[ASTONmYD] Is Aston Martin planning to take on the 911 GT3?

Take a closer look at that tagline illustration above, the one from the end of the Aston video. The lower grille openings match the Aston caught testing at the 'Ring, as do the hood vents and the wide flares–though the 'Ring specimen doesn't wear the outrageous wing depicted on the illustration.

All of this evidence sure seems to point toward a Vantage built to dominate the street and the track. PistonHeads thinks just 100 of the faster, lighter, more powerful Vantage will be produced. It's an alluring possibility–one we'll have to wait for Geneva to confirm.

It provides a few glimpses of Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 race car that's been competing in the World Endurance Championship and other endurance events over the past couple of years, going up against similar spec cars from the likes of Porsche, Ferrari and more recently Chevrolet and Dodge. Towards the end of the video, we see a drawing of a possible road-going version of the race car and confirmation of a 2015 Geneva Motor Show reveal.

It looks like previous rumors of a road-going Aston Martin Vantage GT3 are about to prove true. Like the race car, the road car will almost certainly feature a V-12, although we could see output bumped up from the V12 Vantage S model’s 565 horsepower.

As the teaser reveals, a wider track, a huge rear wing and a more aggressive front bumper modeled like the one on the race car will likely be employed. Some weight-saving mods are also expected to be employed. This could include using carbon fiber for more components, adding light alloy wheels and perhaps even a titanium exhaust system.

Combined with an increase in engine output, say to the tune of 600 horsepower, the hardcore Vantage GT3 could rival Ferrari’s 458 Speciale in terms of power-to-weight ratio. Other rivals would include Porsche’s 911 GT3 and—to a lesser extent—the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Dodge Viper SRT TA. The most potent Vantage at present, the V12 Vantage S, will do 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds and hit a top speed of 205 mph, so a lighter and more powerful version could deliver even better figures.


The Geneva Motor Show gets underway in early March.


SPY Photos:
Spy images of the Vantage GT3 caught testing at the Nürburgring.  From the pictures, it is clear from the massive fender flares that the new Vantage GT3 will be quite a bit wider than the regular Vantage. As this car will be similar to the race versions of the Vantage, it will go on a pretty extreme weight-saving diet, and possibly an integrated roll cage. Expect the car to have the ubiquitous Aston-Martin 6.0 L V12 stuffed under the hood, and as it makes 573 bhp in the Vantage V12 S, we could potentially see the engine tuned to create power in the neighbourhood of 600 bhp.