Aston Martin is reportedly looking at building a road/race version of its current V12 Vantage S, with the use of lightweight materials giving the increased performance.
Aston Martin engineering boss Ian Minards suggests that significant weight loss is possible from the existing 1665 kg V12 Vantage S. “It would be relatively easy to lose 100 kg from the current car. That much could be saved by removing the air conditioning, simplifying the interior and fitting lightweight seats.”
Following a similar approach to Porsche with its 911 GT3, such a car would build on Aston’s significant experience with racing the Vantage in production-based categories. Of course, Porsche has been down the lightweight performance gain many times before. Remember the 1973 RS Carrera which was 60 kg lighter than the standard 911.
Aston CEO Ulrich Bez also suggests there’s more to be squeezed out of the 6.0 liter V12 than the current 421 kW/620 Nm outputs. Such an improvement to the V12 Vantage S’ power/weight ratio could exceed the current 911 GT3 and approach that of the Ferrari 458, and could see the Vantage S zero to 100 km/h coming significantly under 3.9 seconds.
However the project is still in conceptual form and yet to be given the go-ahead from Aston management, which would make any production debut in 2015 at the earliest.
