What is Aston Martin up to?

[SALEEN S7R]

Going by what is being said on another forum apparntly the damage to the 007 car isnt as bad as the 009, so heres hoping they can get it fixed and back out before the day is over.

[Deleted]

Mr. Richards should be popping up in the RLM commentary box shortly, so we might get some (PR) answers.

[Slipknot]

DR explained it had to do with the cylinder lining and installing a spare engine with the same lining would be a waste. He mentioned the engines would be overnighted home and the engine team is flying back today.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by courageous

well of course, if the rules had proper equivilancy then it would all be different....

The car is ugly, slow, unreliable, has no special technology on it, run under-budget & is driven by pay drivers.

Just sod off already & stop robbing grid slots from more deserving cars please

Haha simply brutal.

No part of you respects them for taking on the might of the factory efforts in LMP1 on their own terms? No matter how poorly...

Don't get my wrong I'm very disappointed in them too but I don't see many other car makers trying anything.

[JAG]

As Richards said the engine lining failed and is scheduled to be changed Tuesday along with other updates.

Rather than ruining more engines they're flying the engine team back to prepare.

[courageous]

Originally Posted by Simmi

No part of you respects them for taking on the might of the factory efforts in LMP1 on their own terms?

If they were remotely in the ball park, then I would think differently.

But, another underfunded late getting approval sort of works entry will be showing up in June (Highcroft) & something tells me they will at least be competitive against the privateer teams.

Manufacturers go racing for the sake of their image or to improve their advanced technology - point 2 isn't relevant to Aston & on point 1 they are doing themselves serious damage.

Dave Richards on RLM gave the excuse that "apart from racing, these cars are too fast and loud for most circuits to allow proper testing on" - funny how EVERY other team manage to find a way isn't it?

[Joe Taylor]

Originally Posted by courageous

But, another underfunded late getting approval sort of works entry will be showing up in June (Highcroft) & something tells me they will at least be competitive against the privateer teams.

With a chassis/engine combo that has been in development since 2007, compared to 3 months for the Aston.

[Dyson Mazda]

This car out of the box is the biggest disappointment since the Panoz LMP07

[courageous]

My point exactly Joe - they have rushed into the biggest race of the year with a car that isn't ready & in doing so, simply because of who they are, have deprived 2 more worthy cars (on pace this would be the Kronos Lola-Aston & Zytek Hybrid) of grid slots.

Go away, do some testing like any other factory team & come back when you have a car that is at least capable of a top 10

[GT6]

If they had any sense they would make sure that they can at least do a few laps before breaking down, this has been a really disappointing day.

[courageous]

And as the day ends, Aston Martin LMP1 cars are ranked slower than the Norma LMP2.

Nobody expected them to take on Audi/Peugeot, but Norma? Really?

[JAG]

There was an issue with the engine lining which was due to be fixed prior to the test but the part/s were delayed. After the problem showed up they could have kept replacing parts/engines until they ran out but they thought it better to send the engine team back to prepare the updated engine ready for the next test and Spa.

Their Mini WRC program started in 2009, the Aston program late 2010, that's the task facing them.

If people don't think the Aston program will be turned around they don't know much about Prodrive, if they don't have the patience to wait for smaller programs to get upto speed they'll shouldn't complain when Audi and Peugeot dominate and dictate the direction of the sport.

You only need look at the mistep Audi took with the '99 R8C and Peugeots '91 905 to see even the giants need time and experience.

[courageous]

Indeed, the Audi R8C from '99 is a good comparison - it was done on the cheap, turned out slow & uncompetitive; instead of making excuses, they binned it and got on with the business of racing.

[cmk]

I had thought that the engine was running on the dyno a while before the chassis was finished, but it seems the powertrain is hugely troubled. Ending up at Le Mans test weekend with all your engines suffering from faulty cylinder linings seems a pretty elementary stuff-up to me, though I could be wrong.

Paging knighty to the Aston Martin thread...

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by courageous

And as the day ends, Aston Martin LMP1 cars are ranked slower than the Norma LMP2.

Nobody expected them to take on Audi/Peugeot, but Norma? Really?

The whole effort really feels like the entries are wasted on them, the car simply isn't tested enough to compete in the race. Terribly late in development plus underfunded is a disastrous combination, there's no way they get this car to be realiable and at least up into the LMP1 laptime ranks until June..

They should have postponed the whole programme to 2012, this way their effort will just produce bad press.

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by Acid09

The whole effort really feels like the entries are wasted on them, the car simply isn't tested enough to compete in the race. Terribly late in development plus underfunded is a disastrous combination, there's no way they get this car to be realiable and at least up into the LMP1 laptime ranks until June..

They should have postponed the whole programme to 2012, this way their effort will just produce bad press.

