Aston Martin Celebrates a Weekend of Endurance Racing

Press Release

Aston Martin will be celebrating a weekend of endurance racing when the marque contests at both the 24-hour Nurbringring race and the 24 Heures du Mans.

Nürburgring

An estimated quarter of a million fans will see a near standard V8 Vantage take part in one of the toughest events in motor sport. The 25.4km circuit combines the new Nürburgring GP circuit with the legendary Nordschleife and this year will have 230 cars on its three starting grids. The V8 Vantage entering the race was prepared by a team of employees at the Aston Martin Gaydon factory in England.

Aston Martin’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ulrich Bez, said: "This race is an opportunity to showcase how a standard Vantage combines both speed and durability. With this 24-hour race running parallel to Le Mans, it is an exciting opportunity for the Aston Martin team and it promises to be a very exciting weekend for fans of our marque."

Dr Bez’s love of motor sport goes further than purely supporting the programme. He shares the driving with Chris Porritt, Aston Martin’s Vehicle Engineering Manager, fellow development driver Wolfgang Schuhbauer, and Horst von Saurma, editor-in-chief of Sport Auto magazine in Germany who has years of Nürburgring racing and testing experience.

Chris Porritt added: "During the Vantage development programme we logged thousands of kilometres at the N?rburgring and this endurance race seemed to offer the perfect place to celebrate the car’s pedigree.”

Testing over three previous four-hour races at the famous German circuit has shown the V8 Vantage is perfectly capable of doing exactly that, scoring a series of credible class finishes, including one class victory.

The V8 Vantage is almost entirely production standard, including engine and transmission but will run in the dry on Yokohama slicks on special wheels that are slightly wider than standard and 18-inch rather than 19-inch diameter – but overall almost precisely the same size as the standard road tyres, so even the ABS and stability settings have not been recalibrated.

The only other modifications are for safety and pit-lane efficiency, with the full mandatory safety cage, special fuel tank and fire system, racing seat, and built-in air jacks. Showing the team’s attention to detail, the otherwise standard dashboard will be covered with Alcantara rather than leather, to cut out stray reflections during the night when there can be more than 200 cars on the circuit. Most glass is also replaced by polycarbonate, so in total the car is fractionally lighter than the standard V8 Vantage, but in racing terms the car will be as close to the road going specification as possible.

Le Mans

Meanwhile at Le Mans, four Aston Martin DBR9s will be chasing victory in the GT1 category, in front of a crowd that traditionally includes tens of thousands of
flag-waving British enthusiasts.

Aston Martin Racing’s two DBR9s will be driven by Tomas Enge (Czech Republic), Andrea Piccini (Italy) and Darren Turner (UK), who will share the number 007 car. In car number 009 are Pedro Lamy (Portugal), Stephane Ortelli (Monaco) and Stephane Sarrazin (France). Also competing at Le Mans will be the Aston Martin Racing BMS Scuderia Italia DBR9, which will run with the number 69, and the number 62 Russian Age Racing (Team Modena) DBR9.

As a tribute to the Aston Martin DBR9s at Le Mans, the V8 Vantage racing at the Nürburgring will have the famous green and yellow colours – but in this case spectacularly reversed, with warm yellow bodywork and green around the signature grille opening.

So while the DBR9s will be fighting the whole way at Le Mans, their colleagues at the N?rburgring intend to run at a quick but comfortable and consistent pace, avoid other car’s incidents, and complete the 24-hours race.