What's the news?
While Aston Martin is gearing up for its works assault on the World Endurance Championship with the GTE version of the new Vantage coupe, it hasn't forgotten its legion of customer racing teams, and is busily prepping GT3 and GT4 versions of the sexy new sports car.
Both cars, which replace the old V12 Vantage GT3 and V8 Vantage GT4, will be built at Aston Martin Racing's HQ in Banbury, near Oxford, and they've got some big shoes to fill - the outgoing cars were regularly winning races, titles, and championships a dozen years after they were first created.
41 Vantage V12 GT3s were built in that time, with 37 sold to customer racers, and they racked up the British GT Championship title in 2013, 2015, and 2016, plus the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup ProAM title, and the Blancpain GT Asian Series.
The more affordable GT4 version, which saw 124 being made, took British GT honours in 2014, and 2015, and the North European GT4 ProAm title in 2016.
This time around, there'll be one engine on offer - the same 4.0-litre turbo V8 unit (closely related to the engine which Mercedes makes for both road and racing version of the AMG GT Coupe) and both GT3 and GT4 versions will draw very heavily on what Aston has learned from building the GTE version for the works Le Mans and WEC campaign.
Aston Martin Racing Managing Director John Gaw said: "We are very proud of the heritage we have established as a leading supplier of customer GT cars, with customers racing our cars all around the world. We told the clients who first purchased our GT3 cars seven years ago, that they would be buying a car that would be capable of winning races for years to come. This year we have already proved that with the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3's successes in the British GT Championship. That longevity is something that separates us from other manufacturers. I expect the new GT3 and GT4 to be just as competitive as the cars they are replacing and to remain so for a similar period of time."
David King, President, Aston Martin Racing, added: "In motorsport the qualities you're most striving for are a competitive edge, driveability and the durability to deliver upon it. We've been able to deliver this to our customers for more than a decade with our Vantage GT4 and more recently with the V12 Vantage GT3. In the new Vantage GT3 and GT4, we intend to build on those attributes as well as continuing to deliver the best looking cars in the paddock."