What is Aston Martin up to?

[Le Vieux]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

well, the lola aston of kronos now is in race, will be really amazing and at the same time sad to see an old private lola aston be much more competitive than a new official one....

I'd like to see you proved wrong, but sadly, I fear you're right.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by AGD

Aside from that, I don't see what the benefits of withdrawing from Le Mans is at this point. The cat is out of the bag that the car is a bit of a laugher, it's not like they can conceal that fact by not going to Le Mans. I'm sure they have relationships with their drivers (and their money), collectors, and sponsors promising that they would be at Le Mans. They might as well go and make the best out of a bad situation.

Obviously the business interests factor in heavily, but at the same time it can not help or benefit those interests in any way to have a very public melt down in the opening laps at Le Mans, which almost seems a given. Maybe they have made massive strides-Hopefully they have made massive strides. The slow, smokey end potential while struggling amongst the GT field does not seem to enhance anyone's stock.

[Truckosaurus]

Now then.

Given the lack of coverage of Le Mans outside the specialist media, I suspect the general public won't know or care that the AMR-ONE has been less than stellar.

If the car doesn't win then it might as well explode on the opening lap as finish second, it'll still allow Aston to run adverts with pictures of their road cars and the race car.

If they are planning on using a turboed straight-6 engine in their road cars then they've got plenty of time to sort out the reliability issues in time for those cars being launched.

[pederb]

We are very close to see another Vantage in GTE Pro. There are only two cars left in the reserve category so with a little luck we will see Young Drivers in GTE at the 24hrs. I'm crossing my fingers.

[gwyllion]

The only way that is going to happen is if the two AMR-Ones withdraw

[Dead-Eye]

Or if the Hope car and one AMR-One are kicked out for missing Spa...

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Dead-Eye

Or if the Hope car and one AMR-One are kicked out for missing Spa...

If that were the case, why are they still on the latest version of the entry list?

There is a chance that the Hope car fails the pitlane test, but the Young Drivers AMR team needs two withdrawals.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

If that were the case, why are they still on the latest version of the entry list?

Because ACO is keen to disobey their own rules?

[gwyllion]

Let me rephrase my question. Why is the ACO waiting such a long time to kick out cars for missing 2 ILMC races?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

Let me rephrase my question. Why is the ACO waiting such a long time to kick out cars for missing 2 ILMC races?

One car is a Hybrid and good PR for Le Mans
The other is a car manufacture and therefor great PR stuff (and potential front runner in the future)

[gwyllion]

I was replying to the following comment

Originally Posted by Dead-Eye

Or if the Hope car and one AMR-One are kicked out for missing Spa...

My point was that if the ACO wanted to kick Hope and AMR out for missing 2 ILMC rounds, they would have done by now...

[Deleted]

Probably so. Personally I don't believe that either of those entries will be rejected - even if that should be the case - but the unsettled situation with hybrid Oreca might still give room for the second Doran Ford.

Mr Enge is probably firing up his barbecue grill already.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Obviously the business interests factor in heavily, but at the same time it can not help or benefit those interests in any way to have a very public melt down in the opening laps at Le Mans, which almost seems a given.

True, but like I said, the fans pretty much know the state of the AMR-One as it is. People will know why they are withdrawing if they do that. It's no longer a secret. The only benefit is that the YD Aston would be assured to get in. That would be nice, although I'm sure AMR has to weigh the business benefits of the move.

I suppose an embarrasing showing could hinder AMR's ability to get entries next year, but perhaps the same could be said about a late withdraw. Anyway, I guess they will get at least one entry next year if they do the ILMC (assuming the rules stay the same) and I would guess they could get another just because of who they are.

Originally Posted by Chiana

Because ACO is keen to disobey their own rules?

At first the rumor was that teams who missed a round (not counting Sebring) would lose their entry, but it seems that has been replaced by teams being fined 40,000 Euros or whatever it was. I don't understand the rules exactly, but it looks like Hope and AMR will be able to pay the ACO and keep their entries.

[gwyllion]

I just checked the ILMC sporting regulations. The rules always said that a fine must be paid for every missed race.

d) Guarantee of participation in the whole Cup
For all competitors accepted by the Selection Committee :
Participation in all the Intercontinental Le Mans races is obligatory.
Should a car entered in the ILMC not take part in a race, a financial penalty of 30 000 € will be imposed for each failure to participate (except in the case of force majeure decided by the Stewards of the Meeting).

