Aston Martin Vantage GT4 is the brand’s new entry-level racer | GRR
Aston Martin has completed the Vantage puzzle with the official reveal of its entry-level racing car that you can buy yourself if you fancy a new toy for your track days, the new Vantage GT4.
It joins the roster alongside the new Aston Martin Vantage road car and the previously revealed Vantage GT3 racing car that will race in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA Sportscar Championship in 2024, stopping by at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
Touted as an “evolution” of the previous Vantage GT4, this new model “shares around 80 per cent of the road car’s structural and mechanical architecture.”
Manufactured by AMR, the team behind racing Astons since the DBR9 in 2005, it’s formed from a bonded aluminium chassis fitted with a race-spec roll cage. Overall, this car in GT4 spec is 140kg lighter than the production-spec Vantage at a dry weight of 1,465kg.
The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is taken from the road car but supplemented with a Bosch Motorsport ECU with bespoke AMR software used primarily to allow for adjustments in engine management for varying Balance of Performance requirements but also to apply motorsport-specific traction control. Power has been reduced from the standard 665PS (489kW) to 476PS (350kW) with variable boost pressures. That is supplemented by a more lightweight racing exhaust.
The transmission is also a direct carryover from the production Vantage but with the addition of ZF/AMR software that converts the standard eight-speed auto into a six-speed, manual-only paddle shift.
Adjustments have also been made to the suspension, primarily to cater for the tiny 18-inch wheels the GT4 car runs on, but also to allow for a suitable camber range for racing setups. This latest Vantage GT4 also makes use of new two-way adjustable dampers from KW.
It’s been designed using F1-style Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to optimise aerodynamic efficiency. That said, the only body panel changed from the production-spec is the bonnet, which is made from a natural flax-fibre composite, and incorporates additional air outlets to help with engine cooling, which is much improved on this new Vantage GT4. Intricate new brake ducts have also been developed to aid performance without affecting the aerodynamics.
Other additions include a front splitter and a fairly understated rear wing, a much smaller appendage than that on Vantage GT3 at least, that all come together to mean this new Vantage GT4 boasts an increase in downforce and a reduction in drag over its predecessor.
Despite this public reveal, the new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 has already been in action over in the US with an appearance in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Daytona. You can expect to see them reach all four corners of the globe before long, though, as Aston says it’s in the process of fulfilling more than 40 orders from customer teams.