Thursday 29th June 2017

Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro

Track-only Aston gets the AMR Pro treatment

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It's been quite the week for Aston Martin. With news of an all-electric RapidE on Tuesday, the announcement of a V8 DB11 on Wednesday, and now the launch of the latest addition to its AMR performance range today.

Of course you'll all be familiar with the Vulcan, Aston's 832hp, track-only hypercar. Today's news is that it is no longer the pinnacle of Aston Martin performance, being replaced at the top of the tree by the Vulcan AMR Pro. Explaining the decision to further enhance what was already an incredibly potent car, Chief Special Operations Officer David King revealed that once all 24 customer cars had been delivered, "Like anything with a motorsport mindset... we started thinking about how to make it quicker."

Exactly how much quicker we don't yet know, but we do know that the focus of the work on the AMR Pro is largely aerodynamic, with increased downforce the priority.
At the front, louvred panels above the Vulcan's wheel arches extract high pressure air and reduce aerodynamic lift. A "sizeable pair" of dive planes is attached to each side of the nose, helping to pin the frontend to the track, and turning vanes are fitted to the underside of the front splitter, improving steering response.

Further back there is a new, dual plane rear wing, replacing the single plane version used previously. This features a 20mm Gurney flap, supplemented by additional 15mm Gurneys on the slotted wing endplates. The combined effect of these changes being an increase from the 321kg of downforce produced by the standard Vulcan, to the 408kg produced by the AMR Pro. For comparison, Aston's Le Mans winning Vantage GTE produced just 317kg.

The aero changes also have the added effect of improving the Vulcan's balance, shifting its Centre of Pressure closer to the middle of the car and improving traction, steering response and front-end grip in the process. The gear ratios are shortened for improved acceleration, making the Vulcan AMR Pro even more "explosive between the corners", and 5kg of weight has been saved by optimising the design and construction of the carbon fibre engine cover. According to Autocar, the upgrade will cost between £100,000 - £150,000 with around a third of Vulcan owners expected to opt for it.

Officially revealed today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, work is already underway on upgrading the first customer cars, which are expected to be completed in the Autumn. Hopefully that paint scheme is optional!

[Bencolem]

I feel a bit cynical about this - it either suggests the car wasn't fully developed when launched or the development was 'held back' to solicit more monies from existing customers later on. Why revisit a car that has been launched and the production run fulfilled otherwise?