Even More AM - Gulf DBR9 (ain't it pretty?)

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Venari

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Story here.

But ain't it pretty though?
 
Great-looking car. Only thing better would be if it it had the exact same sky blue and orange like with the old-school Gulf colors. It's still a nice car. I never hated Aston Martin models since the DB7.
 
Sorry for the dumb question, but are they gonna use it for the GT1 or the GT2 class? And will they run it in ALMS or LMES?
 
That's their GT1 entry. Their entries into the different classes are as follows:

GT1 - DBR9
GT2 - Vantage GT2
GT3 - DBRS9
GT4 - Vantage N24

I'm not sure where the works Aston Martin team will race. Unfortunately, it may just be at Le Mans. However, there will be an Aston Martin DBRS9 (the first two races) and a Vantage GT2 (rest of the season) in the GT2 class of the ALMS, run by Drayson-Barwell.
 
It looks even better in real life. Took these today at the Autosport show. I tried to be artsy fartsy with one or two, but I'm not very good at artsy-fartsy...

 
But im still wondering why GT1 is such an dead class in US? I love that class:tup:

Basically, the blame rests squarely upon the ACO's unwillingness to approach the Corvette problem.

When Maserati introduced the MCC, they introduced a customer car that was capable of running right at the speeds of the factory Corvettes. Problem is, somebody got their wires crossed in the ACO and the Masers were declared too wide for GT1 competition.

All the Maseratis found homes in the FIA GT series, save for three that were entered as non-points cars in the ALMS at various times (two out of the Risi stables, and then last year a Lista/Doran entry).

Through the past few years, Corvette has been the one and only truly factory GT1 effort. Saleen, Maserati, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Ferrari have all had entrants, but through privateers and customer programs. The result has been a near insurmountable challenge in the ALMS that European manufacturers and teams don't want to spend the money to combat.

The American teams mostly came to the decision to either spend a little less money and have a top-flite GT2 car, or spend a little more to have a decent LMP2 car. GT1 doesn't pay enough to justify spending that much for third place each time.
 
The MC12 was declared illegal because Maserati built a car that was wider than the regulations. Not the ACO's fault.

Vitaphone Racing has been the Maserati factory team the entire time in FIA GT. Although AF Corse (not Risi) ran some of the ALMS season, they were not able to score points and had to retain their limited rear wing due to the width infractions. Doran Racing was later allowed to run the full-width wing.

You seem to also forget the Oreca Viper program, which coincided with the early Corvette program, and was able to beat them until the last season of Viper entry. After that, privateer Konrad was able to defeat the Corvettes several times, including a victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2001.

After that, the Prodrive Ferraris won almost half the races in 2003, losing the championship by only 4 points to Corvette. 2006 was a similar story, Aston Martin winning exactly half of the races, and losing by 3 points.

This dominance that you seem to think Corvette has is not as great as you may think.
 
And since the Maserati MC12 was nothing more or less than a flagrant attempt to win a sportscar championship, rather than (as the makers were claiming) a genuine road car, I was rather pleased the ACO threw it out. One of the few sensible decisions they've taken amid a litany of spurious outcomes. You have to remember that the MC12 is little more than an Enzo reskinned for racing. At the time, the series was being contested by large front-engined cars such as the 550 Maranello, the Viper and the Corvette. Saleen were trying with the S7R, but they never had the resources to challenge the other three, and so the ACO seemed to turn a blind eye to their philosophical differences. Also, the S7R actually fit the templates... In that climate, the MC12 would have been very damaging to GT1 racing.

Of course, with the general collapse of the GT1 class in the ALMS, it's easy to try to look back through history to see if any contentious decisions could have altered outcomes. I don't think that allowing the MC12 into the series would have been a good idea.
 
One could just as well blame the MC12 for the death of GT1 in FIA GT. 11 major teams in GT1 in 2005, down to 8 teams (3 running Maseratis) in 2007, and some of them wont be returning for 2008.
 
It's pretty rare when someone proves Layla's Keeper wrong of anything. He's one of the sharpest cats on here with racing. Nice to really see Aston Martin take a piece of the sportscar racing pie as best as they can. It isn't like all of sportscar racing is ailing and on life support. To me, it's just GT1. Especially ALMS GT1. Something like this will really help keep the competition level up until something new comes around.

I just say that it's good for Aston Martin to do all they've done to get their name across in sportscar racing.
 
Don't count me out of the argument just yet. I'm not going down without a fight!

First off, The359, let's balance the stats you threw up by eliminating all of those battles from BEFORE the ACO re-aligned the GTS class to create the current GT1. That means no Oreca Vipers, no Konrad Saleen, and oddly enough none of the C5R years.

The GT1 years are - in fact - specifically the C6R years, so that's the problem we're dealing with. No one's contending that there was a lot of great competition and plenty of cars in the GTS years.

Now, here's where things get interesting. In 2005, the first year of GT1 regulations, Sebring hosted 2 C6R's, 2 DBR9's, and 1 (non-points) MC12. The remaining Maranello, C5R, Viper, and 2 S7R's were all GT1 holdovers.

