New developmental step for Garage 59's GT8R ready for NLS 5

Having raced her first competitive race at the infamous Nordschleife back at the turn of the month, Garage 59 return to the circuit for this weekend's fifth round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie (Formally the VLN Series) with their recently upgraded Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4.

Last time out in the series it was just joint team principles Alex West and Chris Goodwin behind the wheel of the car in that four hour race, as they treated it as their first stepping stone towards preparing themselves for the 2020 ADAC Total 24H main event that will this year run over the weekend of the 24-27th September rather than its usual time in June.


This weekend, West misses out on his next round of the European Le Mans Series from Paul Ricard to be at the NLS, sharing the car with not just Goodwin but also with AMR Factory driver Darren Turner who will be joining the team (plus one more yet TBC) for the 24 hour as the team move into their next phase of preparation in Saturdays six hour race.

Reading the team's briefing into this weekends event shows that the Vantage GT8R (an abbreviation giving to the Vantage GT4 that has been adapted away from the pure BoP requirements of an SRO homologated GT4) to run in the NLS's enhanced SP8T class.


More power, more downforce and less weight are just some of the credentials that the latest Vantage GT4 developments have had on the car by virtue of a reported 50kg drop in base weight, a new splitter and a revised rear spoiler being just some of the changes. Indeed, the loss in body weight has allowed them to reposition ballast at points that suit the car in order to remain compliant with the cars NLS base weight requirement and the changes should see it as potentially being faster than the larger GT3 cars on the straights.


They will be joined by the return of the PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 that will again compete within the SRO GT4 aligned SP10 class for drivers Guido Dumarey, Michael Hess and the teams 'resident' Pro driver Nico Verdonck.

Dumarey has been competing in the last few rounds of the series with Alex Walker as both drivers look to move up another level in their race craft with some mixed levels of success - not necessarily all self inflicted either!


What we don't know is the colour scheme of the car as footage from Zolder today showed the car testing with a new client in the usual orange and white livery and not that of the above that has only been used at the Nordschleife.

The race, as usual shall begin at noon local time.

Photo credits - NLS / Garage 59