Aston Martin Vantage GT8 2016

History may judge Aston Martin the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 special edition as a car of even greater significance than it had aggressive, bespoilered purpose: a turning point for Aston Martin, possibly, and a real confidence builder.

Before it, the car maker couldn’t be sure it’d be worth its while pouring closely guarded development budget into an extra-focused track-day special version of any of its cars, to rival the madder motorsport-inspired Porsches and Ferraris of the past decade or so, in case buyers scoffed at them.

And yet 100 feverishly snapped-up GT12s later, Gaydon can absolutely rely on that fact – depend on it, should it need to.

A little over a year later, Aston has launched another car just like the GT12 – and the market has gobbled it up more keenly than a gaggle of four-year-olds fighting over a bag of marshmallows.

Welcome, then, the Vantage GT8.

What the Vantage GT12 road car was to the Vantage GT3 racer, the Vantage GT8 is to the Vantage GTE competition car that runs in the popular World Endurance Championship.