Aston Martin has a new
Vantage on its hands, and that means the Aston Martin Racing
motorsport department gets a new platform on which to build its challenger for
the GTE Pro class of the World Endurance Championship.
Aston Martin revealed
the new Vantage GTE alongside its road car cousin late last year. Both
are powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 but the race car benefits from
numerous upgrades not only to the powertrain but to the chassis and
aerodynamics as well. Just some of these upgrades include a 6-speed sequential,
carbon fiber driveshaft, a multi-plate clutch, uprated brakes and an adjustable
limited-slip differential.
Aston Martin Racing will field two of the cars in the
2018/2019 WEC season, whose first race is the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in
Belgium on May 5. Both cars will also contend the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which
features twice in the 2018/2019 season, once near the start of the season and
the second time at the end.
The so-called “super” season was necessary to accommodate
the WEC's switch to a split-year calendar where the Le Mans race serves as the
final showdown.
In a revised driver lineup, 3-time Le Mans winner Darren
Turner joins former GTE Pro champions Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen in the No.
95 Vantage GTE. They will be joined by new recruits Alex Lynn and Maxime
Martin, as well as Le Mans class winner Jonny Adam in the No. 97 car.
All six drivers have played a role in the extensive
development program of the new Vantage GTE, which has now clocked up more
than 10,500 miles of testing over the winter. Having focused on durability for
much of this time, the team is now working on the performance and tire
development phase of the program ahead of the WEC Prologue at Circuit Paul
Ricard on April 6.
The new car has big shoes to fill as the previous-generation
V8 Vantage GTE scored multiple wins since its 2012 debut, including a class
win in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In addition to the new Vantage GTEs, Aston Martin Racing
will also field the previous V8 Vantage GTE in the GTE Am class with drivers
Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy.
source: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1115290_new-aston-martin-vantage-race-car-ready-to-take-on-2018-2019-wec-season
by Viknesh Vijayenthiran
http://www.boscheuropean.com
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