Aston Martin Made To Rename Its Vantage GT3 After Dispute With Porsche

The supercar watchers of the world would remember that during the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin chose to attach their more aggressive track-focused variant of V12 Vantage with the title GT3, leaving us to silently remain on guard should there be some raised eyebrows on Porsche’s side as they too had their similarly named new 911 GT3 RS on display on the same show floor.

As it turns out, reports have emerged that Porsche's feathers did get a little ruffled after all, and brought its legal guns out to pursue a name change, basing their argument on the claim that the GT3 moniker is unique and integral to the Porsche brand and its performance vehicle designation. Aston rebutted by asserting that 'GT3' is also known as a racing series and that the name has appeared on road cars prior to the 996 GT3 of 1999 (Porsche’s first model with such a designation) such as the Lotus Esprit GT3 of 1997.

After the requisite closed-door discussions took place between the two automakers, the amicable resolution was reached with Aston Martin allowing Porsche keep its GT3 name and will instead rename their car in question to the GT12.

Even if Porsche left Aston alone for this one, it couldn’t have possibly caused immediate widespread confusion as this Vantage GT12, a 6.0-litre V12 600hp road-going version of its race car, is limited to just 100 examples. However, we think Porsche was forgivably concerned about the possibility of many other cars in the future appearing with a GT3 badge should there be no precedent set with this first occurrence. Either way, the fact that such an action was taken may well point to important plans for future GT3 models that roll out of Stuttgart.