Aston Martin in rally

[freerider]

Got this from another forum:


Here's something one doesn't see every day. In the entry list for this weekend's Rallye Lyon-Charbonnières, number 15:

SARRAZIN Stéphane / Stéphane PREVOT / Aston Martin V8 Vantage !!!

Some info behind this one. The car was originally entered by Frederic Dor, who has had it rally-prepared by Prodrive. Sarrazin is of course one of Prodrive's drivers with both Subaru in rallies and Aston Martin in GT:s. AFAIK Dor was supposed to drive the car himself but for some reason couldn't make it, and had Sarrazin to substitute.

This is the first time an Aston is entered for a major rally for half a century. Rallye Lyon-Charbonnières is first event of the French Asphalt Rally Championship, and the championship is open for a limited number of GT cars along the normal Xsaras and Imprezas. In this particular event the entry list also includes two Porsche GT3:s and a Lotus Elise 240R.

And you thought modern rallying is boring, did you? ;)

Photos from testing yesterday.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8234/120jd.jpg
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3540/15oh1.jpg

[Klint]

Rally racing isn't Aston's forte and doesn't make logical sense....

I know a team member who is on that team that are using the Aston, he works for Prodrive and specs the tyres for each race.

[JavierNuvolari]

:p sounds like fun to watch, besides...it's always nice to have some variety for the eyes ;)



Cheers,


Javier

[Mr Balsen]

Originally posted by Klint
Rally racing isn't Aston's forte and doesn't make logical sense....



This is actually not true. Aston Martin was actually created by 2 salesmens of Singer sportcars to build a car to do hillclimbing (Aston Hill Climb Race). OK that was a long time ago ! ! !

Cheers from Paris,
Frederic

[Charles DLF]

i saw a tv show here in france this week where they were talking about this car... It didn't do great in the first rally of the season, but it's really nice to see sucha nice car fight against others (including a 996 GT3, which has just entered the competition as well)

The interesting part, is that S Sarazin explained that the car was pretty much stock, the only main change they did was insert a rollcage inside the car and change the seats to racing seats... Pretty funny to see that the car is more or less ready to compete when you buy it... However he admitted that they were going to work on the car alot...

Hope to see more of it, i just love the idea of an aston in competition!

Best to all

Charles

[kiza]

Originally posted by JavierNuvolari
:p sounds like fun to watch, besides...it's always nice to have some variety for the eyes ;)



Cheers,


Javier

I agree