Aston Martin’s Vulcan Takes to the Track for the First Time at Le Mans
It wasn’t in the 24 hour race, the Vulcan has finally turned a wheel in anger during a special support race.
Aston Martin and Le Mans go hand in hand, so what better place to debut the new Vulcan race car than the Circuit de la Sarth? With a trio of Vulcan race cars into a special Le Mans Festival Race, Aston Martin put on a spectacle for fans of the brand.
The Vulcan, as many remember wasn’t technically supposed to be developed for racing, but where there’s demand, Aston Martin will deliver. The V12 super coupe wasn’t in the 24 hours of LE Mans, however. Taking part in the festivities of Le Mans, the three Vulcans were part of a short endurance support race exclusively for cars from the British marque.
Car number 14 driven by pro racer Peter Dumbreck and renowned auto journalist Chris Harris put on a clinic, taking the win by an easy margin, and even beating out the No. 6 and No. 8 Vulcan racers, which were also entered by Aston Martin Performance Centre. As well, Aston Martin even had the Vantage GT3 racing debut, but due to it not being homologated to GT3 spec, it was simply an exhibition run.
Aston Martin Racing has seen a lot of racing success at Le Mans, taking class wins in 2007 and 2008 with the GT1 rules in place. When the rules switched to LMGTE, they took home class wins in 2014 in LMGTE am, and three years later another win in LMGTE pro in 2017. For the Vulcan, Le Mans rules will change again in the near future, potentially allowing the Vulcan to show its wares in the big race. What about the AM-RB 001 Valkyrie as their supercar entrant you may ask? Well, with Red Bull’s switch to Honda power in Formula 1, it’ll be interesting to see if that car actually makes it to a final phase of development.
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