Aston Martin GT4 racer revealed: lighter and less powerful than the road car

There are Extremely Very Serious Racing Enthusiasts – the type who’ll buy into Ferrari’s XX programme, for example – and then there are Reasonably Committed Racing Enthusiasts – the type who’ll stick a wing on their Honda Jazz and pop down to Brands Hatch.

Sitting somewhere in the middle are the Very Serious Racing Enthusiasts who’ll swap paint in endurance racing’s junior categories and use high-end machinery on prestigious circuits to hone their skills. To this group, allow us to present the new, upgraded Aston Martin GT4. A car with less power than its road-going variant.

But then, the new £160k Vantage has been stuffed with a load of power – some 656bhp. And unlike the unrestricted road car, the Vantage GT4 racer is of course beholden to BoP regulations and as such, develops a still-very-healthy 470bhp and 472lb ft of torque.

That’s packaged inside a svelte new racer that uses around 80 per cent of the road car’s structural and mechanical architecture. To the new Vantage’s bonded aluminium bones comes a custom roll cage and a twin-turbo V8 with tweaked software, a lightweight exhaust system, and better airflow (to the brakes, too).

There’s a map for the eight-speed automatic gearbox too that ‘locks’ out seventh and eighth gear (fitted in the road car for cruising and better mpg), to turn it into a six-speeder with better gearshifts. The traction control’s been modified to run a “motorsport-specific” tune, as you’d expect.

New KW dampers are present and two-way adjustable, and the entire car has been tweaked after “extensive feedback” over the past six years of competition to feel more precise and maintain its ‘friendly’ traits. Aww.

Saying that, still looks Very Serious indeed. It takes the majority of the new Vantage road car’s body panels, but adds a new lightweight bonnet, a larger front splitter and a new rear wing. GT4 regs mean you can’t change much, but these small tweaks give it improved downforce and less drag than the outgoing Vantage GT4.

Suitably pared back inside, too, featuring a new Bosch display replacing the road car’s new setup. And of course, it looks rather excellent in its familiar Aston colourway. 

“We currently have more than 40 partners in active competition across the broad spectrum of global GT racing, many of whom are running multi-car, multi-class programmes,” said Aston’s brand and commercial boss Marco Mattiacci.

“This level of engagement underlines our commitment to all levels of motorsport competition as well as building closer ties with our wider community of fans and followers, many of whom fell in love with the brand through our successes in sportscar racing and at Le Mans.” Very Serious Fans And Followers, of course.