This is the most extreme version of a car that was already quite extreme in the first place. It is called the Aston Martin Vulcan ‘AMR Pro’, which takes Aston’s track-only super-hyper-thingy and ratchets up the insanity to face-melting levels.
Yeah, we thought the same. Never in our experience with the Vulcan did we think, ‘nah, you know what, this needs more downforce and more accelerative power’. Silly us, and our feeble human limits.
Aston Martin thinks otherwise. “Once we’d built and delivered all 24 Vulcans,” explains AM VP David King, “we started thinking about how to make it quicker.” Oh lordy.
So, let’s start at the front. There are new louvred panels added on top of the front wheel arches in order to get more high pressure air, and reduce lift. Then come a “sizeable” pair of dive planes on each side of that herculean nose which Aston reckons makes the pointy end of the Vulcan even pointier and grippier.
That front splitter also gets turning vanes on the underside for better steering response, and there’s a carbon-fibre lay-up and core form that reduces the engine cover weight by 5kg.
At the back, the difference is more stark. Namely, an even bigger, new rear wing. It’s a dual plane nutjob, with a 20mm Gurney flap, together with slotted wing endplates with 15mm Gurneys to max out the downforce. One can never have enough Gurneys, let’s be frank.
The net result is a downforce figure that a) eclipses even the Le Mans-winning Aston Vantage GTE racer, and b) is too significant to comprehend in rational human terms. A colossal 2,950lb of downforce is now available, compared to the ‘regular’ Vulcan’s 2,323lb, and the Vantage GTE’s 2,289lb.
Suffice to say, your organs will have long given up before this thing loses traction. The revised aero pack also shifts the pressure forward and more central than before (again, aiding traction, steering and front-end grip), while the gearing has been shortened which, according to Aston works driver Darren Turner, “makes it even more punchy when you accelerate”. Oh, goody.
The pack will be installed by Aston’s Q division, and the first customer cars will be finished later this year. “When you get the aero working through a fast corner it really is an unbelievable feeling,” Darren Turner adds. “I can’t wait to see the customers’ faces when they experience it for themselves.”
Admittedly, there’s no more power, but when you’ve got an 820bhp, 7.0-litre naturally-aspirated V12 strapped inside, that’s no hardship.