Showpiece of the Week: AM Vantage GT12
The 600hp GT12 wasn't a swansong for the last gen Vantage - it was the start of something special
The GT12 has an interesting genesis. Aston Martin had intended on calling it the GT3 - which says virtually everything you need to know about its development - but Porsche, being rather covetous of the badge, said no. In Zuffenhausen's defence, there's hardly any question that the Vantage was intended as a direct rival to the perennially brilliant 911; Marek Reichman, Aston's design chief, told Autocar as much when the run-out model was launched. "A growing frustration at seeing other brands' GT3 cars so well represented at track days," was how he put it - and as this was 2015, it seems likely that what he was really describing was his new CEO's dissatisfaction at seeing track day pit lanes stuffed with fixed-wing Porsches.
Andy Palmer had arrived from Nissan the previous year, and the GT12 is precisely the sort of car he felt Aston should be obliged to build. The kind of hard-edged, ultra expensive sports cars that made the manufacturer's relationship with motorsport implicit, and encouraged track time almost by default. Despite the odd tribute variant here and there, it was not a connection that Gaydon had typically sought to make explicit - or not in a way that involved significant re-engineering, lightening and bespoilering, at any rate.
The GT12 featured all three, and of course boasted the all-alloy quad overhead camshaft 48-valve 5.9-litre V12 - the deliverer of 600hp, and what Aston itself described as a 'complex howl'. The output was enhanced for the job - in Vantage S format it produced 573hp - and had been achieved via magnesium inlet manifolds and a titanium exhaust system. The less-than-perfect single-clutch, seven-speed robotised manual transmission remained, albeit with a recalibration that promised faster shifts. It was brisk enough at any rate to deliver 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds, a precious couple of tenths quicker than the already mighty quick S version.
That car - already the best Vantage Aston had ever made - was the basis for the GT12, although the crucial difference was less a question of power than it was kerbweight. To be taken seriously, Gaydon wisely determined that its track special ought to have substantially less of the stuff and set about removing up to 100kg of performance stifling mass. The aforementioned use of exotic metals in the powertrain had already removed 19kg; Aston subtracted another 20kg from the body by fitting composite bumpers, front wings, bonnet and (optionally) the roof, too.
Even more was removed from the cabin where a single layer of carbon fibre was used to replace the entire dashboard, with leather and foam substituted for a skin-thick layer of Alcantara. By the end of it, the GT12 tipped the scales at 1,565kg - not bad when you consider that this was also the broadest Vantage it had ever made. A 50mm increase in width was the most obvious sign that some significant fettling had occurred underneath the car's stretched skin, much of it gleaned (as you'd hope) from the firm's experience of building actual race cars.
Naturally, the wings and splitters and that brutal rear diffuser delivered substantially more downforce than had ever been coaxed from the S trim - so much so that the GT12's top speed is some 20mph slower than its sleeker sibling (removing it out of the 200mph club). Aston added three-stage adjustable dampers, too - and made the final Track setting fit the name. The result was a Vantage able to disassociate itself with the model's super GT instincts; one that felt every inch the sports car, and a savage, spectacular one at that.
The lesson for Aston though was not just in the building, but in the selling: it produced just 100 GT12s, and charged at least £250,000 for each one. They sold out immediately, confirming that its investment in such machines was indeed a viable venture for Gaydon, and likely to be endlessly repeatable (a formula it reapplied almost instantly with the GT8). It helped confirm the feasibility of the path that Palmer instinctively hoped to follow, one that led to the current (much sportier) Vantage and on into the AMR line, due to become a much larger part of what Gaydon does.
As for the GT12 itself, the current values reflect its standing, appreciating to the point where an example built one quarter of the way through the 100-car production run is now worth £400k. There are other examples currently available in the classifieds, but our Showpiece was irresistible in Skyfall Silver with Speedway White graphics. And with just 980 miles on the clock, the V12 could barely be called run-in. Available now for viewing at Nicholas Mee.
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