Some 60 years after Aston Martin won the 1959.24 hours of Le Mans,. the company is once again headed to the famous French endurance race, although this time Carroll Shelby won'. be with them.
After winning the GT1 sports car class at Le Mans the past two years, Aston Martin has entered the LMP1 class this year, competing against the two favorites for overall victory, the Audi .15 TDI and the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. While the German and French cars are powered by specially constructed,.650-hp diesel engines, Aston Martin'. rebodied Lola coupe features ..650-hp version of the Aston Martin DB9'..5.9-liter .12. The car is being fielded by Prodrive, the racing company established by David Richards, who is one of the principals in the Kuwaiti-backed company that now owns Aston Martin.
Richards notes that the two-car team'. chances in the 24-hour classic are slim, but he is also encouraged by the new rules, which he reckons narrows the performance gap between diesel- and gas-powered cars to about seven percent this year, half the performance disparity that existed in 2008.
Aston Martin famously won the 1959.24 Hours of Le Mans with its DBR1 sports car driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. Shelby recently recalled his adventures that year:
“Back then, our racing budget was ??150,000 for the whole season. A bit like the case back then, Aston Martin today has managed to achieve a lot with limited resources. It's all so different, though. These days I guess I would hardly recognize the place. Now Le Mans is more like a 24-hour sprint. Back then it was very different; everything was a series of compromises. There was no automatic rev limiter - only our feet - and the gearbox and clutch were not very strong. It was much more about endurance then. One slip and you could blow the engine.
“Physically it was very tough as I had dysentery during the entire race in 1959; something I ate, I think! That was one of my main problems, but at Le Mans you just rise above any discomfort and forget everything else. That's because when you have a chance to win Le Mans, it's the chance of a lifetime. Looking back on it though, it must have been really tricky as I didn't eat anything for 24 hours apart from dysentery tablets. Then we won the race and - oh my God - they suddenly stuck a champagne bottle in my mouth and it sent me a bit loopy! I was so tired I could hardly stand or think. I reckon I just collapsed afterwards and slept for about 12 hours.
“Times change but I'm sure I would have enjoyed driving the modern LMP1 car too. Racing drivers just adapt to whatever machinery they have and learn as they go along. That's always been the case and always will be. We didn't do that much practice before the 1959 race, for example, as we didn't need it. We already knew the circuit and besides, you've got a whole 24 hours to answer any other questions you might have. Our priority was getting through the race and not making any mistakes. Believe me, there was plenty of potential to get it very badly wrong. Or for someone to get it wrong for you.
“Back then, it probably rained at every race in Le Mans. Then you had the fog at night and the slow cars doing around 80 mph on the right hand side of the track - that was the rule - and we were doing 160 mph to 165 mph on the left. You just had to hope it all worked out. And in 1959, it certainly did.
“It was an amazing time with Aston Martin, which I will always have a huge amount of affection for. In particular, I've got so many memories of 1959 and they're actually all very different memories. We went through gallons of oil, for example. At the end of the race Aston Martin's owner David Brown got in the car for the victory lap. It meant so much to him; I guess he had wanted to win Le Mans all of his life. When he knew we were going to win, he'd dressed up in all of his finery with a new sports coat and everything. But after he got into the car at the end, he sat in about an inch of oil! I felt quite sorry for him, all dressed up like that and covered in oil! But I guess that under the circumstances he didn't mind too much.
“One thing that's still the same between then and now is the fact that Le Mans is so very different to anywhere else. The 24 Hours is legendary because it presents a whole new and different set of problems compared to other races.”
Practice for the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans begins on Wednesday, June 10. The race begins on Saturday, June 13, at 3:00 p.m. local time. You can track the progress of the Aston Martin LMP1 team at www.astonmartinracing.com. The site also features a full-length film made following the famous victory in 1959.
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