The Best Features Of The Aston Martin Vulcan

The Vulcan might be a milestone in Aston Martin's history of making track cars, but it was conceived partly by chance. The Vulcan's chassis, sub-frames, and suspension layout carried over from the One-77, and Top Gear reports that the only reason Aston Martin decided to make the Vulcan in the first place was because they had some spare One-77 development chassis lying around.

Originally, the plan was to make a faster version of the One-77, a sort of "One-77 R," but as development of the car progressed, it evolved into an entirely new beast. The design team proposed an entirely carbon fiber body shell instead of the original car's aluminum panels, and Aston Martin's racing division came up with the idea of replacing the One-77's stock V12 with a modified version of the V12 found in the Vantage GT3 race car. By that point, the car was something altogether different from the original One-77, and so the decision was made to christen the new car the "Vulcan." According to Aston Martin, the name was taken from a 1950s British bomber aircraft, which fittingly, made its last-ever flight within a few weeks of its hypercar namesake's debut.

While the Vulcan isn't specifically designed for any racing series, the chassis built by Aston Martin's partner Multimatic does feature an FIA-compliant steel roll cage and there's race-spec suspension to handle all the downforce the car generates at high speed. And there is a lot of downforce — 3,002 pounds of it, in fact, which is more than the weight of the car (via SuperVettura). With all its horsepower fed to the rear wheels only, the Vulcan employs a huge rear wing which generates a significant portion of that downforce, helping the car to stick to the asphalt through high-speed turns.

Also helping to make sure grip levels remain optimal are the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, and if the driver finds that the car is approaching the limits of its grip, a set of Brembo carbon ceramic race brakes should quickly help get things under control. All this adds up to create what Aston Martin calls "truly extreme performance," although not to the point that the car is ever too difficult to drive. The brand points out that owners can "precisely tailor their track day experience through a graduating scale of detailed power and dynamic performance adjustments." In other words, dial things down if the Vulcan's full power gets a bit much to handle.

One of the most unique features of the Vulcan is its rear tail lights, which take the form of a set of "blades" that light up individually to become one unit from a distance. There are a total of 27 LED blades that make up each light, and they're carefully arranged around the carbon fiber lip that sticks out of the rear of the car. It's a design that wouldn't be possible on a car that had to conform to road safety standards, and wouldn't be seen as necessary on anything built specifically for a racing series.

Perhaps that's one of the key things that sets the Vulcan apart from its peers: it's almost unnecessarily innovative. Aston Martin didn't have to create such a unique track day special, but they were given the freedom to do so, and decided to do it anyway. There are many other elements of the Vulcan that didn't have to be as extreme as they were, but when a car exists solely to satisfy the design whims of Aston Martin's most creative minds, then there's no reason not to push the envelope on every single aspect of that design. That even extends down to little details like the tail lights.

Even if you're the kind of person that happens to have a spare $3 million lying around, it's very unlikely you'll be able to get your hands on a Vulcan once the currently listed example sells. Only 24 examples of the car were built, making them exceedingly rare even by hypercar standards. For comparison, the equally-mad Aston Martin Valkyrie, announced shortly after the Vulcan as the brand's first road-legal hypercar, will see 150 units produced in coupe form, and 85 units in spyder form.

Even the Ferrari FXX-K, the LaFerrari-based track toy that's one of the Vulcan's most direct rivals, saw at least 40 units produced (although it may have been more but no one knows because ... Ferrari). In short, anyone lucky enough to own a Vulcan can count themselves as part of a very exclusive club, even more exclusive than many of their hypercar-owning peers. And if there's one thing that billionaire collectors like, it's to own something that's just that little bit rarer than what everyone else has.

Although the Vulcan was specifically designed not to be road legal, one owner decided that they wanted to stick on some license plates and take it on the highway anyway. Except, it was far from that simple, as the conversion process required making some major changes to the car, and cost several hundred thousand dollars on top of the original purchase price (via Motor1). The street conversion was handled by RML Group but had full support from the Aston Martin factory, and after completion, it became the only road-legal Vulcan in existence.

Among the litany of changes required were the addition of windshield wipers, side mirrors, and a central locking system. Michelin road tires were also fitted, and a new set of headlights had to be installed to meet height requirements for British roads. The bladed tail lights were also covered over for safety, and a few of the sharper surface edges around the cabin were smoothed out. Then, the engine was remapped to meet emissions requirements, the suspension was softened, and a lift system was installed to give the car extra clearance for speed bumps. After all that, plus a few final touches, a license plate was fitted and the car was ready to go. Unfortunately, it seems like the owner's enthusiasm for taking it on the road quickly evaporated, as checking the car's plates against the British government database shows that its MOT (the annual national roadworthiness test) certificate expired back in January 2022.