What is Aston Martin up to?

[lemansfan]

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/ast...50119874546099

Klien is confirmed as sixth Factory Driver !!

[Victor_RO]

Interesting choice, and certainly an... unexpected one when hearing it for the first time. All the best to him and to AMR as much as possible, it's going to be an... interesting year to say the least.

Good thing Barazi is no longer around.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by carabus

I'd like to be wrong, but all it seems so much like ... a Lister LMP story. As a Czech, I wished Tomas Enge to drive the car, now it's not the case...

Lister were a tiny manufactuer who performed miracles on a tiny budget.

Prodrive are a high calibre operation who're about to represent BMW on the WRC stage against the might of Citroen, Ford and VW.

[Simmi]

Nice to see Klien announced. It seemed like it was always going to be someone of that calibre.

[vyselegend]

So in the end Peugeot and Aston Martin swaped Davidson versus Klien... Sort of.

Peugeot won the deal IMO!

Although Klien in his Peugeot days was no slouch, at least not a failure like Zonta and Villeneuve (I don't want to be too rude but they were real disapointments). But he somehow seemed full of mistakes, in the most critical moments (PLM 2008 being the most memorable, along with LM 2008).
Anyway, he's fast and now has at least some experience of what endurance is made of, so I wish him and Aston the best for the times to come.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by vyselegend

So in the end Peugeot and Aston Martin swaped Davidson versus Klien... Sort of.

Kind of. But not really.

I think it's a good signing for Aston. They have been lacking raw pace in recent years. I was hoping they would be more attacking in their driver choices this year but it hasn't happened.

It's not like Davidson hasn't made mistakes either but I agree with you over which guy I'd have in my car.

[JAG]

DP

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Zurbert82

Adrian Fernandez tweeted that the AMR-One LMP1 plans to be at Lime Rock, Laguna Seca, and 2 other ALMS events in addition to Petit. This is all of course dependent upon funding, etc. http://www.tweetdeck.com/twitter/AdrianF007/~RWpqI

Who funded the Long Beach entry last season, Lowes?

Competing in a race to prepare for PLM is one thing but five rounds is a significant commitment that must have been planned for some time.

[pederb]

Another failure in GT2, how many laps did the Vantage do this time before breaking? Their history is worse the RSR.

[Canada ALMS fan]

Originally Posted by pederb

Another failure in GT2, how many laps did the Vantage do this time before breaking? Their history is worse the RSR.

Zero, they did a couple of laps but those were after an hour of the green so should not have gone out. Broken flywheel.
It is a brand new chassis too so think there would have been less issues. (chassis #009)

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by Canada ALMS fan

It is a brand new chassis too so think there would have been less issues. (chassis #009)

Which is one of my biggest issues with this car.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Canada ALMS fan

Zero, they did a couple of laps but those were after an hour of the green so should not have gone out. Broken flywheel.
It is a brand new chassis too so think there would have been less issues. (chassis #009)

Oh, I remember the good old days when Drayson would burn through a couple of Vantage engines in practice and then see how far they made it in the race

on another note, this thread title makes me laugh every time I read it "What is Aston Martin up to?" It sounds so devious and sinister - I love it!

[pederb]

Originally Posted by joeb

Oh, I remember the good old days when Drayson would burn through a couple of Vantage engines in practice and then see how far they made it in the race

on another note, this thread title makes me laugh every time I read it "What is Aston Martin up to?" It sounds so devious and sinister - I love it!

It's hard to see much positivity with the GT2 Vantage program, and a big fan of AMR and GT2 so I really want to see them succeed.

Any reason they can not run the much proven V12 in the Vantage?

[KA]

Originally Posted by pederb

It's hard to see much positivity with the GT2 Vantage program, and a big fan of AMR and GT2 so I really want to see them succeed.

Any reason they can not run the much proven V12 in the Vantage?

Presumably they'd need to homologate a V12 Vantage for GT2/GTE, but that's the only reason I can think of.

As you said, it's hard to see much positive outcome from the GT2 Vantage so far- Drayson struggled with it for 2 years, the Gulf outfit didn't get off to much of a start at Sebring this year, and the James Watt car that appeared in the LMS a couple of years back seems to have sunk without trace after only a couple of appearances.
On the other hand, JMW seemed to have their car going pretty strongly last year in the LMS (it certainly seemed to be a match for an AF 430 at Silverstone) but then jumped ship back to Ferrari for 2011...
Lack of commitment from Prodrive to sorting the car's issues, or something fundamentally wrong with it?
It'll be interesting to see how Jota's car fares when the LMS season kicks off...

[joeb]

Originally Posted by KA

It'll be interesting to see how Jota's car fares when the LMS season kicks off...

Also the Young Driver car should have a good driver lineup so we can maybe see how it stacks against the rest of the field of Ferrari's and Porsche's

[Pandamasque]

IMO, giving a brand new car to a gentlemen driver and his team for development is not a good idea. They should have secured a proper factory backed outfit (or several!) in Europe first. YD and Jota seem serious enough, but isn't it a bit late for this car anyway?

Originally Posted by pederb

Any reason they can not run the much proven V12 in the Vantage?

To do that they'd have to downsize the V12 from 5.9+ litres to sub 5.5L, which is the limit in GTE.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

To do that they'd have to downsize the V12 from 5.9+ litres to sub 5.5L, which is the limit in GTE.

Or get a waiver like the Panoz

[pederb]

Originally Posted by joeb

Also the Young Driver car should have a good driver lineup so we can maybe see how it stacks against the rest of the field of Ferrari's and Porsche's

Is not YD an unofficial AMR team?

[gwyllion]

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/c...artin-amr-one/ explains the design process of the AMR-One, which included the use of CFD and a rapid prototype 3D printer. It has a great picture of a mockup of the straight 6 engine.

[RJC_pt]

Maybe its just a bit nuts, but could it be that the inline 6 uses one v12 head?

[BRG]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/c...artin-amr-one/ explains the design process of the AMR-One, which included the use of CFD and a rapid prototype 3D printer. It has a great picture of a mockup of the straight 6 engine.

Common DNA with this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigblog...7624794105397/

The prodrive mini WRC 1.6l t di engine

[JAG]

BMW design and build the WRC engine.

[chernaudi]

Makes sense there, as the current Mini marque is owned by BMW. Prodrive owner Richards is part owner and CEO of Aston Martin, and Richards/Prodrive own AMR.

BMW have tasked Prodrive to develop the Mini for the WRC with some BMW money.

Considering the fact that Aston Martin is developing inline 6 road car engines, the logical place to start is with half the Aston V12, which itself are two Ford Mondeo V6s sharing a common block.

[chernaudi]

DP.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Makes sense there, as the current Mini marque is owned by BMW. Prodrive owner Richards is part owner and CEO of Aston Martin, and Richards/Prodrive own AMR.

BMW have tasked Prodrive to develop the Mini for the WRC with some BMW money.

Considering the fact that Aston Martin is developing inline 6 road car engines, the logical place to start is with half the Aston V12, which itself are two Ford Mondeo V6s sharing a common block.

So it's 2x v6 --> V12 --> R6?
does not sound optimal for an race engine!