Club Arnage

anyone out there heard any more info on how aston are getting on with their problems?

What problems?

They have two invites to the greatest motor race in the world, lots of publicity, acres of hospitality space to entertain the beautiful people (plus the Zarses), enough champers to keep Tara Palmer Tomks happy. Wheres the problem?

Oh the cars? well just think about the money they will save on tyres. Plus they have willing buyers for the cars after they have smoked their way around the track for three laps. Win win win!

Well done D.R. ::)

Aston Martin, - where did it all go wrong....?
H

Have you got any passes this year Si?

>Martini...LB

found this when looking for aston martin racing information on google


https://www.astonmartin.com/error


hope its not a prophecy  :-\

Unfortunatly I thinks it's a sign.

Woe, woe, and thrice woe.

The website used to be www.astonmartinracing.com

Which provides us with this

https://www.astonmartinracing.com/

the second hand cars page :(

and this

http://www.astonmartinracing.com/eng/news?a=b1a8d9b9-c8c5-4167-97ee-6eccfc4aa55e

which we all knew anyway. Plasma shmasma.

all this guessing and google searching...............

these are the only guys we should trust

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Original_Monster_Munch_Monsters.jpg)

That picture looks like Club C'Arnage on friday night. :o

DR's quote for not going to spa "We need to complete our testing at our own pace including engine, aero and long distance tests."

At our own pace = Very slowly with <300bhp
Engine= trying to squeeze any other engine in they can find lying around
Aero = Shaving some lump off the ugly B*****D !!
Long distance tests = more than 3 laps

Sad sad times indeed.

Have seen 2 rumours on Twitter.

One from L'Endurance Magazine this morning claims that AM have cancelled their booking at the usual Chateau.

Another tweet - about a week ago - also claimed that AM had withdrawn.

Well if they are pulling out they had better do it quick just to give the two reserve teams a good chance of pulling things together.

Just check Andy Meyricks twitter and personel web site, if AM are out, he's keeping quite ::)

He will have to keep quiet until an official announcement is made.

No one available to comment over in the Gulf press office this morning.

The storm clouds are gathering folks.

Well there's an auction on going for some Aston Hospitality, might be able to pick up a bargin ;D


http://www.auctionair.co.uk/howtospendit/High-Bid-Auction/index.aspx

How much?? :o

Christ, i've had invites for the last three years and didn't bother going. I wonder if i have time to flog my invite before they pull the plug?

Didn't you forget to bring them?  ;D ;D ;D

>Martini...LB

You don't get a ticket as such, you just need to turn up and hopefully someone remembered to put your name on the list. You then get a wristband.

Not my kind of thing though. Its a little borish and stuffy.

Unless JP and Mr Zarse are there of course.

http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=9859.msg135935#msg135935

Adrian Fernandez has just tweeted that he's heading to Monza today.

Doesn't say if he's with AM, but my guess is that he is.

Last minute testing?

Could be, I think it was Audi that ran there last year with the chicanes removed to give some decent straights.

But it does seem a long way to go for shakedown/final testing, Rebellion are at Snetterton today.

That crossed my mind too.

Is it because it's A] out of the public's eye? B] similar conditions to Le Mans? C] Dave Richards has a villa close by?

Andy Meyrick & Darren Turner are also together somewhere as there's another tweet just posted about them playing table football together.

The plot thickens...

On Andy's tweets he has a running commentary about driving a motorhome from Spa to Manchester and the play off final result::)

And there's been a Aston road car doing laps round the ring with possibly a turbo charged engine. Extra reliability testing?
It may yet last longer than an hour.

"Very interesting, Mr Bond" - the spies are out.

Based on various tweets and other forums, it does appear that AMR have headed to Monza for a final shakedown. I guess it'll be straight to LM once it's done, providing the cars don't get heavily damaged of course!

Just seen a tweet from AMR, they have indeed gone to Monza for some final testing.

Bon chance...

Personally I think they should take a book out of AC's book, in the good old days they'd have tested on the M1, though the M40 would have to do for Prodrive.

