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Welcome to the Aston Workshop news section. This section will update regularly, enabling you to keep up to date of changes and new information relating to the Aston Workshop and the Aston Martin Marque.
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Aston Martin Racing has unveiled the DBR9, which will spearhead the British marque’s return to international racing in 2005.
The car was shown to a select audience for the first time on November 4 at Aston Martin's headquarters in the United Kingdom. An intensive testing program now follows for Aston Martin Racing prior to the DBR9’s debut race scheduled for the 12 hours of Sebring, Florida, in March 2005.
Aston Martin Racing will run two cars at Sebring and then move to Europe to prepare for the Le Mans 24 hours in June 2005. This will mark Aston Martin’s return to the race that was won outright in 1959 with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby. In recognition of this, the DBR9 will follow the Le Mans-winning DBR1 and Works DB3S and carry the same green and yellow livery as the cars that dominated sports car racing in the late 1950s.
The DBR9 GT racing car is based on the latest Aston Martin production sports car — the DB9 — but is significantly modified for competition use. The DB9’s bonded-aluminium body architecture is shared with the DBR9 and provides both with a lightweight rigid chassis.
The race engine uses the same aluminium cylinder block and head as the DB9’s DB9's 340kW, six-litre V12 but with racing modifications is expected to produce around 450kW.
The DB9’s double wishbone suspension configuration is retained on the DBR9, but features uprated components and a revised geometry for racing purposes. Formula 1-style carbon brakes are fitted front and rear and a competition, six-speed sequential gearbox is mounted at the rear axle.
The DBR9 was styled by Aston Martin Racing’s own design team who made extensive use of Computational Fluid Dynamics to optimise the aerodynamics before producing the final body surface. The panels are hand made from carbon-fibre composite, helping the car to meet its 1100kg minimum weight and giving it a power to weight ratio of 412kW per ton — more than double that of the road car.
Whilst we can’t offer you a DBR9 just yet, we can offer you the chance to feel the spirit and soul of Aston Martin racing in years gone by with a beautiful recreation of the DB4 GT. The car has been set up to compete in road rallies, hill-climbs and circuit races such as the AMOC Championship. We think you’ll also find it’s slightly cheaper than a DBR9 at £125,000. Full details on the DB4 page of this site.
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