What is Aston Martin up to?

[tux]

The cutting of a shorting wire is alot quicker than going behind the wall and changing a radiator.

But if you want to be absolutely anal about it in 2006 at the ALMS race in Salt Lake the wining Aston Martin had to change an alternator belt during the race and still beat both Vettes who had a trouble free run, so Aston Martin can do it too...

Do i win?

[pederb]

With RAM bailing on LM24 AMR/TRG are moving up to second place just before ProSpeed. I think it is time for Kev to get going on the GTE.

Cheers

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by pederb

With RAM bailing on LM24 AMR/TRG are moving up to second place just before ProSpeed. I think it is time for Kev to get going on the GTE.

Cheers

Probably not, all the GTE entries seem to be locked in stone and 99-100% likely to be at Le Mans. The only potential withdrawals I can see are in LMP2.

[kurski]

David Richards wants himself to see again Aston Martin car LMP1 class, but remember the AMR-One unfortunate situation what happened to them.

[MitchZ06]

They need to work with Lola again....

[zanfo zanfagni]

relationship between lola and aston has gone bad during years because aston considers the lola aston-DBR1/2 a real aston martin car don't caring about lola effort, lola considers the lola aston a modified B09/60. Useless argument right now, lola has more serious problems to think about. Would be great to see a 2014 prodrive reworked dome or lotus T128 powered by a fuel flowed vantage GTE engine.

[The Badger]

AMR can do it properly , set a reasonable timeline , a realistic and advanced FSI engine and employ a proven chassis designer . They will also need to expand their core engineering department and not split resources between 2 completely different class's , GTE and P1 .

I consider Le Mans unfinished business for them , as I'm sure they do themselves. I'm sure we will see them in P1 once the new rules settle down .

[GT6]

Difficult to work with Lola now

[knighty]

Originally Posted by The Badger

AMR can do it properly , set a reasonable timeline , a realistic and advanced FSI engine and employ a proven chassis designer . They will also need to expand their core engineering department and not split resources between 2 completely different class's , GTE and P1 .

I consider Le Mans unfinished business for them , as I'm sure they do themselves. I'm sure we will see them in P1 once the new rules settle down .

I completley agree, its a travesty that they messed up on the first in-house effort, but thats what happens when you set a shoe-string budget with a rush-job timing plan........they just need to take a sensible measured approach and they will be competitive and reliable I'm sure, would love to see them back in LMP1

[Simmi]

Would love nothing more than to see them back in LMP1.

[zanfo zanfagni]

even if prodrive owns a carbon factory, just like audi, prodrive has poor experience and knowledge in carbon monocoque (r18 carbon monocoque is produced by italian dallara, lola aston used lola /60 tub). Usually they use the factory to produce carbon parts for their racing cars, and some time ago to produce the amr-one tub. Prodrive/AM isn't neither an engine manufacturer. The 5.9 and 7.3 V12 units that power street db9, dbs, one-77, vantage v12 and various racing versions that powered dbr9, dbrs9, lola-aston and still power vantage v12 gt3 is an heritage of the old aston owner, Ford. The V12 borns by the attacchment of 2 ford v6, while V8 unit that powers the street vantage and the racing vantage GTE comes from the jaguar AJV8 engine, another ford heritage. Prodrive tuned impreza and ferrari engines in the past, but right now is hard to think that they can project a new FSI/DI engine from scratch, the most realistic HP is to bring again the weak 2.0 L6 and use it as base hoping to obtain a better result considering that in future fuel efficency will be more important than mere power output.

[Pandamasque]

What about P2? I always wondered why they didn't jump on the opportunity to prepare a V8 engine for P2 and re-badge a well-developed chassis. I'm sure a lot of wealthy gentlemen would like the idea of owning and/or racing an Aston Martin prototype on P2 budget!

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

What about P2? I always wondered why they didn't jump on the opportunity to prepare a V8 engine for P2 and re-badge a well-developed chassis. I'm sure a lot of wealthy gentlemen would like the idea of owning and/or racing an Aston Martin prototype on P2 budget!

In theory they shouldn't be able to as P2 isnt a manufacturer class. Although you wouldn't know it sometimes.

[Starfish Primer]

I wouldn´t take David Richards seriously, he´s more interested in PR and business than racing. The only credible way to see an Aston Martin LMP1 would be a badge engineered Lola/Dome/OAK-Zytek/Judd/Cosworth/AER/whatever.

[GT3.14]

Originally Posted by Simmi

In theory they shouldn't be able to as P2 isnt a manufacturer class. Although you wouldn't know it sometimes.

Porsche RS Spyder? Have the rules changed since then?

I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as it meets the cost cap and has the amateur driver.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by Simmi

In theory they shouldn't be able to as P2 isnt a manufacturer class. Although you wouldn't know it sometimes.

I think they can build a LMP2 and put it on sale like HPD. I´m not sure how Alpine or Lotus fit in the current model.

[zanfo zanfagni]

manufacturers can enter lmp2 cars. Morgan, alpine, honda and lotus are there, but it isn't worth it for a customer program because lmp2 cars are cost capped, there isn't much to gain for the manufacturer. Only oreca i think since 2011 had a discrete money gain because has a lot of customers to supply with spare parts.

[Victor_RO]

What about simply re-prepping the GTE engine as a LMP2 powerplant and selling it to teams to stick it in an Oreca or something?

[zanfo zanfagni]

engines aren't sold to teams, is a leasing year by year. Nissan and BMW supplies engines because zytek and judd tuned them to be fitted in an lmp2.

[Pandamasque]

I can't be the only one to notice how 'dirty' the butts of 2013 GTE Vantages became towards the end of the WEC race at Spa. So what is Aston Martin up to? It seems like the new exhaust is partially exiting under the floor and 'smokes' the rear end as it swings out of the diffuser. Thoughts?

Is it even allowed to have more than one exhaust outlet per bank in GTE?

[jsTrecu]

Yes their Pro cars were very dirty I noticed that too. But I thought it had probably more to do with some leaking oil than the exhausts.
I don't know...

[GT6]

from that picture it does look more like oil that anything else

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by GT6

from that picture it does look more like oil that anything else

If it is losing oil, they better get that fixed before Le Mans as they won't last 24 hours with that sort of problem.

DK

[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

Yes their Pro cars were very dirty I noticed that too. But I thought it had probably more to do with some leaking oil than the exhausts.
I don't know...

It's British. It's probably oil!

[Gingers4Justice]

That dirt is going to make the car look seriously cool come Sunday morning - I'll be looking out for diecast models with the dirt included at the stalls at Le Mans in 2014 then