Aston Martin insisted that its designers be unfettered by unreasonable constraints like legality when they aimed to create the most extreme machine imaginable. So the incredible $2.3 million, 800-horsepower Vulcan is not street legal and the company has said it has no plans to develop a conversion to make it legal.
But seriously, when you have a car this ridiculously badass, you want people to see it. That’s why British engineering company RML has developed a conversion to bring the Vulcan to the street, according to an exclusive report in Autocar magazine.
“The Aston Martin Vulcan is an incredible machine conceived to perform brilliantly on track,” noted Michael Mallock, an RML official in a statement from that company.
“Converting it for road use yet preserving its extreme character and blistering performance is just the kind of challenge we relish, and one we’re extremely proud of rising to. The results are sure to be one of the most extraordinary road cars of all-time.”
To make the Vulcan drivable on public roads, it will need some simple things, like street-legal tires (tyres?) in place of its racing slicks, and the lights will have to be government-approved rather than just functional.
The biggest issue is making the engine breathe clean enough for regulators and then certifying it to their satisfaction. The complexity of all this work is likely to lead to a bill of more than $100,000 and take three or four months, Autocar estimated. Worse, it will probably still not result in a car that is not even legal for U.S. roads.
That means that the two American Vulcan owners will still have to content themselves with owning one of these awesome cars and driving it at the track, or they can ship it overseas on those occasions when they want to drive on the street. Either way, that’s the price you pay when you’re a Vulcan owner.
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