Updated - Two day tyre test for AMR ahead of Shanghai WEC

With all three works entered Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE's presently stored within various shipping containers somewhere between Japan and China, it would have otherwise been a difficult proposition to go tyre testing this week in Portimao, Portugal without the benefit of an expensive spare GTE chassis being available.

For the new AMR Vantage however, any GT3 platform can of course be easily be converted into a full GTE variant in just a matter of a few hours work within the garage and that is what has happened this week to the #99 Beechdean AMR GT3 that Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn raced to P2 in the final round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup on Sunday morning being transformed post race into a full GTE test bed for both Row Gunn and Maxime Martin to go tyre testing today and tomorrow.


Whilst Gunn was obviously already available at the circuit for the start of testing today, Martin arrived in Portugal late last night following his exploits in last weekends Citroen C1 24hr event at Spa Francorchamps.

Whilst the three factory entered Vantage GTE's were built at the Prodrive factory as full GTE's, (cars which carry a 15A prefix to the chassis number), the TF Sport car carries the chassis number of a converted GT3 chassis (as it carries a 16A prefix) that has been subsequently converted over to GTE and is a factor that is drawing many of AMR's new customers towards the platform.

The next round off the World Endurance Championship is in Shanghai in little under two weeks time.

Update


This two day tyre test has come just at a time when the WEC confirmed a revised Balance of Performance criteria ahead of the next round for the GTE Pro cars plus a continuation of their new 'success penalty' for the GTE Am Class cars after the results of the last round in Fuji.

In GTE Pro the adjustment is fortunately minimal for Aston Martin Racing - a one litre reduction in fuel capacity to 98 litres for the #95 and #97 cars whilst the changes in GTE Am are a little more profound. Not only do the #98 and #90 TF Sport cars also have the one litre reduction in fuel capacity to their new 95 litre level but sees the first split in base weights between the two cars following TF Sports class win in Japan.

For next months third round from Shanghai in China, the #90 TF Sport will now be be running 15kg heavier than the #98 sister car from the AMR stable whilst the class leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari has seen the most weight increase compared to their declared 'base weight' whilst others at the lower end of the table now have a car lighter than their respective declared base weight.

We think that this is where events and performances on track will start getting interesting!!

Photo credits - LMC / Social media