On the eve of the global race debut for the 2024 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Daytona, Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, sat down with select media to give insight into the new car and its development process.
The 2024 Vantage GT3 replaces the previous-gen Vantage AMR GT3 which debuted back in 2018. While on the face of it, the new Vantage looks aesthetically like an entirely new car, it is an EVO of the previous model. Therefore, we will see some customers compete with upgraded cars and others race with brand-new ones in the coming weeks and months.
It’s a busy time for Aston Martin’s endurance racing department. The new Vantage GT3 and GT4 models have been developed at a time when work on the Valkyrie Hypercar programme is being ramped up ahead of its 2025 race debut.
During the roundtable, Carter was asked about the areas Aston Martin looked to improve on the previous model, the car’s test programme, sales targets and costs.
Here is the full Q&A:
Let’s start by talking a little bit about the previous generation Vantage. There were shortcomings to it. So is the main focus with the 2024-spec Vantage purely addressing those?
“Yeah, absolutely. So I’d say to do the new car was an opportunity for a number of reasons.
“One, the new road car product is coming on schedule, so we’ve lined up the product to that. Then there are the LMGT3 regulations as well, with a different performance window.
“And as a GT3 product, if you look across our stable of cars, there’s no point hiding from the fact that the GT4 car is super successful and really well-liked by amateurs. The GTE car is also ultra-successful and very drivable. But the GT3 car had got itself into a bit of position where it formed from the GTE car and had taken over some behaviours that made it a little bit more tricky for amateurs.
“So in GT3, amateurs would struggle on it. It had quite a small setup window. Sometimes an am would be ‘on it’ but they’d go to the next event and they’d just be out of the window.
Sometimes an am would be ‘on it’ but they’d go to the next event and they’d just be out of the window.
“The new GT3 Vantage is very much directed around having a wider setup window and being more drivable. Also, it’s important for us because we want the race cars to represent road cars and we don’t want people to be scared of Aston Martins. An Aston Martin road car is very drivable and confidence-inspiring and you have to carry that through in the product range as well.
“So taking the opportunity of a new car coming, the shortcomings of the previous car, the LMGT3 regs and it’s the perfect time do to it.”
So addressing the small window, is it all aero and geometry?
“The front suspension geometry has changed, the rear suspension geometry has changed and the aero has significantly changed. As part of that change, we are moving around the performance window to meet the new regulations. Also, in terms of sensitivity, there are some reasonably subtle changes combining the front suspension geometry with the aero platform to make it less fickle on the entry and turn-in phase.
“Before, it was nervous, you’d make setup changes which would then make it slightly more tricky on the exit as well. So to try and calm it down on the entry, you’re trying to balance and compromise. You ended up effectively compounding the issue. The car is now better in traction, as well as being more stable on corner exit.
“Ultimately, there are around 85 sub-components and sub-assemblies that have changed across the car. Drivability is a focus, anything from say the throttle pedal setup, through to the brakes which have changed, as well as brake cooling. It just gives more opportunity to drivers with different braking styles.
The car is now better in traction, as well as being more stable on corner exit.
“The transmission and gearbox are the same, the differential specs changed slightly. It’s very wide-reaching from electrical sensors and hardware, but because it is homologated as an Evo, you can take the previous GT3 car and upgrade. The chassis, the engine, the gearbox, etc, are all there. So there’s a large amount of underlying carryover.”
So the engine is the same? There’s a revised engine in the road car but not the race car?
“Yes.”
The platform is the existing platform, but more or less everything else has changed.
“This is true of the road car as well. The underlying chassis structure of the road car is the same.”
In terms of ergonomics, are there any changes there?
“Ergonomics in terms of driver packaging, no. In terms of driver controls, yes.”
Talk us through the journey of the development of the car. When did it all begin?
“Autumn 2022 is when we started. You have to sit back, look at the product you’ve got, get together objectives, and understand where we are and where we can get to. Between AMPT (Aston Martin Performance Technologies), the organisation I run with AMR – AMR being Prodrive – we were working with the engineering team there. It was a very straightforward conversation about where we need to go, work out design philosophies we need to employ and go from there.”
How would you describe the split in responsibilities between your team and Prodrive?
“My particular involvement is to ensure that it is steered in the right direction for the values of Aston Martin, which is we want customer racing, we want a strong pro/am and performance etc.
