On Friday Aston Martin teased the new Aston Martin Vantage AMR and, luckily, we didn’t even have to wait a week before the marque dropped this beautiful piece of manual-transmission machinery into our laps. You can collect your jaws off the floor now.
The biggest question of the car’s few teasers has been answered. The Vantage AMR, part of Aston Martin’s race-inspired performance trim range for its road-going cars, will be graced with a third pedal. Its seven-speed manual transmission has been optimized for track activity by pairing it with carbon ceramic brakes.
With a top speed of 195 mph provided by a 4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, it sounds like it’ll be one hell of a fun car even though it isn’t as quick as the regular Vantage (the AMR Vantage’s 0-60 time is 3.9 seconds; the regular Vantage’s is 3.5).
The engine’s low placement and the fact that it’s pushed as far into the chassis as possible gives it a near-perfect 50:50 weight distribution, according to Aston Martin.
That whole “weight” thing is another one of the key elements of the Vantage AMR—namely, that Aston has shredded as much of it as possible for better weight optimization. The AMR should weigh about 209 lbs less than its standard Vantage counterpart.
Aston Martin is only making 200 Vantage AMR units priced as high as $204,995, so you’ll have to act fast if you want one. One hundred and forty one of those will be available in some handsome optional designer trims—but the final 59 will all be made to the same specs to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their 24 Hours of Le Mans victory. Those special ones—called the “Vantage 59"—will be decked out in Stirling Green paint with Lime accents, which is, honestly, one of the best-looking color combinations possible.
If you have your heart set on the Vantage AMR but don’t quite manage to get your hands on one, don’t fret. Aston has said that the regular Vantage will have a manual transmission option in the first part of 2020 after all the AMRs are sold out.