Aston Martin Race Cars

1st Place: Aston Martin DBR1

An iconic Le Mans winner

Ten years after purchasing an Aston Martin, David Brown would finally realize his racing dreams by winning the 24-Hours of LeMans when Carol Shelby and Roy Salvadori piloted DBR1/2 to an overall victory.

The DB1, DB2, DB3, and DB3S aided in obtaining the technical expertise, financial backing, and engineering required to develop the DBR1 and LeMans. Like the DB3S, the DBR1 was a dedicated race car with few production Aston Martin similarities. Its space frame chassis, rear transaxle, and engine were all made specifically for it.

The DBR1 was more powerful and lighter than the DB3S. The automobile was 300 pounds lighter, with a longer wheelbase and wider track. A 20-gauge magnesium alloy body, prone to damage on and off the track, is mainly responsible for the weight savings. The suspension and disc brakes from the DB3S were utilized in Ted Cutting's innovative space frame chassis.

The DBR1 relied on a DOHC, six-cylinder engine with a 2.5-liter displacement. Around 254 horsepower was attainable with twin-spark ignition and a lightweight aluminum block. A 5-speed transaxle used to transmit this power to the rear wheels increased the weight on those wheels.

2nd Place: Aston Martin DBR9

Got Aston Martin Racing back on track.

Based on the new DB9 road car, development of the DBR9 began in the summer of 2004 between Aston Martin and Prodrive. A total of 19 cars were made, nine for privateers and ten as factory cars, and while they might resemble the DB9 in some respects they are quite, quite different.

Designed to survive the rough and tumble of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other endurance events all over the world, the DBR9 had an aluminium and composite tub, a new rear subframe, double wishbone suspension and coil springs all the way around, carbon body panels, an aluminium roof, a six-speed sequential gearbox (in most cases – some had an H-pattern manual), huge Brembo brakes and OZ wheels. It weighed a whopping 610kg less than the DB9, too, at 1,100kg.

The engine, meanwhile, was still a 6.0-litre V12, like the road car, but a very different unit by comparison, as we discovered when talking to Jason Hill, Prodrive’s head of new engine programmes and the man responsible for the DBR9’s engine development in period, at the Monza Historic in 2019. “It’s a heavily modified road engine – there isn’t much left of the original engine left,” Hill explained. “It’s a reasonable piece of kit! And it’s designed to last for 30 hours.”

With Audi taking 13 wins in the first 15 years at Le Mans since the turn of the century, the fight for top honours at Le Mans was very often simply an intra-team battle. Excitement came from the other classes and prime among them was the GT1 battle. Aston Martin took back-to-back wins in the glorious DBR9 in 2007 and 2008, fending off the rumbling Corvette squad on both occasions. The car’s type number was a clear nod to the Aston Martin DBR/1, which had claimed outright victory at Le Mans in 1959.

3rd Place: Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE

Proving Aston Martin could compete with the big guns

The Vantage GTE arrived on the scene in 2012. Wanting to prove the Vantage’s worth against the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette, the factory team’s Vantage GTE’s first test was the opening round of the newly formed World Endurance Championship, the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Vantage GTE got off to a strong start, with a third place finish behind Porsche and Ferrari.

Then followed a retirement at Spa, a third place at Le Mans, three second positions in a row followed by another third, and then the first win, at the 6 Hours of Shanghai, enough for second place overall in the LMGTE Pro category. The following year was strong too, with Aston finishing runner-up to Ferrari in the championship standings and grabbing another third place at Le Mans. Add to that customer teams in the Am category that were notching up class wins and podiums and the V8 Vantage GTE was proving to be quite the competitive racer. In 2014 the car managed its first Le Mans class win, in the LMGTE Am category, and a Pro championship in 2016.

Finally the following year with a  win at Le Mans seemingly just out of reach, it happened. After a fierce battle in the final three laps of the race, with just over a second separating the lead Corvette and the second-place Vantage, the Corvette’s fierce defense failed with a slow puncture and the car of Jonny Adam, Darren Turner and Daniel Serra won. It was the final Le Mans for the V8 Vantage GTE, replaced for 2018 by the new-shape Vantage GTE, but to top off 2017 Aston Martin won the LMGTE Am driver’s and teams titles. Not a bad way to retire, wouldn’t you say?