Aston Martin’s wildest-ever car – the track-only Aston Martin Vulcan – has been taken to breathtaking new extremes with a performance upgrade package developed by the company’s new performance brand, AMR.
The Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro sports extensive aerodynamic enhancements and shortened gearing to produce increased downforce, greater responsiveness and reduced lap times. The naturally aspirated 7.0-litre V12 remains unchanged, offering 820hp and 779 Nm of torque.
The Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro’s aerodynamic enhancements begin at the front-end with louvred panels added above the front wheel arches to extract high pressure air and reduce aerodynamic lift. A sizeable pair of dive planes have been added to each side of the nose to help pin the front-end to the track and the huge front splitter has turning vanes fitted to its underside to improve steering response. Weight has also been saved with optimisation of the carbon fibre lay-up and core form reducing the weight of the engine cover by 5kg.
Changes to the rear are equally effective and even more dramatic, courtesy of a new rear wing. Now of dual plane design, rather than the original single plane item, the main element of this enormous rear wing features a 20mm ‘Gurney’ flap – a simple but hugely effective upstand on the wing’s trailing edge – which is supplemented by slotted wing endplates that sport additional 15mm Gurneys ton maximise the amount of downforce.
The combined effect of these aerodynamic changes is a major increase in downforce, from the standard Aston Martin Vulcan’s 3150Nm to a colossal 4000Nm. For comparison, the 2017 Le Mans-winning Vantage GTE produces “only” 3104Nm of downforce.
The aero changes have also improved the aerodynamic balance of the Aston Martin Vulcan, shifting its Centre of Pressure forwards bringing it closer to the middle of the car (47% compared with 41.5% for the standard Aston Martin Vulcan) to improve traction, steering response and front-end grip.
The AMR package is available only to current owners of the 24 Aston Martin Vulcans. Work is already underway on the first upgrades, with the first customer cars expected to be completed in the Autumn. In the meantime, Aston Martin will show off its enhanced monster at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week.
