Aston Martin Is The DTM Entrant You Weren't Expecting

The British brand is a surprise entrant in the series and the first non-German DTM competitor since 1996

12 Oct 2018

In one of 2018’s most unexpected motorsport moves, Aston Martin’s participation in DTM has just been confirmed. Yep, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will have its first non-German team since Alfa Romeo in 1996, and the first ever since the series was revamped and relaunched in 2000.

Not only that, but the Aston name could be appearing in DTM as soon as next year, serving as a replacement for departing Mercedes. Team R-Motorsport - which is fielding a pair of Vantages in the Blancpain GT Series this year - will run the DTM effort. The four Vantage DTM cars will be built by HWA AG, a firm perhaps most famous for the Mercedes CLK GTR.

Aston Martin's DTM car will be a very different beast to the new Vantage GT3 car launched earlier this year — Aston Martin's DTM car will be a very different beast to the new Vantage…

The car won’t have a whole lot to do with the Vantage, though. Currently, the grid is made up of silhouette racers - space frame-based creations with road car-inspired bodies. DTM’s previous iteration did feature road car-derived machines, but spiraling costs led to the series demise, with the plug pulled after Alfa Romeo and Opel withdrew in 1996.

DTM’s future once again looked in after Mercedes announced its departure, with Audi and BMW potentially left as the only manufacturers. The news of Aston joining the series, then, has been welcomed by senior figures in DTM. “The news of Aston Martin entering DTM is great for the series and the fans,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. Audi Motorsport boss Dieter Gass said, meanwhile: “I’m happy that we now finally can announce the future involvement of Aston Martin and that the success story of DTM will be continued.”

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

god damn thats beautiful…

The car doesn’t look excited, just kind of like “I’m doing something and I am concentrating”

Just leave me alone I know what im doing

Is there anything better than front-side-exit exhausts?

Fender exhaust

Race cars that beat their predecessors

I mean… aston is basically a last gen mercedes (because of the whole deal with them)
so mercedes isn’t entirely leaving dtm yet… if you look at it that way :D

I guess it will just be the current C63 AMG DTM with a Aston Martin bodywork.

Mercedes have left but they are still their under the aston martin v8 vantage

Looks like I finally have a reason to watch DTM

Considering that DTM is some of the best modern racing (just went there yesterday) and that just 2 manufacturers would be a hard hit for the series, having aston both brings something exotic and maintains a nice number of manufacturers.