Private customer commission delivered by Q by Aston Martin Advanced.

• Private customer commission delivered by Q by Aston Martin Advanced
• Most extreme roadster ever produced by Aston Martin
• Showcases Q by Aston Martin’s capability to deliver truly bespoke cars  

Aston Martin today unveiled its most extreme roadster ever in the unique form of the one-off Vantage GT12 Roadster. A tailor made customer commission undertaken by Q by Aston Martin, the Vantage GT12 Roadster takes the original Vantage GT12 Coupe’s hardcore ethos and adds the visceral thrill of open-top driving, offering the driver an intensified sensation of exhilaration and the unfiltered fury of a 600PS V12 soundtrack.

Conceived and delivered within a nine-month period, the Vantage GT12 Roadster draws its origins from the Vantage GT12 Coupe, with a special 600PS version of the brand’s 6.0-litre normally aspirated V12 engine mated to a seven-speed Sportshift III^tm paddle-shift transmission. Technical highlights include magnesium inlet manifolds with revised geometry, a lightweight magnesium torque tube and a full titanium exhaust system.

The most visible differences are the significant number of new carbon-fibre body panels, while beneath the skin a unique suspension set-up defined by Aston Martin’s in-house dynamics experts, helping to ensure the Vantage GT12 Roadster shares the same exceptional handling characteristics as the Vantage GT12 Coupe. Naturally being a product of Q by Aston Martin, the Roadster also features bespoke paint and trim.

The Vantage GT12 Roadster is a significant landmark, for it is the first time a customer has been able to call upon the full scope of Aston Martin’s design and engineering capabilities as part of the Q by Aston Martin bespoke commission service. Initially offered as a means of providing fully personalised colour and trim combinations, the service has been continually expanded. With the incorporation of Aston Martin Advanced Operations - the team responsible for the original Vantage GT12 Coupe, along with low volume in-house projects such as the Aston Martin Vulcan, Lagonda Taraf and One-77 - customers can now commission highly ambitious full-scale design and engineering projects. 

David King, Vice President and Chief Special Operations Officer, says of the Vantage GT12 Roadster: “Aston Martin has a growing reputation of building ambitious commissions for customers, perhaps the best example being the spectacular CC100 Speedster Concept. We have also become world leaders in ultra-low volume projects with cars such as the One-77, Lagonda Taraf and Aston Martin Vulcan, while the Vantage GT12 and Vantage GT8 show how far we can take our series production models.

“The GT12 Roadster is the first project to combine all of those skill sets in one magnificent car. In just nine-months we took a customer’s dream and realised it, with a fully-formed, exactingly engineered and fully road-legal one-off. That is the essence of the Q by Aston Martin service”.

Dr Andy Palmer, Aston Martin President and CEO, commented: “The Vantage GT12 Roadster is a hugely exciting project. Not just because it’s sensational to look at, but because it vividly demonstrates the expanded capabilities of Q by Aston Martin. By incorporating the exceptional engineering capabilities of Aston Martin Advanced Operations within the Q by Aston Martin bespoke commissioning service we have a truly formidable creative team.”

Aston Martin teams set out to conquer the infamous Nurburgring in Germany.

Luxury British sports car maker Aston Martin, along with its race team Aston Martin Racing, today announces an ambitious five-car assault on the 2015 ADAC Zurich N24 endurance race at Germany’s infamous Nürburgring.

Aston Martin Racing heads to the world-renowned endurance event on 16/17 May with a pair of works V12 Vantage GT3s, and has its sights set firmly on the outright race win in the top SP9 class.

While Aston Martin has been racing at the annual Nordschleife event for a decade, 2015 is only the third time that its works race team has entered the top SP9 class for GT3 cars.

In 2013, with the car running in the iconic blue and yellow livery of Aston Martin’s technical partner Bilstein for the first time, the team finished tenth after leading the gruelling race for more than half the running time, and in 2014 it finished fifth. This year, Team Principal John Gaw is confident that the race win could be within sight.

“The worst thing you can do at the Nürburgring is underestimate it,” he commented. “However, we’ve shown in the last two years that we have the potential to take the outright race win.

“We’ve learned a lot here, and this year we come with two cars which are well proven and reliable, and a strong driver line-up. The race win is the ultimate goal.”

Aston Martin Engineering Team

Continuing its tradition of intensive product prove-out at this unique and gruelling race, Aston Martin will also enter two race-prepared Vantage GT12s in the event’s close-to-production SP8 class.

The Vantage GT12 was launched to worldwide acclaim in March this year at the Geneva Motorshow, with all 100 examples sold before the car was publicly unveiled. Taking its inspiration directly from Aston Martin Racing’s Vantage GT3, the Vantage GT12 benefits from the learning drawn from the brand’s ten years of racing and developing its road cars at the Nürburgring.

In the 24-hour race, the Vantage GT12s will run as close to production specification as possible with only required racing safety upgrades added, emphasising its track capabilities and demonstrating its durability under the most intense conditions.

David King, Director of Special Projects and Motorsport at Aston Martin said: “This is a unique event where our professional AMR race team and our Gaydon engineering team come together to compete as one entity. The team spirit is very special and we learn a great deal, both technically and organisationally, each year. I am very proud that we have kept a 100 percent finishing record over the past ten years and we will be doing everything possible to maintain that.”

He added: “We are very fortunate to have the continued backing and technical support of partners Bilstein and Castrol, as well as tyre partner Michelin who have been selected as tyre supplier for the Vantage GT12 road car.”      

Finally, to celebrate the company’s tenth year at the race, the brand’s line-up will be completed by a Vantage GT4 to be driven by Aston Martin non-executive chairman, Dr Ulrich Bez, and presented in the same yellow livery as the original Vantage N24 he drove in 2006.

The Nürburgring 24 Hours starts at 16:00hrs CET on 16 May. Follow and support the team on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now Periscope using #teamAMR.