Aston Martin Racing has taken the wraps off the car it will campaign in the World Endurance Championship GTE category next season.
The new Vantage GTE is powered by a four-litre twin-turbo V6 engine developed by AMR engineers, replacing the previous model that won the GTE-Pro drivers' title in 2016.
It was formally unveiled at an event in London on Tuesday, coinciding with the release of the new Aston Martin Vantage road car.
"Designing and developing this new car has been an extremely satisfying process," said Aston Martin Racing technical director Dan Sayers, who led the development of both Vantage GTEs.
"We’ve collaborated closely with Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters to develop the road and race cars in parallel."
"Attention to detail has been a priority at every step of this process and we’ve made big improvements in each area of the car. We’ve spent every second optimising the design right until the build of our test car, which has paid dividends during our current testing schedule."
The Vantage entered the development phase in February, and has since logged 13,000km in testing.
It has already completed a 30-hour endurance test in Spain, as well as a 'rigorous durability programme' at Sebring in the United States.
Seven members of Aston Martin's 2018 driver lineup were present at the launch, including former Williams F1 development driver Alex Lynn, who will make his debut with the marque next season.
2016 GTE-Pro champions Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen have been retained, as have defending Le Mans winners Jonny Adam and Darren Turner.
Recently crowned WEC GTE-Am champions Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda were also on hand to reveal the car.
"It’s terrific to be involved in this exciting new chapter for Aston Martin Racing," said AMR managing director John Gaw.
"The increasingly tough competition in the GTE class and the prospect of two visits to Le Mans and a return to Sebring within the 2018/19 super-season is thoroughly tantalising."
"To conduct the development process of this car so closely with Aston Martin’s design and engineering teams was essential for both road and race car to retain the same underlying DNA."
"We believe the Vantage GTE will bring further success worldwide to Aston Martin Racing in the coming years”.
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