Car | Aston Martin
Aston Martin - unveils its new jewels in the crown of high performance
| 2024-02-12 |     |
Timed to coincide with the international debut of the new Vantage road car, the spectacular new Vantage GT3 mirrors the latest showroom model’s intensified performance, sharpened dynamics and eye-catching style, translating those qualities into a formidable new GT racer and starting the next chapter in Aston Martin’s illustrious motorsport history.
Speaking of the exciting new GT racer, Marco Mattiacci, Global Chief Brand and Commercial Officer of Aston Martin said: “Simultaneously revealing the new Vantage and Vantage GT3 race car underlines Aston Martin’s commitment to building the world’s finest sports car, and then proving its capabilities on-track. “It also signals a closer relationship between our road and race programmes, with Aston Martin Racing benefitting from the exceptional pool of talent, experience and knowledge forged in Formula 1® and found throughout Aston Martin Performance Technologies. “The result is a truly state-of-the-art GT racer; one that clearly shares its DNA with the latest Vantage road car, yet is perfectly evolved to suit the latest GT3 regulations. “Descended from a succession of multiple world championship-winning predecessors, the new Vantage GT3 is proving irresistible to an impressive international roster of leading GT racing teams. Hungry for victory and poised to build upon Aston Martin’s extraordinary track record, the world’s greatest endurance races are firmly in the Vantage GT3’s sights.”
The Vantage GT3 is a comprehensive evolution of the ultra-successful and recently retired Vantage GTE and GT3 cars, which made their debuts in 2018. Sharing their mechanical architecture – and that of the new Vantage road car – the Vantage GT3 is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis structure and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine. Boasting a dramatic, all-new nose-to-tail aerodynamic package, comprehensively revised suspension and state-of-the-art electronics, together they endow this latest-generation Aston Martin GT racer with world-beating potential. The Vantage GT3 is the first product of the pioneering collaboration between Aston Martin Racing (AMR) and Aston Martin Performance Technologies (AMPT), as Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s Head of Endurance Motorsport, explains: “The new GT3 is our first opportunity to use AMPT to play a role in leveraging the capabilities, attitude and methodologies of all of Aston Martin’s various nerve centres, which we’ve then combined with the unrivalled GT programme management expertise of AMR. The GT racing programme will serve as a development lab that will lead to an increasing transfer of knowledge and approach into future Aston Martin road cars”.
The latest in an iconic bloodline, Aston Martin is proud to introduce the new Vantage. The quintessential Aston Martin sports car and the most driver focused and fastest Vantage in the famous nameplate’s 74-year history, it is an authentic, unadulterated celebration of pure performance, engineered to deliver maximum thrills with maximum confidence.
A design refocused through a contemporary lens, Vantage champions the qualities that have gripped enthusiasts for generations but are increasingly hard to find in today’s sports car market. As such Vantage makes a stand for disenfranchised devotees of breathtaking power, razor-sharp handling and the perfect balance of a finely-tuned front-engine, rear-wheel drive chassis. The announcement of a new Vantage follows the successful introduction last year of the acclaimed DB12 Coupe and Volante. Further strengthening Aston Martin’s next generation of sports cars, Vantage reaffirms the brands position in the ultra-luxury, performance sports car market alongside its leading roles in the ultra-luxury sporting GT, SUV and hypercar arenas, and the highest echelons of world championship motorsport.
The new generation Vantage continues a remarkable lineage that can be traced back to 1950, when the Vantage name was first used to denote an uprated engine package for the race-proven DB2. The first time Vantage was applied as a model designation was in 1964, when a high-performance Vantage-badged version of the DB5 became the new flagship of the range. A standalone Vantage model was introduced in the early 1970s, from which point the nameplate has played an increasingly prominent role in Aston Martin’s model line-up. Synonymous with immaculate style, unforgettable performance and inimitable character, Vantage embodies the sporting qualities for which this evocative name has become renowned.
This new Vantage reflects the most dynamic period in Aston Martin’s 111-year history. A formidable force in the 2023 Formula One® season, a dominant presence in international GT racing, where Vantage has a rich history as the most successful endurance GT racer and – with the recent announcement of Aston Martin’s quest for outright victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours race with the Valkyrie AMR in 2025 – a front-line challenger in the World Endurance Championship.
Aston Martin boldly presents a bloodline born for the racing line, with the unprecedented unveiling of three cars on the same day, representing the racing heart of the British ultra-luxury manufacturer and its commitment to integrating motorsport technologies in its high-performance cars for the road.
Fittingly unveiled on the day that the marque’s AMR24 Formula 1® challenger first touched the tarmac at the home of British motorsport, the new Vantage is the quintessential Aston Martin sports car and the most driver focused and fastest Vantage in the nameplate’s history. Having been introduced in the year of the first World Championship Formula One race at Silverstone in 1950, the 74-year history of Vantage runs side-by-side with that of the famous circuit that Aston Martin’s team now calls home at the cutting-edge AMR Technology Campus.
Engineered for real drivers, Vantage’s authentic, unadulterated celebration of pure performance, technically crafted to deliver maximum thrills with maximum confidence, sits naturally alongside the marque’s visceral challenger for the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship™. Both cars represent Aston Martin’s ambition to be a leader in high-performance technologies and on track, with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team seeking to build on its best-ever season in 2023, claiming nine podiums and 280 Championship points under the expert control of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Between these two weapons of road and track sits the Vantage GT3 racer, inspired by the production sports car whose famous name it shall boldly carry to some of the world’s most prestigious endurance events including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024. The Vantage GT3 takes the supreme qualities of the new production model and evolves it into a formidable new GT racer that will write a new chapter in Aston Martin’s illustrious motorsport history, having scored a remarkable 52 class wins and 11 world titles between 2012 and 2023 with the ultra-successful Vantage GTE.