Porsche forces Aston Martin to drop GT3 name

What debuted as Aston Martin’s new Vantage GT3 last month in Geneva is now the Vantage GT12 after Porsche and its lawyers had something to say about naming rights.

According to a report on grrc.goodwood.com something of a legal tussle has been going on for months between Aston Martin and Porsche for the rights to the GT3 nameplate, despite the race-infused nomenclature making a public debut on the latest Vantage model just weeks ago.

Aston Martin ceded to Porsche’s request for the model now to be known as the Vantage GT12, a rare if perhaps unprecedented situation in motoring where a name change has occurred so late in a model commercial cycle given the limited-edition weapons-grade road-race Aston is said to be sold out.

Porsche, of course, has been using the GT3 name on its most circuit-savvy 911 variant since 1999, thus having right of ownership.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin has argued - not unreasonably - that it didn’t pinch ‘GT3’ from Stuttgart but from the international FIA racing category.

Despite the ammunition that various other carmakers had applied GT3 (and GT3R) to road car predating Porsche’s own halo road car, Aston Martin is said to have voluntarily affected the change of model name.

To reinforce its newly adopted GT12 branding, Aston Martin will also apply it to its thoroughbred Vantage racecars.

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