J'AIME DECEMBER 2018

BoP testing performed by the
SRO, the world governing body
of GT racing, is to ensure that
cars from all manufacturers can
compete on a level playing field
by either adding extra ballast or
adding a restrictor to the engines
air intake to reduce power.
By self-restricting their own
engine performance to a
BHP number in-line with the
majority of the competition,
they hope to avoid heavy weight
penalties that will hurt the car’s
cornering speed. The Balance
of Performance formula is a
dark art that requires delicate
navigating through the politics
of GT racing and is quite the
balancing act to get right (no pun intended!).
I feel that Aston Martin's approach is onto a winner;
build a fast car that is very balanced between top
speed and cornering ability so that any attempt
to equalise it by the championship won't heavily
penalise it compared to its opposition if they were to
just rely on one strength.
GT4 racing has seen an explosion in popularity
in recent years. It's the global entry-level class into
GT racing and where many amateurs and up-andcoming
young drivers start their racing journey.
The new Vantage is the latest car to hit the GT4
marketplace, with hopes of taking on McLaren,
BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes in championships all
around the world. With that in mind, Aston Martin
has engineered a car that is both very forgiving for
an amateur, yet rewards bravery when driven hard
MARTIN GETS READY
TO TEST THE NEW
ASTON MARTIN RACING
VANTAGE GT4
by a professional driver. The driveability of the car
is arguably more critical than outright performance
especially in endurance racing, as driver-errors can
be very costly deep into a three-hour race or in
the middle of the night at Le Mans, so the more
comfortable a car is to drive on its limit, the more
consistent a driver can be and not make mistakes.
Of course, as with anything in racing, the faster you
want to go the more money you have to spend, so
don't expect it to be cheap. The Vantage starts from
a cool £175,000 in its baseline racing spec, but if
you want to add on all of the bells and whistles like
the quick refuel rig and rear view cameras needed
to cope with the demands of fast pit stops and
close quarter racing the price creeps up to around
£215,000. While that sounds like a big chunk of
money (which of course it is), I cannot stress enough
how much of a great deal that is for what you are
getting. Win the lottery or sell your
house and buy this car. You can
thank me later!
Conclusion:
The AMR Vantage GT4 is the result
of what happens when you leave an
already very, very fast Vantage road
car in the hands of the guys and girls
at Prodrive. Prodrive, for the nonmotorsport
reader, are juggernauts of
the motorsport world, currently the
brains behind Aston Martin’s Factory
race team; they have helped deliver
countless World Championships
for manufacturers like BMW and
Subaru in BTCC, F1, WRC and the
World Endurance Championship. In
a nutshell, these guys know how to
build fast cars. And the Vantage GT4
is just that. Fast.
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