I fully agree. Worse than not being up to the times of the remaining gasoline cars is the bad image that is undermining the whole project.
Seriously I fear that in 2012 there will be no draft LMP1 Aston Martin.

I must confess I was very excited with the LMP1 until he first appears, hardly saw the first picture I thought the car belonged to the 90´s.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by courageous

Indeed, the Audi R8C from '99 is a good comparison - it was done on the cheap, turned out slow & uncompetitive; instead of making excuses, they binned it and got on with the business of racing.

This made me go back and read the section on the R8C in DSC's excellent interview of Andy Wallace by Michael Cotton. The analogy is pretty decent. Anyone with a subscription who hasn't should go read the tale of the flying door; actually the tale is also funny in light of Audi circa 2011.

[knighty]

ooh, DR has spilled the beans there hasnt he!..... delamination of the nikasil cylinder coating is highly believable, there is basically two ways to do this, the low risk option and well proven (for a turbo engine) is to have a seperate wet liner normally made of something a bit more exotic (and quality controllable) than the sand cast aluminium cylinder block material and all its associated impurities....... for a serious petrol turbo engine you really need to be looking at some form of high alloy steel + nikasil coating for a liner, as the cylinder will take a pounding both thermally and mechanically.......now if you have employed a few ex F1 engine design plebs, they have probably taken the far higher risk option and nikasil plated directly to the ali cylinder block, Audi actually did this on their last V10 LMP diesel, but a diesel engine does run at substantially lower combustion temperatures (like 2-300DegC lower) than a gasoline engine, hence if AMR have gone this route (directly nikasil coated the ali bores) then they are probably treading new ground and may have bitten off more than they can chew......I'm not slamming them, just an opinion on what I think is wrong.......to fix the issue, you can convert most blocks to steel wet liners, we did this on the old Cosworth YB iron block and it worked a treat and allowed an old tired and aged engine to run with very high amounts of boost without fear of cracking the bores, which was a common problem on the old YB's

or......this could just be a simple case of the I6 flexing too much in torsion and it deforms the bores causing a piston scuff.....I think this is actually what happened to the dyson-AER-mazdas, then early last season they started running much more stiffening braces around the engine and their poor reliability turned a significant corner

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by knighty

ooh, DR has spilled the beans there hasnt he!..... delamination of the nikasil cylinder coating is highly believable, there is basically two ways to do this, the low risk option and well proven (for a turbo engine) is to have a seperate wet liner normally made of something a bit more exotic (and quality controllable) than the sand cast aluminium cylinder block material and all its associated impurities....... for a serious petrol turbo engine you really need to be looking at some form of high alloy steel + nikasil coating for a liner, as the cylinder will take a pounding both thermally and mechanically.......now if you have employed a few ex F1 engine design plebs, they have probably taken the far higher risk option and nikasil plated directly to the ali cylinder block, Audi actually did this on their last V10 LMP diesel, but a diesel engine does run at substantially lower combustion temperatures (like 2-300DegC lower) than a gasoline engine, hence if AMR have gone this route (directly nikasil coated the ali bores) then they are probably treading new ground and may have bitten off more than they can chew......I'm not slamming them, just an opinion on what I think is wrong.......to fix the issue, you can convert most blocks to steel wet liners, we did this on the old Cosworth YB iron block and it worked a treat and allowed an old tired and aged engine to run with very high amounts of boost without fear of cracking the bores, which was a common problem on the old YB's

So you are saying that is a easy solution that can be done for the Spa Race???

That solution only improves the reliability not the speed right?

[JAG]

So you are saying that is a easy solution that can be done for the Spa Race???

That solution only improves the reliability not the speed right?

The problem and it's solution was planned before the test day but the item was delayed until next Tuesday, they also plan other upgrades such as the injection system. Andy Meryck said they didn't have a large stock inventory because the car was under continuous development.

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by JAG

The problem and it's solution was planned before the test day but the item was delayed until next Tuesday, they also plan other upgrades such as the injection system. Andy Meryck said they didn't have a large stock inventory because the car was under continuous development.

Don´t you agree it would be better to continue to develop the car and appear with him in 2012, or you think they still have time until June?

[Pandamasque]

What do you guys think about the exhaust? Doesn't it look a bit 'temporary'?

[JAG]

I don't think they'll be ready for 24hrs, I do think the next month or two will see them gain significant speed and reliabilty after identifying their short comings.

[Gil Abobeleira]

They were slower and covered less miles than the Oreca-Hybrid, for ffs! :

[Audi Racer]

I personally think they should drop out and come back with a new aero package for next year.

They shouldnt waist money or peoples time.

And some people here are always saying that aston doesnt have enough money. this is why they dont have enough money. they keep waisting money.