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Aston Martin Virage Lightweight GT (1991) |
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![]() Many thanks to Aston Martin Salzburg Wien in Austia for the photographs - copyright Aston Martin Salzburg Wien |
Although I have never heard about this car before,
I spotted this car for sale by Aston Martin Austria
in late 2004. The standard Virage is a heavy car at 1790kg, and I guess that, in an attempt to improve the overall performance, the builders, Car & Driver, the then Aston Martin dealers in Hamburg, were planning to market a special lightweight version. By reducing the weight of the Virage, the engineers would have expected to have injected a little more sparkle to the Virage, especially as sales of Astons were falling fast due to a sharp economic downturn in the early 1990's. From studying these pictures, externally the car is little changed from standard except for the aerodynamic wing mirrors and the fitting of the later style 17 inch diameter wheels. But the picture of the interior shows a quite serious attempt at shedding weight. The trim is very minimal, no wood can be seen on the dash being totally covered by Alcantara. The centre console is absent and the transmission tunnel is covered in quilted leather. To cool the occupants, a smaller air-con from an Opel was fitted. The door trim is sparse, also in Alcantara; one can even see a simple F40 style pull cord to open the doors from the inside. There are sports seats with generous side bolsters, three point harness and the back seat have also been removed. The car was even given thinner glass in an attempt to shed weight. Initially, the car had a 500bhp 6.3 engine but this was at some time removed and replaced with a standard 5.3. The weight loss is claimed to be in the region of 200 to 250kg. With a 5 speed manual gearbox, Harvey Bailey sports suspension, uprated front and rear axles and sports exhaust, this left hand drive car remains unique as further cars were never converted. In a track test during 1993 against the factory supercharged Vantage, the lightweight was not only better handling, but quicker too. The car was still on sale in January 2005 from Aston Martin Austria. Thanks to Alexander Knapp Voith of classicdriver.com for providing further information |
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| Page Updated Mittwoch Juli 09, 2008 |
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