Do people who own Ferraris and Lamborghinis make fun of you because your Aston Martin is too slow?
Well, Aston Martin Racing is ready with a weaponized remedy, ready to torture all your tormentors: meet the AMR-branded family of Aston Martin cars.
Linking its road cars with its race cars, AMR is a new high-performance sub-brand that will offer track focused abilities and aesthetics across the Aston Martin model range. Sharing a name with Aston Martin’s racing division, AMR splits into two tiers – the first rung featuring visual upgrades with minor mechanical changes, while AMR Pro cars get more performance pedigree, with a focus on track driving.
“Each time we have pushed the boundaries and done something extreme, the customers have loved the cars. AMR enables us to take Aston Martin into a new dimension. One where we can turn up the sporting DNA present in all of our models and make a true statement,” said Marek Reichman, chief creative officer at Aston Martin. “An AMR model will have an instantly recognizable design language. One that accentuates and amplifies, together with the latest GT race car technology for the road. They will be special and rare cars that are credible, thrilling to drive and hugely desirable to own.”
To launch the brand, Aston Martin brought a pair of concepts to the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, the Rapide AMR sedan and the Vantage AMR Pro.
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The Rapide AMR has been given a new larger diameter quad exhaust that borrows the 6.0-liter V12 from the Vantage GT12, giving it a new sinister snarl. Visually, it gains new carbon fiber front splitter, side sills, rear diffuser, deck spoiler and a reworked honeycomb grille. It will also ride on new 21-inch wheels that combine with AMR’s signature Stirling Green paint and lime colored details to give the Rapide a conspicuous confidence.
Moving inside, lightweight carbon fiber buckets wrapped in Dark Knight Alcantara with lime green accents are featured, while the center console and door casings are both crafted from composite.
For very serious drivers comes the Vantage AMR Pro. Using a 500-hp, 4.7-liter V8 pilfered from AMR’s GT4 program will make the track-exclusive Vantage AMR Pro the most powerful Vantage ever sold to the public. In keeping with the crazy, track-only theme, it gets a race-spec fully adjustable suspension, along with competition-spec engine and gearbox mounts, 19-inch center locking wheels, and Michelin Pilot Sport 2 rubbers.
Also swathed in AMR’s signature Stirling Green paint, the Vantage AMR Pro borrows the same hood and rear wing as Aston’s World Endurance Championship-winning V8 Vantage GTE. The car also gets a new front splitter, rear diffuser and gaping full-length honeycomb grille. The interior received the same treatment as the Rapide, plus a new roll cage.
Aston Martin’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Andy Palmer, was quick to confirm both the Rapide and Vantage concepts would make production, albeit in limited quantities. “I’m incredibly excited to announce that we will be putting both the Vantage AMR Pro and Rapide AMR into production: the Vantage in an extremely limited series of no more than seven cars; the Rapide as a run of only 210 cars.
“They are the start of something very exciting – a program that will eventually see an AMR version of every model in the Aston Martin range”.
