Following the debacle of its resoundingly unsuccessful 2011 AMR-One prototype, Aston Martin Racing bounced back by focusing on the V-8-powered Vantage—previously the preserve of privateers, in GT2 specification—with a factory-backed effort from the 2012 season onward. Fortuitously, the new GTE ruleset introduced in 2011 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans transposed to the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship of 2012, affording Aston Martin Racing the opportunity to update its newly redundant GT2-specification Vantages accordingly.

Although they retained the same basic architecture of the Vantage GT2, the new GTE-specification cars featured revised aerodynamics, reduced weight, improved cooling, and enhanced serviceability crucial to endurance racing. Opting to contest the 2012 WEC with just one car, Aston Martin Racing enjoyed a vital face-saving season, achieving seven podium finishes in the GTE Pro class, including a debut class victory in the final round of the championship, the Six Hours of Shanghai.

Further updated for 2013 with a lower center of gravity, increased torsional rigidity, and improved rear-end stability, the Vantage GTE became a regular front-runner in the WEC over the next four years, securing GTE Am and GTE Pro class wins at Le Mans in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Over the same four-year period, AMR also secured three FIA Endurance Trophies for drivers and a further three for teams, rendering the Vantage GTE one of the most successful of all Aston Martin competition cars.

Constructed around an unraced Vantage GTE chassis by Aston Martin Racing in 2021, AMR-TRIO-GTE is configured in identical specification—and a strikingly similar base livery—to that used by the factory cars of 2016 and 2017. This includes a race-specification engine boasting more than 500 horsepower, a full-width rear diffuser, traction control, quick-fill refueling system, onboard air jacks, and driver cooling system. In addition, the car boasts Bosch Motorsport ABS which, although not fitted to Vantage GTEs in period, adds a welcome margin of safety for a car of such potency.

Commissioned together with two other Aston Martin Vantage racecars and unused since completion, this Vantage GTE is one of only seven produced by Aston Martin Racing. It has zero hours of operation on its chassis, engine, and drivetrain and would be welcomed at burgeoning, recent-era historic racing series such as Endurance Racing Legends and Masters Racing Legends.