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Filed under: Motorsports , Euro , Aston Martin Everyone knows that when it comes to Le Mans-class racing, Aston Martin has its game on. But dang! On its race debut, the Aston-powered Lola B08/60 took on the best of the best to score a third-place finish at this past weekend's Le Mans Series race at Barcelona. Now competing in GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4, Aston Martin inked a deal with Charouz Racing Systems back in January to flip around the 6-liter V12 from the DBR9 GT1 racer and shoehorn it into a Lola prototype chassis. The idea was to dice it with the best gasoline-powered LMP1 racers on the grid - which the Charouz Lola-Aston did emphatically - but before the race was over, the car was giving even the diesel-powered Audis and Peugeots, slightly behind which it ultimately finished, a reason to worry. Jan Charouz and Aston/Prodrive chief David Richards were thrilled, vowing to build on the spectacular race debut towards success at the title Le Mans 24 Hours race in mid-June. With competition...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Aston Martin Click image for a hi-res gallery of the Vantage GT2 The flexfuel-compatible Aston Martin Vantage GT2 that we first reported on back in January has finally been captured in the photo studio. Not surprisingly, it's a looker. After all, the Vantage is a car that activates the pheromones in many a gearhead. Making it Le Mans Series-worthy just piles on the awesome. The car makes its competition debut for James Watt Automotive on April 5 in the European Le Mans series at Barcelona, and it's also good to go for ALMS if any teams decide to take the plunge. Without further ado, have a look for yourself. We like the subtle Gulf colors -- who knew orange lipstick could be so pretty? If baby blue and orange doesn't do it for you, check out the menacing black car that participated in the Paul Ricard test session with the rest of the Aston racers. The phrase, "It's all good" applies here. Gallery: Aston Martin Vantage...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Aston Martin Click above to enlarge (1,980 pixels wide) It's pretty incredible to think that three years ago there were no Aston Martin race cars. Now we can watch them in the European Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series, FIA GT racing, as well as endurance races like the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. To celebrate both the factory-backed and privately-owned teams, Aston Martin hosted all of its racing cars at the Paul Ricard circuit in France for a little preseason test. The product of that event, aside from many famous drivers taking their turn behind the wheel of each and every car, was this family portrait of Aston Martin Racing . Front and center is the Gulf livery DBR9 flanked by the new Vantage GT2 on its left (our right) and one of many V8 Vantage N24 cars on its right. See that white car being left in the dust way in the back? That's the V12 Vantage RS concept that just got off a plane returning from the Geneva...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Aston Martin , UK Things are heating up for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not only will returning champions Audi have to watch over its spoiler for its diesel rival Peugeot , but now the TDI champs will have to duke it out with Aston Martin as well. As we reported earlier , Prodrive is dangling its feet in the waters of the highly-competitive LMP1 class to fight for overall victory in the famous endurance race, in addition to fielding Astons for the first time all the sportscar classes including GT1 , GT2 , GT3 and GT4 . This past Saturday and Tuesday, the Aston DBR9-powered Lola B08/60 went out for its first laps as Jan Charouz, the gentleman racer at the head of Charouz Racing, drove the Lola-Aston around Prodrive's test track outside of Warwick, England. The Prodrive-backed Lola will run alongside a second Judd-powered Lola, giving us two more reasons to look forward to this year's race. [Source: Motive ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Motorsports , Aston Martin It was less than entertaining to watch the Corvettes race themselves in the GT1 class year, void of any competition from the Aston Martin teams that left the series to race exclusively in Europe. It was a shame, since the GT1 class has always been one of the best to watch. Despite Corvette's dominance over the past several years, they've always had great competition from the Vipers, Saleens, Maseratis, Ferraris, and Aston Martins. In 2006, the last time they faced competition from another team, Corvette Racing just barely captured the manufacturer's championship in the last race of the season at Laguna Seca. This week, just in time for the initial testing sessions for the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the ALMS announced the return of the Aston Martin DBR9 to the GT1 class thanks to Florida-based Bell Motorsports. Team principal Jim Bell has been involved with ALMS since it inception, and even raced against the Corvettes in 2005 with the ACEMCO...