“That guys at AMR are more than capable of designing and developing a car, it’s about holding the direction of the kind of spec and which way you want to go with it.
“It’s about making decisions, some of them will be compromises, but it’s getting to the correct end. And it’s about kind of being that arbitrator. People are ultra-competitive. They want to build the fastest car. Well, the fastest car for an individual is not the same as the fastest car necessarily across the whole GT3 market.
“As engineering director, it’s about directing rather than micromanaging.”
The fastest car for an individual is not the same as the fastest car necessarily across the whole GT3 market
That requires feedback from the customer base you had or might like. Who has been driving that process?
“It’s a combination. I’m reasonably well known for being black and white and transparent. I will say (to customers): ‘What do you like, what don’t you like?'”
What was the decision-making process to saying yes you were going to go through with the Evo? Did GTE disappearing play a part?
“GTE disappearing is part of that. However, it’s GT3 racing even outside of let’s say those areas of GTE. Look at the growing markets of GT3. There’s a great desire and love for racing in Aston Martin, because Aston Martin started as a competition brand. It’s evolved, had a great competition history and it’s a sportscar brand. It’s more about ‘what are we going to do, how are we going to do it?’ rather than ‘should we do it?’.
“It’s super important, Aston Martin is a sportscar brand and it’s called sportscar racing for a reason. It’s just about putting the right pieces in place to make it happen.”
What is the early feedback like? Does it line up with your aims?
“In terms of the attributes that we were aiming for in Autumn 2022, have we hit all the goals? Fundamentally, yes. But time will tell.
“We’ve done 12 and a half thousand kilometres of testing, we’ve done a 30-hour test in there. We’ve had a variety of AMR factory drivers in there and had some amateurs get in to give different feedback. We’ve been fortunate enough to do some private test days where people have jumped from one car to the other, to ours and I can say the feedback is positive.”
When did the car first run? And where did it run?
“Q3, late summer, early autumn. It did its normal shakedown running across the road from us at Silverstone and it’s been out in Spain. The majority of the test work was done in Alcaraz and Portimao.”
One of the things we’ve seen with recent GT3 products is the pretty extreme moves on serviceability. What have you done in those terms?
“The front end is a clipped front, it has a quick change front. It’s a quicker change than the previous car. They’re all quicker than a road car but it’s definitely done to be much more serviceable. It is a front-engined car so it’s not going to be the same as a 296, but it is there and things like the rear wing has a better mechanism to allow for fast changes to the wing angle.”
How important to the strategy was it to have cars on the grid in IMSA and the FIA WEC in Year 1?
“We are very grateful to have received entries into the FIA WEC. Aston Martin has had a great history there, it’s been there a long time. So it was nice to see that repaid. In terms of being in that championship, it’s the FIA World Endurance Championship, and to be part of that is really important. It’s a great landscape to be demonstrating our vehicles on.
We are very grateful to have received entries into the FIA WEC
“IMSA, it’s not only a great race series within the US, it’s the most technological race series within the US. To be part of that is great.
“But beyond those championships, there’s the regional championships and GT World Challenge too.”
And how about in national championships like British GT, is it an aim to have a strong presence there?
“Yes. There is some good news coming in those areas in the near future.”
What about the cost per kilometre? Did you have a target on that?
“It’s in line with the previous car. We believe we know what the market position is. We believe we are mid-competitive. There are cars which are astronomical and some cars that are cheaper.”
What is the pricing like for the car?
“The base car is £575,000.”
And how many do you expect to sell in the first year or two?
“Very quickly I think we will see 10 racing, but by the end of the year, 30. That’s the projection.
“It’s about prioritising deliveries to suit when championships start. To get maximum coverage across all championships with the new car, we’ve got great interest from other markets.
“We are looking to fundamentally grow the whole GT3 market over time, build on it. With 30 cars by the end of the year, and we have a strong sales book at the moment, we couldn’t fill all of them by the start of the championships.
“We could have sold more cars. But the priority is about making sure they get the car, test and race relative to the stagger of championships.”
And what’s the mix of new cars and upgraded cars within that?
“I think it’s about 40-60. For transparency, the number of cars sold doesn’t mean the number of cars that will compete because some people will have a spare car. Some teams have bought a new car and an upgrade kit from a previous car as a spare.
“30 cars will be in circulation to the new spec, with numbers in the high 20s competing.”
