New Gulf Livery Aston Martin for the 24hr Le Mans race
Probably the most oustanding colours in motorsport were unveiled today as Aston Martin Racings new Prodrive manufactured car was unvieled today to take part in the infamous 24 hour Le Mans race this June!
The full story from the BBC website is below:
Aston Martin Racing has announced it will take part in this year's Le Mans 24 Hours race in June.
It is 50 years since the British-based manufacturer won the top prize at the famous French race.
This year's car is being designed and built by Aston Martin Racing at the Prodrive factory in Banbury.
The team has won the GT class at Le Mans for the past two years but this year will challenge Audi's recent domination of the main race instead.
David Richards, chairman of both Aston Martin and Prodrive, said: "Le Mans 24 Hours is without doubt the greatest motor race in the world.
"It's been 50 years since we last won Le Mans outright and what better opportunity or way of celebrating that anniversary than having another go."
The announcement comes despite Aston Martin looking to cut 600 jobs from its production line in Gaydon, in Warwickshire.
Engineering firm Prodrive is facing more than 180 job losses too after the withdrawal of the Subaru World Rally Team which it prepared.
Richards defended the decision to compete in the world's most famous endurance race.
"Aston Martin, despite the downturn in the market for everybody, has been profitable for the past four years. Sometimes you need to do things like this to corral everyone's enthusiasm," he said.
More than 250,000 motorsport fans normally make the pilgrimage to the track in the Loire, to the south west of Paris.
German manufacturer Audi have won the race for the past five years but following rule changes this year's race over 13/14 June is expected to be a much tighter affair.
"A win at Le Mans - well, let's not be totally dreaming here but let's suppose we could be there at the podium at the finish, it would be a magnificent achievement for everybody," added Richards.
The last British team to win the Le Mans 24 Hours race was Bentley back in 2004.
3 comments:
Love the old gulf livery. Go Aston Martin.
-RaceRx_380
Yeah love the new Aston, just seen it at goodwood festival of speed, was awesome!
The actual car is shown here:
http://motorsportengineering.blogspot.com/2009/06/ipod-touch-blog-post-test-gulf-livery.html
I couldn't find the actual image when i wrote this post as they weren't yet released but now they are, didn't go fantastically at Le Mans but still looks amazing
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