Aston Martin will compete in the 2011 Le Mans race with an all new open-cockpit car and a new purpose-designed engine.
New regulations introduced by the Le Mans organisers, the Automobile Club De L’Ouest (ACO), mean that Aston Martin now believes it can compete with the diesel-powered Peugeot and Audi cars.
See the first sketch of Aston Martin's new Le Mans challenger
Aston Martin competed in the 2009 and 2010 Le Mans races, but with a closed-cockpit car developed from a prototype originally built by Lola, called the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60.
The new LMP1 challenger will be petrol powered and will retain the iconic Gulf Oil livery as seen on Aston Martin Racing’s cars from the previous two years.
David Richards, Aston Martin chairman, said: “Having won the GT category twice at Le Mans in 2007 and 2008 and the Le Mans Series outright in 2009, we still want to achieve our ultimate goal of winning the 24 Hour race overall to bring the title back to Britain.”
Aston Martin’s first and only outright victory at Le Mans came in 1959 when Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby won in their DBR1.
Aston Martin Racing was founded in 2004 and has won multiple races and titles with its GT1 class DBR9 and the 2009 Le Mans Series title with the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60.
