Tech Talk: Aston Martin Vulcan
Honestly, apart from the Bugatti Bolide one of, this is as good as it gets in the automotive realm. Try as I might, I can’t think of a more impressive car, or one that gets me going quite like the Aston Martin Vulcan. And yet, I had almost forgotten about it. “But Paul, how could you possibly forget about a car like this?” you might ask. Well, it seems like these days there’s a new 800+HP car around every corner. Sometimes it’s hard to know which ones to pay attention to and which ones to ignore. The Vulcan got kind of buried under all this turbo charged insanity being thrown around. But all it takes is a small moment of reflection and a certain Top Gear article to make me realize that a naturally aspirated 7.0 litre V12, a dry weight of 1340 kg and a 6 speed sequential transmission from Xtrac is “all” it takes to produce something truly special. Yes there are more powerful cars out there and yes, there are lighter and more powerful cars out there too, but around the track this thing is really hard to beat, being 9 seconds faster around Nardò than a McLaren P1. But forget the lap times, the Vulcan is like a milkshake, it’s got everything you could possibly want in a beautiful package, the looks, the stance, the sound that is what makes this car feel so special.
A masterclass in skill: The V12
When Aston Martin racing heard that there where plans to build a track focused version of the One-77 and one of the requirements was over 800 HP, they figured that the 6.0 litre V12 in the Vantage GT3 punched out to 7.0 litres would be able to deliver. So instead of using the V12 from the One-77, the Vulcan is powered by a legit race engine, not held back by regulations and ready to be abused on the track. I would love to go super in depth here, but sadly details are not readily available to the public. Now with the original engine not being used the project turned into much more than another version of the One-77.
A masterclass in style: The body
The entire body is made out of carbon fiber, so is it’s monocoque, everything else is an aluminium alloy construction. The suspension is an inboard pushrod system with external reservoirs and Multimatic spool valve dampers. These dampers are different compared to conventional ones, in that they replace the plates that regulate the oil flow inside the damper “with a pair of hollow cylindrical sleeves nested concentrically within each other and held apart by a coil spring” ( see Car and Driver, Multimatic’s Clever Spool-Valve Explained ). Essentially this system is infinitely more tunable than conventional dampers. Connected to these dampers are a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, 305/30R19 in the front and 345/30R19 in the rear. These tires will certainly offer loads of grip, but I still don’t get why they didn’t give the Vulcan full slicks. Anyway, another advantage of the suspension I forgot to mention is that it looks incredible.
And if we’re already talking about looks, another benefit of the carbon body is that you can achieve much tighter creases than you ever could with steel. Which leads to one incredible rear three quarter view with a fender that just seems to go on forever and flows beautifully into the shoulder line. From some angles in the front the Vulcan looks like it doesn’t even have an A or B pillar. That together with the lack of obvious headlights makes it look almost alien, yet modern and adhering to typical Aston Martin proportions.
The aforementioned Car and Driver article: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15344953/from-f1-to-baja-multimatics-clever-spool-valve-dampers-explained/