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Aston Martin Prototype Racer testing at Prodrive Proving Grounds
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]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
easyrider425 5:19PM (2/22/2008)
Didn't Aston Martin almost go broke in the past because it spent so much on racing? I don't remember if it was the early 60's or late 80's.
How cool would it be if GM dropped a C6R engine in a prototype? Badge it as a Cadillac and see the GM/Aston rivalry grow.
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Andrew 6:36PM (2/21/2008)
Uhm....wow.
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Ed 6:46PM (2/21/2008)
That looks awesome. But then you can't go far wrong with something functional, black and at sunset.
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why not the LS2/LS7? 6:59PM (2/21/2008)
This will be in LMS is my guess. I doubt we'll see it except perhaps at Sebring and Laguna Seca.
It in theory shouldn't be invited to Le Mans in its first year running, but then again, the ACO does what the ACO wants. I know I wouldn't be sad to see it there.
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bperedo2 7:17PM (2/21/2008)
Yep, it's doing the full season of the Le Mans Series. I doubt it will do Sebring and it seems that less cars come over for Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca nowadays.
On a related topic; there is rumor that Gordon Murray is designing an LMP1 for Aston Martin in the near future. Perhaps this Charouz-Lola effort is just to test out the waters before launching a full-scale attack on the diesel superpowers?
Bruxell 8:02PM (2/21/2008)
Ok, does no one else think it looks EXACTLY like the Peugeot???
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tankd0g 11:49AM (2/22/2008)
That thing looks like it's about to take a very expensive tumble off the ramp.
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fausto 4:36AM (2/22/2008)
Jan Charouz isn't exactly a gentleman driver, is a young racer, maybe the confusion is originated by the fact that is the son of team owner/manager Antonin...
:)
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