07-18-2004, 07:48 PM
![[Image: db9rgt-01.jpg]](http://www.carbc.com/news2/highres/db9rgt-01.jpg)
Think Aston Martin and you think James Bond, careening across ice or tracking down and shooting at the bad guys in his Vanquish. What you typically would not think of is a beast such as this dukeing it out with Lamborghinis and Ferraris on a race course, but there's a certain ring to the idea. Once upon a time, in the 1930s and the 1950s, Aston Martin took cars like the DBR1 to legendary places such as Goodwood and Le Mans but in recent years, Aston Martin has stayed away from the race track. The last time the marque entered the highly-lauded 24 hour event was in the mid ÔÇÿ80s ÔÇô definitely not during AstonÔÇÖs better years. Recent changing times and increased funding has led to Aston's return to racing with the creation of the DB9R GT, designed and developed by none other than Prodrive racing. The project's first showing is right now, but the car will officially be unveiled at the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hour race for its first showing.
Prodrive Racing, known mostly for their efforts on SubaruÔÇÖs Impreza World Rally car (and various other tuned high-performance Subarus) and their race-track star the Ferrari-Prodrive 550-GTS have become a trackside favourite in motorsports racing. Their Ferrari entry beat the odds, taking third place in its class during last yearÔÇÖs event. The DB9R GT is the type of vehicle that will compete against Porsche, Ferrari, BMW and TVR in the GT class (but not the GTS class which has the much faster Lamborghinis, Saleens and Corvettes) in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and perhaps the European GT Championships. Two groups of cars will be built ÔÇô one group consists of three independent race teams backed by Aston Martin Racing support will be dealt two cars, while the second group consists of individual race cars available to privateer racers in the same mechanical specification as the factory cars, but without the support. Aston Martin havenÔÇÖt released any prices on the car, but donÔÇÖt expect this to be a cheap ticket.
