What is Aston Martin up to?

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by LeMans.pt

And where did he drove the Lola? Do you know?

At Brno. Mariantic provided the link in the post that I responded to.
http://www.endurance-info.com/articl...d=6761&thold=0



L.P.

[fish88]

Aston Martin fired 600 people this week so it looks much more unlikly that they would invest millions in their racing program for LMP1.

[JAG]

I could understand Aston thinking twice about the V12 P1 program, but they'd be wise (IMO) to position themselves to provide V8's (from the GT2) for P2 for 2010/11. Audi, Porsche etc. have retained a foothold in motorsport, Jaguar (for example) have not, and their sporting reputation has dropped through the floor.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by JAG

I could understand Aston thinking twice about the V12 P1 program, but they'd be wise (IMO) to position themselves to provide V8's (from the GT2) for P2 for 2010/11. Audi, Porsche etc. have retained a foothold in motorsport, Jaguar (for example) have not, and their sporting reputation has dropped through the floor.

The Vantage GT-2 engine is to large at 4.5L, the P-2 rules for allowing homologated GT-2 engines is a max. of 4.0L for now and 2011.



L.P.

[TWK]

REALITY CHECK, REALITY CHECK!!!

LONDON, December 1, 2008 - Aston Martin, maker of James Bond's luxury sports car, said Monday that it is laying off as much as a third of its work force because of falling sales during the economic slump.

The cuts are 600 of a total employment of 1,700.

[The359]

I wonder if any of those lay offs are from the engine department, in relation to their proposed partnership with Mercedes-Benz.

[knighty]

I dont think the layoffs will be engine related, currently the V12 comes from Ford-Cologne, its not built by aston, all aston do is mount it in the car.....the layoffs are more associated with a down-turn in production due to the credit crunch........Jag and aston could do well by analysing Audis business model, its now well proven that their sports car programme sells lots of cars for them and has increased their image massivley.

[Mike_Wooshy]

Yes I agree Jag and Aston should take a leaf from Audi's book. Its is proven that during times of fisical crisis those who advertise continue to push through the tough time, and Motor racing is the biggest advertisement to motor companies.

[fish88]

I see in a article about an visit from a dutch GT4 team to AM that there is still a LMP1 chassis in the Prodrive factory. Weren't they sold yet our is this an other chassis?



http://www.autosport.nl/actueel/news...=3&rubriek=nat

[CTD]

Silly Season is really on!
Toyota isn't revealing there car, when many believed they would.
Acura has managed to keep there car a secret, eventhough we seen pictures.
Audi has announced a radical new R15.
And now it's really uncertain if AMR will race in Lmp1, and in what?!

[Aslak Vind]

Originally Posted by fish88

I see in a article about an visit from a dutch GT4 team to AM that there is still a LMP1 chassis in the Prodrive factory. Weren't they sold yet our is this an other chassis?



http://www.autosport.nl/actueel/news...=3&rubriek=nat

They are, the chassis is probably one of them, getting a full refit before the owner gets it.

[old man]

The Audi statement and the Porsche history, the long standing Mercedes belief in racing and the demise of Jaguar all show that if you make performance cars you must be seen to do so on the race track. The British business model demanded by the banks over the years has been to look for short term profits and not long term investment as has been the case in Germany and we can now see that Germany still has a basic manufacturing economy whereas the UK has a "service" economy that has left us in trouble.

D.R. is a canny guy and I can't see him dropping racing altogether, when times are hard you do not cut back in the sales dept and that is what racing is to AM

[JAG]

Prodrive is built on constructing and servicing a fleet of Subaru and Aston Martin customer cars, including supplying engineers, mechanics etc., everywhere from Ireland to the Middle East.

P2 is going to be a customer market, using production engines. It makes sense for Aston Martin/Prodrive to aim for a slice of that market with the GT2/N24 V8, it's another money making avenue.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by JAG

Prodrive is built on constructing and servicing a fleet of Subaru and Aston Martin customer cars, including supplying engineers, mechanics etc., everywhere from Ireland to the Middle East.

P2 is going to be a customer market, using production engines. It makes sense for Aston Martin/Prodrive to aim for a slice of that market with the GT2/N24 V8, it's another money making avenue.

Hmm, yet once again. The V8 Vantage/ Vantage GT-4 (N24 replacement) engine is to large at 4.7L according to the ACO rule for stock engines (P-2) and the Vantage GT-2 V-8 is 4.5L vs. the ACO GT-2 homologated max. of 4.0L (for P-2). So what slice of the market are they aiming for?


L.P.

[The359]

B08/60 #1 goes to Speed Racing Sebah, will keep the Aston Martin LMP1 engine.

http://www.endurance-info.com/articl...d=6834&thold=0

I wonder if Aston Martin/Prodrive will support this effort.

[The Badger]

What ..... so Speedy/Sebah will run in both LMP class's in the LMS ? ..... I bet the store man is impressed !!!

Hope they put Pompidou in the LMP1 car .

Any word on if Konopka has bought the 2nd chassis ? He was looking at it , or testing it .

[AX lover]

And Speedy will also race a Spyker in GT2 next year?

[Marcel ten Caat]

Last time I checked that was still on the cards.

[Marcel ten Caat]

*double post*

[JAG]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Hmm, yet once again. The V8 Vantage/ Vantage GT-4 (N24 replacement) engine is to large at 4.7L according to the ACO rule for stock engines (P-2) and the Vantage GT-2 V-8 is 4.5L vs. the ACO GT-2 homologated max. of 4.0L (for P-2). So what slice of the market are they aiming for?


L.P.

They can reduce the displacement of the GT4 engine to 4.5l for production engines, or the homolgated GT2 V8 to 4.0, whichever suits them best.

In European racing it seems to be the norm a base production engine can have it's capacity upped or decreased to the class maximum, whether that's sportscar's, touring cars or rallying.

Didn't Porsche recently up the capacity of the 911?

[broadrun96]

Yup, its now to that magic 4.0, believe the 430GT is at 4.0L in race trim as well is it not? It shouldn't be that much work to make a 4.0L out of their current engine and the work with it this season could only help make it a better engine for the future.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by The359

I wonder if Aston Martin/Prodrive will support this effort.

Translation: "The team will receive support from the factory but it will not be comparable to that seen this year with the Czech team."

[The359]

It does seem to mention engine support similar to that given by Judd though, so the engine may improve.

[TWK]

Murphy now says that AM is going LMP at Le Mans for the 40th anniversary of its last win. That's a reversal for the Bear, based on new information.

[deggis]

For lazy people (and important enough to be quoted anyway):

Aston Martin

Murphy said the British icon’s LMP program was a dead duck, but it now appears that duck has had a miraculous resurrection – or was just playin’ possum.

The Bear heard today that the attempt to win the French classic overall is ‘set in concrete,’ even in the face of yesterday’s announced layoff of one-third of the Gaydon workforce. Though the Lord is gone, there’s also some hope for an AM presence in ALMS GT2.