I think the best description came from a senior member of the Aston Martin development team: ‘It weighs about the same as our GT3 race car, but it has over a 300hp more.’ At which point he grinned and walked away.
Aston showed the Vulcan at Geneva and many lower jawbones subsequently required medical assistance. On Wednesday it ran for the first time at an airfield with most of the team that created it watching with a justifiable sense of pride.
Factory driver Darren Turner added the first miles to the prototype and said it felt absolutely on the money: ‘We often shake-down the race cars here and this really feels little different.
‘And given how big it is on the outside, I can’t tell you how much smaller it feels inside.’
And the power? He just grinned – as the Aston Martin PR man ushered him away before we discovered too much.
The stuff you need to know is this: The Vulcan’s carbon tub is based loosely on e the One-77’s, but much altered. It is for the track only and all of the structure and safety equipment meets FIA approval. The aero package is ‘significant’ and the 7-litre V12 will produce over 800hp.
And the stuff I can tell you from seeing and hearing it and having a little sit inside? The cabin is completely outrageous, most notably the seats which are full carbon buckets trimmed in brown leather; and the steering wheel, which is pure theatre.
The rear lights look like some silly concept that could never work, but they’re the finished items and the side exit exhausts leave the vase diffuser and rear wing to do their thing.
Anyhow – it looked and sounded stunning as Darren gave it a light thrashing. Make sure you see it over the weekend at the Festival of Speed.
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