Aston Martin AMR, officially announced today at the Geneva Auto Show, will be the company’s new top-of-the-range trim for roadgoing cars. Sort of the equivalent of BMW’s M, Mercedes’ AMG, and Jaguar’s SVR. Aston Martin AMR Pro cars will be even hotter and built for track use only.
Aston Martin is billing the move as a “reconnection to the brand’s motorsports heritage.” You could also look at it as a great way to get even more mileage out of their old platforms. Frankly, I’d have no problem with that. Aston’s designs would be hard to improve upon.
I’m not totally sure how I feel about the big catalog of farkle the AMR cars are wearing (I don’t need that much downforce hauling ass down Mulholland) but the color combination, good grief, it’s the coolest “performance spec” delineator I’ve ever seen!
Red is played, and Vibrant-Lime-Green-accents-on-Stirling-Green-paint is beautiful and original and perfect and I need it in my life.
Aston Martin’s press release mentions that the company’s won the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT Drivers Championship, taken class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and “countless victories” in GT3 and GT4 since establishing Aston Martin Racing (AMR) in 2004. Hence the “AMR” name here.
The company’s CEO Andy Palmer has already confirmed production of a Rapide AMR and Vantage AMR Pro car with 210 and seven cars respectively. Build counts are going to be pretty lean. But even if you miss these, you might still get your chance to own an Aston AMR in this most excellent color combination. Palmer referred to the company’s strategy as “a programme that will eventually see an AMR version of every model in the Aston Martin range.”
The Rapide will apparently be the world’s fastest production four-door car, even though both “production” and “four-door” are a stretch here. A grand total of 210 examples isn’t exactly a big batch, and have you ever tried to sit in the back of one of these? (It’s not great.)
Whatever. The Rapide AMR will be rated to a top speed of 210 mph with an engine output of 592 horsepower (600 PS) justifying all those flashy blades of carbon.
The Vantage AMR Pro gets a 500 hp (507 PS) V8 evolved directly from Aston Martin Racing’s GT4 race engine. That little monster’s paired with adjustable suspension, special mounts for the engine and transmission and significant stiffening throughout.
Aston Martin AMR vehicles will be developed with the company’s primary engineering teams, while the AMR Pro vehicles will be cooked up at the Q by Aston Martin Advanced Operations skunkworks.
It does not appear that pricing’s been announced yet, so if you have to ask, I wouldn’t hold your breath.