British supercar maker Aston Martin has unveiled the Vantage F1 Edition based on the official 2021 safety car of Formula 1.
Do not be fooled though, for the Vantage F1 edition does not come with the safety car lights or gadgets, which is a bummer, really. Instead, it is touted to be the most track-focused production Vantage to-date.
With an objective to improve the lap times the regular Vantage can set, Aston Martin used the same engineering it put into the official F1 safety car, but without any compromises for road use.
Starting with the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, the boffins at Aston increased the power output by 25 PS to 535 PS (peak torque remains unchanged at 685 Nm), and the 8-speed automatic transmission was reworked to reduce shift times.
When it came to the chassis, underbody modifications were made to increase front structural stiffness to improve better steering feel and response. The engineers also reworked the damper internals to improve vertical body control, while the rear spring rate was increased too.
However, the best modification one can do to a car is give it some top-spec wheels and tyres. The 2021 Aston Martin Vantage F1 edition sports 21-inch wheels (regular Vantage has 20-inch rims) and even lower profile tyres developed specifically for the variant by Pirelli.
Any attempt at improving a car’s performance on track would be incomplete without aero, for we know for a fact that adding a wing to a car instantly makes it faster (no pun intended).
So, Aston bolted onto the Vantage F1 edition a comprehensive aero kit consisting of a new front splitter, front dive planes, underbody turning vanes and rear wing. Combined, they provide the car with 200 kg more downforce than the regular Vantage at top speed, all the while improving its overall aero balance.
Still, in order to drive home the fact that this model is not the regular Vantage, Aston also fitted the car with a vaned grille and quad exhausts and gave it 2×2 twill carbon fibre exterior detailing and unique graphics.
To sit at the top of the Vantage model line, the new Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition comes with distinctive exterior colours (in satin or gloss finish) including paint schemes of the 2021 Aston Martin F1 race car and the safety car.
Inside, the supercar comes with Obsidian Black leather and Phantom Grey Alcantara upholstery and trim, with a choice of Lime Green, Obsidian Black, Wolf Grey or Spicy Red contrast stripe and stitching.
Available in coupe and roadster forms, the Vantage F1 edition costs £142,000 (Rs. 1.42 crores) in the UK and €162,000 (Rs. 1.40 crores) in Germany, with deliveries scheduled to begin in May 2021.
