The recent news that buyers of the new 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan track car were also clamoring for a street-legal version of the car came as no surprise to anybody. And the fact that, when questioned about the prospects of such a machine being built, Aston->ke13 executives gave noncommittal answers about it being difficult should also have come as no surprise. Well, it seems that we now have an official answer from Aston->ke13 brass about the car, and it isn't happening. The exact wording from Aston was “While there has been some understandable interest in a road-legal version of the Vulcan, we have no plans for one and all our efforts now are making it the ultimate Aston track supercar.”

This is in stark contrast to the Vulcan's->ke5079 direct competitors, like the 2015 Ferrari FXX K, which comes in both road and track versions. But Aston wanted the Vulcan to be an engineering showcase, something that pushed the limits of what a car could do, and laws governing what could and couldn't be taken on the road would only get in the way. A road version would mean compromises, and sometimes you just have to avoid those.

Continue reading for the full version.

Why it matters

Even more troubling than compromises, making a road version of the Vulcan would have required huge amounts of money to be spent. While converting a road car to a racer can be as simple as gutting the interior and adding a roll cage and fuel cell, the opposite is much more difficult. Since the Vulcan wasn't designed for the road in any way, it would take significant reworking of the entire car. It would essentially mean making a whole new model, and Aston doesn't seem to think that it would be worth the trouble or the expense.

2016 Aston Martin Vulcan

Read our full review here.