Aston Martin Launches New 2018 Vantage GTE
Aston Martin unveiled its new FIA World Endurance Championship challenger this evening. Introducing the 2018 Vantage GTE.
Based on the brand new Vantage road car, this racing machine is set to replace the recently retired Vantage in Aston Martin’s factory racing outfit. The team have already been racking up the miles in testing, including a successful 30-hour run at the Navarra circuit in Spain and a rigorous session durability programme at Sebring, Florida.
Housed under the bonnet is a Mercedes AMG-derived 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 engine capable of producing over 400kW of power and more than 700 Nm of torque. The new car gets new shoes too. AMR formally confirmed their switch from Dunlop to Michelin during the launch, meaning for the ‘Super Season’ almost the entire GTE Pro field is set to run next season on Michelin tyres – BMW have not announced their supplier yet but are expected to confirm the use of Michelin rubber.
“Designing and developing this new car has been an extremely satisfying process.” Said Aston Martin Racing Technical Director, Dan Sayers. “We’ve collaborated closely with Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters to develop the road and race cars in parallel. Attention to detail has been a priority at every step of this process and we’ve made big improvements in each area of the car. We’ve spent every second optimising the design right until the build of our test car, which has paid dividends during our current testing schedule.”
Not only was the new car announced at the launch, but AMR confirmed five drivers who will be participating in the GTE programme. Darren Turner, Jonny Adam, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen have been retained as part of the team, and they’ll be joined by Alex Lynn between his DS Virgin Racing Formula E duties.
The FIA WEC ‘Super Season’ kicks off with the pre-season test in April at Paul Ricard.
This article was originally published on Overtake Motorsport.
Shared with permission from the author.
Cover image: Aston Martin