Mind you, when push comes to shove, there's always the airfield next door at Le Mans - there's been a few cars over the years doing final "shakedown" testing there after qualifying.....

MG Mark

Seems to me they need to shake down a lot off that car to make it quick. Maybe they should shake out the engine and replace it with something sensible, an old audi diesel perhaps? :-X

oh ye of little faith.

In 2 weeks we will be celebrating a wonderful win for Aston after a thrilling race run under cloudless blue sky's.

Come on guys.......be fair.
At least AM have built their own chassis and are developing their own engine to boot and with probalbly a fraction of the budget that Audi and Puegeot have.
Just because they are having a few teething problems,it's not the end of the world....after all even if they fail this year,there is a whole 12 months to get the car ready for next year!!!

You forgot the bit about me being drafted in at the last moment to drive the winning car, making me the heaviest winning driver ever. ;)

Hey!! I was gonna finish it as the tallest driver ever!!

Photo evidence from Monza here: -

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsmay11.html

Andy meyrick is tweeting to say it's raining in Monza at the moment

 ;D

Well Pistonheads management are optomistic that the Astons are going to run as their offering a prize of a tour round the pit's during the race:

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=23708

Remember the closing date for entry's is this Friday!

Might be best for the winners to get the tour in sooner rather than later during the race ::)

It doesn't sound half bad!

http://youtu.be/ok9s8aEyv3w

Sounds very nice. Hope it keeps going!!!

Good sound, but still looks odd.

Just picturing that at Tetre Rouge at 2 in the morning oh yeees :-*

Where's my sock   >:D

Does look weird with the new fin, but as we all agree sounds like a proper petrol engine sportscar

If only it makes it that far...

Big question now is will Stefan Mucke get to drive. After his idiotic performance at Silverstone on sundays GT race it looks like he may not. The stewards have requested an instant licence suspension. :police:

Well, after the test day performance and rumours about reliability issues with the engine I assume a 2-driver-lineup will suffice :).

That's all sorted now Werner, it goes like a dream, fast down the straight and corners like its on rails.

It was a fit up to try and get the ACO to give them a rules break.

Just read on Daily Sportscar that the top speed recorded on thursday night for the #009 was 284.2kph. That was slower than 20 GT cars and 11 LMP2 cars. Also 58kph slower than the Peugeots.

Fail!

Oh dear both Astons stopped NOT GOOD!!

Engine on 009?  ::)

 
[/quote]

Well, after the test day performance and rumours about reliability issues with the engine I assume a 2-driver-lineup will suffice :).
[/quote]
 :( :( :(

#009 confirmed as first retirement after one lap. They don't look to be in a hurry working on #007 either.

An absolute disgrace that this team was allowed to take two grid spaces.

Yeah bloody shame but hey thats the ACO for you, changing the bloody rules cos last years cars were fandabydozy and I expect they still had room for further development.

You can't blame the rules. Rebelion, Pesca, Oreca all build petrol cars which are reasonably competetive despite the huge difference in budgets compared to the works squads. The blame here lies firmly at Prodrive's gold plated doors. That car has been an abortion from the start. They should have continued to develop it behind closed doors for another year? Why did they race this year? Because they have sold four chassis to customers and collectors. Its all about the money. Disgraceful.

Yeah your prob right but for me they were one of the highlights of last years race and a great pity they could not follow it up. Up to last year I had no interest in LMP1 and waved the flag for Corvette, will never forget the howl of the Astons coming out of Indianapolis in the dark towards me at Arnage

Heard a good quote, but can't remember who originated it: -

"Aston Martin: The 24 Minutes of Le Mans"

 ;D

Fernandez wasn't too pleased. The money he has brought over from Lowes has paid for a large chunk of the programe. He managed just 8 laps over the whole week including practice, quals and the race. Only 4 of those laps were at speed.

Aston Martin are the new JLOC  ;D ::)

sad but true...   :'(

-Lee

I've been sent this sneaky snippet featuring Aston at LM this year and what went so wrong...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA2mrugzhwg&feature=related

The Aston's could only dream about that sort of speed!

