Motorsports-inspired road cars have always been a special one, as long that particular marque inherits decades of motorsports heritage. Aston Martin is one of them, and now they’ve just unveiled the 150-unit only Vantage GT8, which is inspired by their GTE race car program in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
It gets the standard Vantage’s V8 motor which makes 440 hp and 490 Nm of torque. However, with the GT8, it gets 10 additional horsepower. The engine is paired to either a six-speed manual or Aston’s seven-speed Sportshift II automatic. The resulting outcome is a century sprint time of 4.4 seconds with the manual transmission. Top speed is rated at 304km/h.
Weight reduction is vital for the GT8, and it tips the scales at 1,510kg. That’s 100kg less thanks to the use of carbon fibre for the bucket seats and body parts, magnesium wheels and lithium ion battery. There’s an option for a more hardcore Aero Pack, which includes a humongous rear wing and front splitter that turns the Vantage GT8 into a replica GTE race machine. Race grade items such as carbon fibre roof, polycarbonate rear windscreen and titanium centre mounted exhaust can be specced as well at an added cost.
However, unlike its GTE machine where the interiors are bare basics with a single racing seat and roll cage, here it retains much of its road usability. Hence this can be had with an air conditioning, infotainment setup with audio system support and so on.
Now here’s the tough part. The Vantage GT8 is far from cheap at £165,000 (approx RM907,500 based on today’s rates), but its allocation is also running very thin now. Fret not, because this is just the first of two special edition cars from Aston Martin for 2016 as part of their product offensive strategy. That makes us wonder, how soon can we see the more hardcore, special edition DB11? Only time can tell.
IMAGE GALLERY
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