Spied testing at the Rockingham circuit in the UK,
the Aston Martin Vantage GTE is still wearing black and yellow geometric camouflage, just
like the road-going prototypes we've seen to date. But there's no mistaking
this for the competition version, what with the road-scraping ground effects
protruding from underneath the bodywork, that giant wing affixed to the rear
deck, the blistered wheel arches, and the extra cooling.
The big question is what engine's under the hood. It
sounds more like a turbo eight to our ears, with that throaty roar and telltale
turbo whine. Besides, nobody uses a V12 in GTE – they're just too heavy. For
its part, Aston Martin Racing has traditionally deployed a V12 for GT1 and
prototype classes, with a V8 in everything from GT2/GTE on down – including the
current model that won the LMGTE Pro class at Le Mans this year.
That racer packs a larger version of the automaker's
V8, bored out from 4.3 liters to 4.5. The old V12 displaces nearly 6.0 liters,
and the new twin-turbo V12 in the DB11 comes in at 5.2. Either one would need
to scaled down to comply with the rule book: no more than 4.0 liters with
forced induction, or up to 5.5 without.
A competition-spec version of
Mercedes' 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, like the one in the eight-cylinder DB11 and
expected to power the new road-going Vantage. The Ferrari 488 GTE and
aforementioned BMW M8 GTE use a similar setup, but with the Mercedes-AMG GT3
sticking with the naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 from the old SLS, the turbo
eight would have to be developed specially for the purpose.
