Autoblog

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 in partnership with Lola's engineering team to repackage the V12 for the LMP chassis, Aston Martin Racing's engineers will support Charouz Racing System's cars at the races.

We're looking forward to seeing the car in full race trim and to witnessing Aston Martin taking on the entire field at this year's Le Mans 24. Press release after the jump.

[Source: Aston Martin Racing via Motive]

Thirty-odd years ago, Japanese car manufacturers began designing and building cars specifically for the world's largest automotive market place: America. Sadly, the big three never returned the compliment and have yet to design a car tailored to the second largest market: Japan. However, California's Swift Engineering has just won the contract to make all the chassis for Japan's top single-seater racing category, Formula Nippon, and so will be making a tiny dent in Japan's vast automotive trade deficit with America. Or they would be if the cars were road legal.

The new carbon monocoque replaces a steel-framed Lola chassis that the formula has used since becoming a single-make series in 2002, and will be bolted to 600HP+ 3.4L Honda and Toyota engines that are architecturally similar to those used in IRL. The most striking design change is that gaping 6'4" wide front wing which bucks the trend in international single-seater formulae for smaller, less efficient aerodynamic aids.

Will this help the car maintain downforce when drafting down straights and thus encourage overtaking? Let's hope so, but even if it doesn't, we think it looks cool.

[Source: Formula Nippon]

That thing got a rotary in it? Nope, not this year. Dashing the hopes of Rotorheads everywhere, Mazda announced that it will be using an AER built conventional engine in its 2007 ALMS cars. Looks like pride and heritage will take a back seat to winning. As MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Manager Steve Sanders explained, the rules just make it too difficult for a rotary to be competitive right now. But this new AER-developed 2.0-liter 4 promises to offer a lot in the way of Zoom-Zoom.

More info and full press release after the jump.

[Source: Mazda]

American motor racing has been steadily moving towards "Spec", that is, each team racing the same car with the same engine and other components. The Indy Racing League runs Dallara chassis powered by Honda engines. (Although NASCAR technically uses a few different cars with different engines from different suppliers, they all look pretty much the same.) Now the latest spec racing cars for the Champ Car series – IRL's rival formerly known as CART – have just been delivered.

The new Panoz DP01 has been received by ten Champ Car teams, the first ten before the entire field makes the switch from the previous Lola-built cars. The new chassis will use the same turbocharged Cosworth V8 engines, the now independent engine supplier owning majority rights to the series and having involuntarily withdrawn from supplying engines in Formula One. They all run on spec Bridgestone tires, just as Formula One makes the switch next season.

Constructed primarily of carbon fiber, the new cars weigh an impressive hundred pounds less than their predecessor Lola counterparts. The chassis were delivered unpainted and all-but-identical to the teams who'll be adding their own team and sponsors' livery. We're looking forward to seeing the new cars in action.

[Source: Edmunds Inside Line]

LMP1: Audi R10 TDI (Capello/McNish)

Yesterday's ALMS Portland Grand Prix saw the Audi R10 pair finish 1-2 for the first time this season. The diesel sports cars started the race from rows two and three after IMSA enacted a late rules-change that allowed Dyson Racing to reduce the weight of its two Lola-AERs. The Dysons secured the pole and second grid positions and were running first and third when an incident involving one of the Penske Spyders and the Highcroft Racing LMP1 car brought out the yellow. On the restart the Audis took the lead and kept it. Dindo Capello and Alan McNish took the overall win in the #2 R10 TDI.

Follow the jump for more action-packed racing pics and to find out how the Corvettes fared in the GT1 Class, and whether or not the Porsche Spyders could pull out another victory in the LMP2 class.

[Various Sources via Motorsport.com and AmericanLeMans.com]