aston in 3 classes

[tmk2]

what do you think the chances are of aston martins running in 3 out of the 4 classes. LMP1 Charouz-Aston Martin GT1 DBR9 and GT2 Vantage GT2?
would be good!

[//j17]

Your not thinking big-enough.

Not much difference between an LMP1 and LMP2 chassis and the ACO are looking to encorage the use of GT1 engines in LMP1/GT2 engines in LMP2.

This means you could see:

LMP1 - Lola chassis + Aston Martin DBR9 engine
LMP2 - Lola chassis + Aston Martin Vantage engine
GT1 - AM DBR9
GR2 - AM Vantage

Of course it also means you could see:

LMP1 - Audi R10 + Audi R8* diesel engine
GT1 - Audi R8*

so Audi can get the road-based engine advantages that the Lola/Aston benefits from.

(* Audi R8 road car, not Audi R8 LMP900/1 race car)

[AlexS]

Article in Race Engine Technology suggests that the benefit of using a production based engine in P1 is very small. In the Astons case it only amounts to around 30bhp and the advantage is massively offset by the impact on performance of using an engine with serious packaging problems.

The Cherouz Lola is so fast compared to the other petrol P1s because of its vastly superiour aerodynamics not horsepower.