http://www.astonmartin.com/en/racing...les-in-bahrain

Pretty impressive beating brand new Ford GT's and Ferrari 488's in a 10 year old car!

 

Very nice result for the team. Thanks for posting it.
Ron

 

That's even more fabulous, as I bet AM racing budget is about 10% of what Ferrari and Ford spends. Sure seemed that way at 24 hour Le Mans.

 

Both Ford and Ferrari cheated at Le Mans - they sand-bagged during testing which gave them very favorable balance of performance, then miraculously gained 3 sec a lap on race day! Makes AM's WEC championship all the sweeter!

 

I was hoping for a manufacturer's title, too, but the 97 car just wasn't as successful against the Ferraris in the most recent races.

 

They won both GTE Pro Drivers and Team titles.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what are the specs on the AM they race? Thx, JR

 

For the FIA WEC, it's based on the V8 Vantage:
http://www.astonmartin.com/en/racing...rs/vantage-gte

 

In racing a new car is seldom an advantage. It usually takes years to sort a racing car out.

 

That's less of an issue these days - cars tend to be pretty quick straight out of the box today. But balance of performance tends to negate a lot of advantages a new car might have.

 

Thanks!

 

The changes in aero was a huge help here. I was chatting with the AMR crew at Road Atlanta when the GTE was first brought to the US in 2012, and they told me they got a 50 lb reduction in weight restrictions due to the poor aero of the car. Chatting with TRG at their HQ a couple months ago, they said the cars were incredibly stout and didn't have any real reliability issues. Unrestricted, the V12 engines can easily hit 800 hp.