This year a waiver for Sebring could be granted for new cars:

For 2011 only: Because of the numerous new technical innovations an entrant can ask the Sports Committee by email for a waiver for the Sebring event (non application of the 30 000 € penalty) at least a month before the event.
...
This waiver can only be applied to new cars or cars that have had to undergo considerable modifications between 2010 and 2011 to comply with the new regulations.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Truckosaurus

Now then.

Given the lack of coverage of Le Mans outside the specialist media, I suspect the general public won't know or care that the AMR-ONE has been less than stellar.

If the car doesn't win then it might as well explode on the opening lap as finish second, it'll still allow Aston to run adverts with pictures of their road cars and the race car.

errr, why spend any more on development? Just polish the thing, do photo shots with production cars, then start and park it.

[Le Vieux]

The ACO are French, so can change their own rules at any time they feel like it. I wouldn't put it past them to boot out AMR the week of the race. Alternatively, they're equally likely to leave them in the race, expecting them to make fools of themselves.

As regards coverage by the non-specialist press, I can easily imagine a scenario where someone - probably the BBC - makes a big thing about Aston Martin returning to compete for overall victory - brand new car - going one better than class wins - beating the French and Germans with superior British engineering and so on, only for the result we all fear.

I remember something similar in the Sixties when John Surtees put an Aston-Martin engine in a Lola T70 iirc

[Mal]

Originally Posted by Le Vieux

As regards coverage by the non-specialist press, I can easily imagine a scenario where someone - probably the BBC - makes a big thing about Aston Martin returning to compete for overall victory - brand new car - going one better than class wins - beating the French and Germans with superior British engineering and so on, only for the result we all fear.

That has already bean done in the specialist press - if you look at the preview in the June issue of MotorSport you will see that put AMR on par with Pug and Audi in the headlines as going for overall honours

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Mal

That has already bean done in the specialist press - if you look at the preview in the June issue of MotorSport you will see that put AMR on par with Pug and Audi in the headlines as going for overall honours

If it were one of the daily newspapers I wouldnt be surprised but I would expect better from something like MotorSport magazine.

[KA]

Originally Posted by AGD

At first the rumor was that teams who missed a round (not counting Sebring) would lose their entry, but it seems that has been replaced by teams being fined 40,000 Euros or whatever it was. I don't understand the rules exactly, but it looks like Hope and AMR will be able to pay the ACO and keep their entries.

That's a more sensible way of dealing with it anyway- there's no way back for a team if you pull their entry for missing a round.
IIRC back in the Group C days, when the FIA made attendance at all rounds of the series mandatory, the sanction was a fine.
Funnily enough, I think it was Aston who were one of the teams who were hit by this, when they had to miss the trip to Suzuka at the start of the '89 season after writing off the first AMR-1 chassis in a testing shunt...

[Simmi]

Darren Turner says in Autosport magazine today that he hopes the car can reach the 12-hour mark in the race. He admits the full distance is unrealistic and is looking to play down expectations.

He also says the revisions on the engine have resulted in a good step forward allowing them to chase performance in the car. One initial issue had been that they were struggling to get the tyres to work. They won't really have any idea about their pace until Wednesday in practice.

[chernaudi]

The ACO seems to reserve the options of kicking a team or car out of LM/ILMC or having the team pay the 30,000 Euro/$45,000 withdrawl fee for each race they miss. The ACO being essentially a privately-held business/sanctioning body (like IMSA, NASCAR, and in actual practice the FIA, though the latter is in theory a not-for-profit entity), I'd bet that they'd take the money from the fees that teams must pay now to skip a race.

AMR probably felt that $45,000 was less than what they'd have to spend on destroyed engines at Spa. Only thing there is that the ACO could see the withdraw as force majure and waive the withdrawl fee, but I do think that several ruined engines would be worth well more than $45,000!

[Pandamasque]

Strangely enough, this year with poor reliability you have better chance of getting some TV time than reliably running round in 8th

[alexkiller8]

in my opinion AMR should buy some 3.4 V8 judd, make some changes and call it amr-judd engine.... at least will be ever more reliable and powerfull than the original one.

[JAG]

The AMR-One was late, very late, it's two public appearances didn't come close to showing the cars potential due to known engine issues and lack of set-up work.

With their own engine and an adapted chassis they've beaten the petrol competition these past three years, it's not asking a great deal to give the team time to get over their issues, it's not as if they don't have any pedigree.

Let's not forget they'll also be supplying four customer cars, and are doing their bit to support the ILMC, LMS and ALMS.

[GT6]

Lets all hold back on the aston bashing for a couple of weeks, it will be good to see them there and we can all hope, I know it does not look likely that they will be there without problems but give them some credit they are there and that deserves are support