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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.

Aston Martin fleet week: Next vessel to sail is a luxury submarine

Aston Martin's latest project aims to go beneath the surface, literally. It announced Thursday a partnership with a Florida-based developer of submersibles to develop a strictly limited-edition, deep-diving submarine code-named Project Neptune. The luxury brand is apparently making quite a splash at the Monaco Boat Show this week, having just revealed the AM37, a 37-foot, six-passenger, two-crew-member speedboat replete with natural teak sliding decks and custom-outfitted interior that will cost $1.6 million. For Project Neptune, the British marque is joining forces with Triton Submarines, which makes luxury submarines for superyacht-owning hobbyists as well as more robust models for scientists and filmmakers that are capable of exploring the deepest parts of the ocean. Plans call for marrying Triton's Low Profile three-person platform with the automotive brand's design and engineering language, under the direction of its Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman. Aston Martin Consulting will oversee the project. No details yet, but Triton's existing 1650 Low Profile three-person sub, its lightest model, weighs 8,800 pounds and can dive to 1,650 feet. A 30 kWh battery powers four 5-horse thrusters, and it can stay submerged for up to 12 hours. The most dramatic part of Triton's design is its incredible bubble shape — a spherical, transparent pressure hull. Some of Triton's more rigorous designs can reach depths of 7,500 feet. A Triton sub reportedly starts at a cool $3.3 million, and it's certainly nice, with stitched leather seats. But that, of course is a crude version compared with Aston Martin's panache and uber-exclusive materials. Pass the caviar, won't you, old boy? Related Video: Weird Car News Aston Martin Luxury submersible

Mercedes to offer SL, GL platforms to Aston Martin?

The agonizingly slow courtship between Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz has been a regular topic of conversation ever since the 2009 Lagonda Concept debuted, riding on a Mercedes GL chassis. Beyond that one polarizing concept, though, nearly every other attempt to pair the two brands up in a major way has fallen through. Only the technical partnership between Mercedes and Aston for certain components from AMG, which was negotiated back in July, has held up so far.
That may finally be set to change, according to an excellent profile of the two brands' relationship from Automobile, which claims that two platforms will unite the Germans and Brits. The first tie up is, not surprisingly, a sports car.
As Aston Martin's VH platform - which underpins every car that comes out of Gaydon - continues to age, the pressure will well and truly be on Aston to find a next-gen replacement to underpin the successors to the Vantage, Vanquish, DB9 and Rapide. Automobile claims Mercedes has just such an architecture, in the form its new modular sports car platform. This new platform is slated for the next-generation SLK and SL and is still in its design infancy.