With Vantage GT, Aston Martin races below $100,000

Aston Martin is going downmarket, sort of. The 2015 Vantage GT, a sport-styled variant of Aston’s legendary flagship car, draws style and performance tips from their GT4 race cars, which will be running in North America this year. It’s also priced at $99,900, which shows that the market for these kinds of consumer sports cars has boomed in recent years.

“The sub-$100,000 price point has become very busy,” said Julian Jenkins, president of Aston Martin, at a quiet corner of the New York Auto Show. “We’d like a opportunity to reclaim it, and appeal to a slightly broader audience.”

Jenkins said that the usual Aston Martin owner displays the car as a portfolio of seven or eight vehicles. This one, he says, can be a single car for an individual, albeit a rich individual who likes a Roadster that generates 430 hp, a top speed of 190 mph, and a 0 to 60 time of 4.6 seconds. It is, Jenkins says, in his best marketing speak, “a car for the week and a track car for the weekend.”

The styling is pure track car, though, with bespoke racing stripes on the outside and molded checkered plastic on the inside. The interior contains the hides of a half-dozen animals, including a gorgeously wrapped steering wheel. It’s a remarkably simple, classic design, down to the graphite-painted alloy wheels and hand-stiched sports seats, but without a lot of the frippery and fancy ignition switches that competitors at this price point offer. Jenkins said that was a deliberate choice on Aston Martin’s choice. “No gimmicks,” he said.