7m07s?

Sounds about the length of 009's race!  ;D

I did read that Prodrive had to withdraw from demo runs up the fos hill as they did not have the 6 engines and 3 gearboxs required to complete the coarse.

Lord march was also worried about the event overunning into monday should one of them attempt the hill.

Apparently they are thinking of bringing back the Lola V12's for Silverstone
Saves them paying the ACO £30K per car every time they fail to show up at ILMC!

Not necessarily the Lola's.

Sounds like they have a bin tin of something very slippery & they're trying to shoe-horn either a V8 or a V12 in to the AMR-One.

Failing that the Lola's are leased to Kronos & Muscle Milk so maybe they will be back.

Out with the new one ... in with the old one

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93462

Anyone know which car it is?

Are Kronos racing for the rest of the year?

Not that I know of,  only plans they had were for LM.  There is of course the third car, still in Gulf colours in a private collection.

Bye bye AMR One

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newssept11.html

As mulsanne mike says i think this news is 4 months old already.

So where too now?

Its obvious they don't have the resourses to do a proper job themselves with a P1 car. I can't see them getting into bed with Lola again due to the bitter wrangling over the name of the V12 car. I can't see investors or collectors shelling out money for a new car that will be just as bad as the old one. The sponsors must be pretty peeved about the whole shooting match too. Prodrive and DR have the new Mini as a playmate in the WRC (another staggeringly ugly car :-X) which will take up both money and man power, again another nail in the P1 coffin. Finally, after this years balls up, and the strongly rumoured return of Toyota, Nissan and now BMW chasing grid space in the next few years, will the ACO entertain wasting two garages to this bunch of chancers? Afterall, they look to be able to get a little more selective in the future.

Unless they go back to the GTE class its my guess that its not only bye bye AMR-One but bye bye Aston Martin full stop!
Si

Think you've got it spot on there Simon. :(

I can't see aston bringing out a follow on car, maybe if there was somthing to build on from the old car it could be done, but a new car would be just that, ground up and I doubt prodrive have the money to do that.

Hopefully the GT program will grow and some thing good will emerge from this shambles.

See lotus have backtracked from the extensive plans anounced a while ago and the P2 car won't now happen, What a surprise, but at least the evora lives on and has done quite well I think.

So its official. AMR-1 has been binned, George Howard Chappell has resigned and AMR are building two new Vantage V8 GTEs to run as works cars in the PRO class in the WEC and ALMS.

Just glad we don't have to see that lemon out again.

 
Hip Hip Horray, that is good news

V8 = Noise = Good  ;D

I thought the vantage gt was a V12.

V12 = more noise = even Better

I think the GT3 spec Vantage is V12 but the new GTE car will be based on the current V8??

Not sure, but thats the news I had.

I'm not sure I agree, George served AMR very well for over five years.

I can see why he's gone following the AMR-1 fiasco, but still, credit where credit is due...

Don't take it the wrong way Andy, I'm with you on this. But George leaving AMR is a good thing. Not for AMR, but good for George.

GHC probably felt that AMR/Prodrive was holding him back. The AMR-(D)one showed that they had neither the funding or resourses to do a 'proper job'. The new WEC and increased manufacturer interest means that there should be plenty of opportunities over the next few years for a respected designer/engineer. It must be depressing to design something radical like the AMR-One and find there isn't the money to build it properly without compromise and develop it to acheive its full potential. By working for a big manufacturer with much higher levels of funding, GHC may be able to forfil not only his own potential, but also as someone I feel is a real racer with a true passion for Le Mans, his dream of an outright win.
I wish him the very best of luck.

Si

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18173389

The BBc have picked up on the troubled AMR-One. shame they have got the dates for this years race wrong. Or have messed up and should be there already?

As far as I can see they don't mention any dates.
They do say "When the annual motorsport marathon known as the Le Mans 24 Hours gets under way in France this weekend,"  Which is correct,  it does all start this weekend, with scrutineering and the like.