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Aston Martin Never a moment's rest for the team at Aston Martin Racing. Not since Prodrive chief David Richards took over with his consortium of investors, at least. With the announcement of the V8 Vantage GT2 , the team has expanded into every class of GT racing in the Le Mans Series, campaigning racing DB9s in GT1 and GT3 and competition-spec V8 Vantages in GT2 and GT4 . But now that the regulations for the Le Mans Prototype class have been modified to allow for GT1 engines to power LMP cars, Aston Martin is turning its attention to that class, too. Hot on the heels of the team's unveiling of the retro-tastic Gulf livery for its DBR9 GT1 cars , Aston Martin Racing has announced a collaboration with Charouz Racing Systems, which will campaign a Lola chassis with the DBR9's 6-liter V12 in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the broader European Le Mans Series. Tomas Enge, Stefan Mucke and Jan Charouz will drive the car, and in addition to working...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Aston Martin Click image to enlarge var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/motorsport/Aston_Martin_Racing_announces_Vantage_GT2_racer'; Aston Martin has officially completed the GT-class superfecta with the announcement of its new Vantage GT2. Aston Martin Racing has unveiled the first sketch of the GT2-class racing car, which is based on the V8 Vantage. The Vantage GT2 has been designed to be campaigned on either normal race fuel or E85 in race series that allow the bio-based juice, such as ALMS. It joins the stable of AM racers that already includes the Le Mans-winning DBR9 GT1 car, the DBRS9 GT3 car, and the Vantage N24 GT4 racer. The menacing GT2 car will be fully unveiled next week in Birmingham at the Autosport International show. Stay tuned for more. [Source: Aston Martin] Continue reading Aston Martin Racing releases sketch of Vantage GT2 Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Motorsports , China , Euro , Aston Martin Next year, with Chinese partner GruppeM, Aston Martin will take its first steps into China with a 5-car showroom in Shanghai, and a 3-car showroom in Beijing. Aston hasn't had a presence in China in the company's entire 94-year history, so to accompany its entry, it is also starting a 1-make series featuring the Vantage N24 . The inaugural 2008 Aston Martin Asia Cup will comprise 12 races in China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. Grids will be 18 specially-prepared customer cars and will run from 30 minute sprints to enduros. Buyers can pick their cars up at the Beijing showroom, and even get lessons at the Goldenport track before they start racing. Even better, UK-based Aston Martin Racing is providing technical support for the season, although drivers can enter with their own teams if they get approval. The winner of the 2008 series will get a paid-for drive in a Vantage N24 for the FIA GT4 series in 2009, which is much better...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Aston Martin When will it be enough? "Never" could very well be the answer for David Richards, the head of racing freelancers Prodrive and chairman of Aston Martin. The two companies under his thumb have been collaborating on the campaigning of Aston Martin racing cars in a growing number of endurance sports car competition classes in recent years. The DBR9, DBRS9 and Vantage N24 have been ripping it up in the FIA GT1, GT3 and GT4 classes, but as you may have noticed, the Aston Martin racing program lacks a car to enter in the GT2 level. Prodrive and Aston are planning to plug that hole and strive for an eclipsing domination of sports car racing with a GT2 racer based on the V8 Vantage. A mule is currently undergoing testing, having run laps around the MIRA test track in England, up the hill at Goodwood, and was set for more work this week at a Michelin tire test in Spain. That most recent test session, according to Prodrive's Aston racing program...
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Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show , Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Aston Martin Click the image above for a gallery of high-res images of the DB9 LM. It's obvious that Aston Martin's new owners are proud of the marque's racing heritage, particularly its recent...
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Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show , Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Aston Martin Click the image above for more high-res, desktop-ready pics of the N400 Vantage. Our lottery ticket fantasy garage just got a bit bigger. Aston Martin unveiled the N400 version...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Aston Martin , Chevrolet Click the C6R for a gallery of Detroit GP ALMS race action Ever since the end of the factory Dodge Viper racing program, the American Le Mans Series GT1 class has been dominated by the factory...
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