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Ford GT dominates Le Mans qualifying, gets slapped with performance adjustment

Fifty years after Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove the Ford GT40 to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford is poised for a historic return to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Ford GT took the top two qualifying positions in the LMGTE Pro class, and four of the top five. Ferrari's 488 filled in the rest of the spots in the top seven, the first two from AF Corse. In other words, we're primed for a reboot of the classic Ford-Ferrari feud at this year's race. Or not, as the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, announced sweeping pre-race Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments this morning that make this year's GT class anybody's race. In LMP1, last year's overall winner Porsche locked up the top two spots with the 919 Hybrid and will lead the entire field at race start. Toyota's two-car factory effort followed with qualifying times 1.004 and 2.170 seconds behind the pole lap. Audi rounds out the manufacturer-backed LMP1 class in fifth and sixth. Full qualifying results can be found here. The storyline for the GT cars is perfect - some say too perfect. Ford's class-leading times came after BOP adjustment to the Corvette Racing C7.R before qualifying. BOP is intended to level the playing field in the class by adjusting power, ballast, and fuel capacity. (Check out this explainer video for more, or even just if you love French accents.) But the process is riddled with unknowns and ripe for accusations of sandbagging. That is, if the Ford cars were intentionally slow in practice they could hope for BOP adjustment to improve their race chances. On the Corvette side, last year's GTE Pro winner went from the top of the field to the bottom, barely improving from practice to qualifying. If you think Le Mans is as rigged at the NBA Playoffs, well, it's not that simple. Because if Ford and Ferrari held back until qualifying - the eighth-place Porsche 911 RSR is three-and-a-half seconds off the class pole time - it was a pretty dumb strategy. This morning, the ACO tried to put things back in order by limiting the boost in the Ford GT's twin-turbo V6 and adding 11 pounds of ballast. Ferrari was also given extra weight but allowed more fuel capacity. The Corvette and Aston Martin teams were both given breaks on their air restrictors, which will allow their engines to make more power. Both Ford and Porsche also received extra fuel capacity.

Dog sent packing after eating owner's $130,000 Aston Martin

When is Man's Best Friend not really Man's Best Friend? As a Somerset, England man found out, it's when she's taking a few bites out of your $130,000 Aston Martin. Royston Grimstead left his home one morning, only to return to find the wheel arch of his British convertible chewed to bits, courtesy of one of his dogs. Luce, the four-year-old Border Collie/Spaniel mix guilty of the damage, may have had motive, according to Grimstead. According to the 42-year-old man, he was already trying to find a new home for the adorable dog, claiming it didn't get along with his other canines. "She must have overheard me because she's normally friendly and never really chewed on anything before," Grimstead said. Luce has found a new home, and according to the Bridgwater Mercury, Grimstead's insurance will cover the damage. Hopefully, Grimstead has now learned a valuable lesson from all of this: Always take the Aston Martin to work. News Source: Bridgwater MercuryImage Credit: Bridgwater Mercury Auto News Aston Martin Luxury Performance

Aston Martin and Brough Superior go two-up on a range of motorcycles

With several auto and motorcycle shows yet to come before the end of the year, the back of the Tokyo Motor Show doesn't mean the end of teasers. Aston Martin has released the merest line drawing of its next collaboration, a project with the resurrected English bike maker Brough Superior Motorcycles (pronounced "bruff"). The tie-up will debut Nov. 5 at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy, and Aston Martin says it "will showcase the integration of beautiful design and exquisite engineering in strictly limited-edition motorcycles." This will be the first time the carmaker's wings will appear on a motorbike. It'll be interesting to see how the partners merge what look like two divergent design philosophies. When Englishman Mark Upham brought Brough back to life in 2012, he asked Frenchman Thierry Henriette of Boxer Design to pen a new bike visually tied to the original Broughs from the 1920s. The SS100, re-creating Brough's most popular model, is compelling but not pretty nor sleek, hung throughout with weighty, overtly constructed metallic forms. The Anniversary and Pendine Sand Racer models are lighter, but just as art deco and cyberpunkish in ways that Aston Martin design is not. On the other hand, Brough was — and is — also known for using excellent materials, build quality and performance, and they aren't inexpensive. Plenty of overlap with the Gaydon car company there. Somehow out of all that will come, we are told, "the perfect balance between performance and design." Mercedes-AMG partnered with Ducati for a few years in the MotoGP racing series and on some AMG-themed bikes, then traded for a partnership with MV Agusta on the AMG-themed Solar Beam. However, those were basically paint jobs on bikes Ducati was already making. It sounds like Brough and Aston Martin intend a more involved venture — and "motorcycles," plural — between carmaker and bike builder than we've seen recently. We'll have more answers in two weeks.