Some of you may have read my blog post on the first pictures of the new Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 in testing. One of my contacts in motorsport has sent me these photos as a follow up on that post.

The Pictures are of the new Aston Vantage V12 GT3. This is the test and development chassis ‘X3’ which Prodrive have sold to Andrew Howard to be ‘factory run’ in the British GT, as of yet I do not have the details about the ‘factory run’ part of the program, but here is some speculation. Rather then Prodrive actually running a new team in the British GT it is more likely that they will farm the business out to a customer team; and if you would endulge my speculation even more Barwell Motorsport would seem a good guess.

Only a couple of days ago Barwell posted on their site that they are going to be running a customer GT3 in the British GT adding that their “long-standing relationship with Aston Martin Racing is set to continue”. At the end of the 2011 season Barwell said farwell to the two Aston Martin DBRS9s that they have been running for the last few seasons, both of which were off to live in private collections, which means that if they are going to continue running Astons they are going to be running a Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3. This in addition to their history of working with and running Andrew Howard’s DBRS9 in the British GT all suggests that they are partnering up again for 2012.

Now for some history, ‘The Howard’ bought the first ever Aston Martin GT3 car the DBRS9, chassis no X1, the test and development car, from the factory in 2009. Then at the start of 2010 to weigh up his options for the new season he tested ‘X2’ which was the GT2 spec Vantage test car at a circuit in France. Where in slippy conditions went of into the wall and wrote the chassis off! Now at the end of 2011 he buys ‘X3’, I wonder how he’ll get on with this one?!

Most normal people buy normal customer cars, but then who’s collection is going to be worth more then what he paid for it in 40 years time?

If any of this speculation is correct then 2012 looks set to be a great year for the Barwell/Howard partnership with a new (and hopefully) competitive Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3, a quick driver in Jonny Adams (don’t forget that he won in the old, slow, DBRS9 on its last time out) and Barwells ability to develop new cars (the DBRS9 and vantage GT2).

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