Aston Martin Vulcan hypercar hits the road

Aston Martin's 600kW limited-edition, racetrack-only Vulcan has been converted to a fully road-legal hypercar by a British engineering firm, it has been revealed.

The Vulcan, originally created as a rival for the McLaren P1 GTR or the Ferrari FXX, was never designed or engineered for the road -- instead it was developed as a hard-core, track-focused toy for wealthy fans of the car maker.

Soon after it was launched, Aston Martin admitted it had received numerous calls from owners requesting the British car-maker to make their Vulcans road-legal.

Back in 2015, Aston said it would be happy to oblige, but only if the owners stump up the additional R&D costs. Now it seems independent engineering firm, RML Group, has beaten the car-maker to it.

Claimed to result in the first street-legal Vulcan in the world, the modifications to the Vulcan hypercar are surprisingly subtle.

Biggest visual change is the 30mm higher ride height, new headlights and clever 'wingdicators' – indicators incorporated into the giant rear spoiler.

Amazingly, under the bonnet the front-mounted 600kW 7.0-litre V12 carries over unchanged, although to cope with road tyres the race car's traction control system has been re-programmed to curb excessive wheel spin in slippery conditions.

It's thought a new map for the Aston's Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox may have also been developed to cope with the lower road speeds.

Engine and transmission cooling, meanwhile, have also been improved to help prevent the million-dollar hypercar overheating on Britain's congested roads.

It's not the first time a special track-day hypercar has been made street-legal.

British supercar specialist Lanzante is believed to have made the 736kW P1 GTR road-legal earlier this year, although the task was made easier since the track-ready hybrid McLaren hypercar was based on the already road-legal P1 -- with interchangeable parts.

Revealed back in 2015 at the Geneva motor show, Aston Martin made just 24 Vulcans, each rumoured to have sold at around $3 million each. RML has not disclosed how much it costs to reengineer the Vulcan to conform with British road rules.