And here's the funny part, of all those cars, only the Acemco S7R, the Maser, the PCM C5R, and the Carsport Viper showed up at Road Atlanta to fight the factory Vettes. PCM threw in the towel at Mosport, and Aston Martin didn't come back until Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca.

2005 season long competitor ALMS GT1 total - 5.
Factory Corvette Race Win Ratio - 8/9

Now, 2006 was a different story. Sebring 2006 was 2 factory C6R's, 2 factory DBR9's, and 2 Konrad Saleen S7R's.

Konrad didn't continue past Sebring, but the Vettes and the Astons swapped wins through the ALMS season.

2006 season long competitor ALMS GT1 total - 4
Factory Corvette Race Win Ratio - 4/8

And of course, 2007 was 7 rounds of Corvette Racing, with one-offs by Modena's DBR9 at Sebring and Doran's MC12 at Petit Le Mans and Road America.

2007 season long competitor ALMS GT1 total - 2
Factory Corvette Race Win Ratio - 7/7

So, in the 3 years of GT1 rules, Corvette Racing accounts for 19 wins out of 24 races. Want to tell me again that it's not a case of factory domination over a small field of underfunded, outdated competitors who're deciding not to bother with a class that doesn't pay enough to justify the investment to go up against Pratt & Miller's GM pocketbook?
 
How exactly are GTS and GT1 different, besides the name? There's almost no difference in the class structure or rules.

2005
First, pacific Coast left ALMS because they did not receive the support from Pratt & Miller that they thought they would (they were not a factory team), and their performance on Yokohama tires was dire. They were not able to race to their expectations.

The ACEMCO Saleen was greatly updated over its original spec, and was the most up-to-date Saleens running until Oreca took over operations in 2006. Hardly a "holdover". The Graham Nash car however was an older car.

That "holdover" Larbre Ferrari (ex-Prodrive) at Sebring was also able to win 3 FIA GT race that same year, against both the factory and a privateer MC12 team.

Aston Martin didn't run the full season because it was their debut year and they were preparing for Le Mans. I should remind you that when Corvette entered the American Le Mans Series, they did the same thing (partial schedule in order to test for Le Mans). Audi did as well.

Where's the funny part? More teams show up at Sebring because it is the first race of the year. Petit Le Mans is in the middle of both the FIA GT and LMES schedules, meaning a major fly-away expense in the middle of a season for European teams.

2006
Konrad ran out of money. They could barely even afford to maintain their 1 Saleen entry in FIA GT, and could only muster a few Porsche 997 entries in 2007. The company is near death. Not the fault of Corvette, considering Konrad's variety of entries and the majority of their running being in Europe.

Aston Martin and Corvette earned an even number of wins. Hardly a sign of dominance.

2007
First off, there were 12 races in 2007, not 7.

The Modena Aston Martin was once again a European team trying to use Sebring as a test before they returned to Europe for their main competition. Aston Martin Racing did not return because IMSA would not give them the rule breaks that they wanted to fight against Corvette (a problem with both teams argued throughout 2006 on).

The Doran Maserati was given rule breaks, such as the full-width rear wing and larger air restrictors. It even helped the team earn pole position in GT1. But they didn't have the best driver lineup, it was their first time ever turning a wheel on that particular Maserati, and the drivers are usually in an LMP, not a GT car.

Conclusion
Your original statement was that the ACO was at fault for allowing Corvette to dominate the GT1 category. How exactly it is the ACO's (in actuality, IMSA's) fault that few factory teams want to run GT1? Aston Martin ran and was able to fight evenly with Pratt & Miller. They didn't return because IMSA didn't give Aston Martin the advantage they wanted.

You claim the ACO should have let the Maseratis in and allowed for something to combat Corvette Racing. Yet, in the same three-year period you're using, not only has Maserati been defeated three times by PRIVATEER C6.Rs, but also twice by privateer C5-Rs!

Hell, if you want to talk about dominance, lets look at some other dominant years.

1997-1999 - Viper Team Oreca wins 25 of 31 FIA GT races. (80%)
1999-2000 - Viper Team Oreca wins 16 of 20 ALMS races. (80%)
2000-2004 - Corvette Racing wins 31 out of 50 ALMS races. (62%)
2000-2002 - Lister Racing wins 12 of 31 FIA GT races. (39%)
2002-2004 - BMS Scuderia Italia wins 17 of 31 FIA GT races. (55%)
2004 - Larbre Competition wins 4 of 4 LMES races. (100%)
2005-2007 - Corvette Racing wins 26 out of 32 ALMS races. (81%)
2005-2007 - Vitaphone Racing wins 11 out of 31 FIA GT races. (35%)
2006-2007 - Oreca Saleen wins 6 of 11 LMES races. (55%)

Hardly Corvette's fault that teams would rather spent their money elsewhere on other classes that are dominated by Audi, Porsche, and Ferrari. Nor has dominance driven away teams in GTS/GT1 in Europe.

If you think Aston Martin Racing was scared away from running ALMS by Corvette, why aren't they running in Europe instead? They aren't running anywhere but Le Mans because they wanted the ALMS, but IMSA wouldn't give them a free hand.
 
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