The new model will join the current Aston Martin racing line-up that includes the Vantage GT2, GT4, DBR9 GT1, and AMR-One LMP1.
John Gaw, Aston Martin Racing Managing Director said: "The DBRS9 has been a very successful GT3 racing car and, despite being more than six years old, is still competitive today. However, the competition has moved on and we needed to create a new car that combines our six years’ experience in this category with the latest race technology to continue Aston Martin’s success in GT3 for many years to come."
The new Vantage V12 GT3 is based on the V12 Vantage production car that’s already out in showrooms and its addition to the line-up of other Aston Martin race cars makes the British brand the only automaker to have a specific race car for every GT class.
UPDATE 11/21/2011: Aston Martin has announced that it has started testing the new V12 Vantage GT3 3 at Brands Hatch in Kent this week, covering almost 1000 kilometers in just two days with factory driver, Darren Turner, behind the wheel. John Gaw, Aston Martin Racing Managing Director, said: “The testing of the new V12 Vantage GT3 has gone really well. We haven’t had any significant issues with the car, despite having covered close to 1000 kilometers, exceeding all our expectations in the car’s first track test.
UPDATE 11/25/2011: If a few days ago we have reported that Aston Martin started to test the new V12 Vantage GT3 race car, now is time to actually see the car in action. After watching the video we can tell you one thing for sure: that car is fast! See for yourself!
Find out more about the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 after the jump.
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The Aston Martin V12 Zagato has had its time to shine and Danish coachbuilder, HBH, is ready to step into the spotlight with their response to the vehicle. After months of trickling rumors about a new supercar, the company has finally revealed their new Bulldog GT, based off of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage.
HBH may not be a well known company, but their work done on the insane Zenvo ST1 supercar - they created the design - is enough to pump us up about their new project. The Bulldog GT pays tribute to the legendary 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog, a one-off test vehicle produced by Aston Martin. It is powered by the V12 Vantage’s 6.0-liter V12 engine coupled to a twin-supercharger system to achieve 666 HP. Unfortunately, its top speed falls just a bit short of the original Bulldog (186 mph vs 191 mph), but we’re still hoping it gets past the testing phase.
Hit the jump to read more about the new HBH Bulldog GT.
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For all the excitement surrounding the 2011 SEMA Auto Show, the lack of European exotics present is one of the things that we think should be changed. For their part, Galpin Auto Sports - yeah, those boys from Pimp My Ride - want to change that, or at least hope to, by bringing a tricked out version of one of Britain’s best supercars, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage AMWH, to Las Vegas.
As one of a total of 12 vehicles being brought by GAS, the V12 Vantage AMWH comes with a bevy of exterior modifications, to go with a subtle performance upgrade. To begin their project, GAS dressed the British supercar in a flat-matte paint finish with matching black-painted trim pieces on the grille and the window surrounds. The American tuner also gave the car plenty of carbon fiber material, including on, but not limited to, the mirrors, the rear diffuser, the interior door panels, climate-control vents, and strut braces. Rounding out the exterior modifications for the V12 Vantage are a new set of 20" matte black wheels.
In terms of the slight performance improvement, GAS added a Flowmaster exhaust system that added 10 horsepower to the V12 Vantage’s 517-horsepower 6.0-liter V12 engine. Do the math and that totals to 527 ponies for the stealthy British exotic beast.
UPDATE 12/10/11: A new batch of photos of the Aston Marting V12 Vantage AMWH have been released by Galpin Auto Sports. Check out the British supercar in its new digs in the gallery below!
