2003 - Aston Martin Vanquish on 2040-cars

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Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

Aston Martin shares plunge to new low following half-year loss

LONDON — Shares in Aston Martin plunged 17% to a post-flotation low on Wednesday after the luxury British carmaker slumped to a half-year loss, the latest automotive firm to be hit by falling demand in Europe. Aston Martin, best known as James Bond's favorite marque, has been undergoing a turnaround plan since Chief Executive Andy Palmer took over in 2014, designed to renew and boost its model line-up and move into new segments. The plan led to an autumn 2018 stock market flotation. But its shares have since fallen by around three quarters from their 19 pounds float price to below 5 pounds, hit most recently by the group's weak performance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where half-year demand fell by nearly a fifth. The group posted a pretax loss of 78.8 million pounds in the six months through June from a 20.8 million pound profit in the first half of 2018. Its shares were down 17% at 4.71 pounds by 0748 GMT. "We are disappointed that our projections for wholesales have fallen short or our original targets, impacted by weakness in two of our key markets as well as continued macro-economic uncertainty," Palmer said. Overall wholesale demand grew by 6% in the first six months as the group posted strong increases in the Americas and Asia, but a decline in Britain and the rest of the continent prompted the carmaker to cut its full-year forecast. Aston has also been hit by expansion costs as it builds a new factory in Wales to make its first sport utility vehicle, and a lower average selling price. The company said that if it requires some additional financing it would pursue the funds from sources such as the debt markets. The global car industry has been hit by weakening demand in China and a drop in demand for diesel vehicles in Europe, as well as the cost of electrification. Nissan reported plunging profits last week and said it would undertake its biggest restructuring plan in a decade, axing nearly a tenth of its workforce. But 106-year old Aston also faces the risk of a disorderly Brexit disrupting its wholly British production, as delays at ports due to new bureaucracy could slow down the movement of vehicles and components. "We do not want a no-deal Brexit because of the disruption that causes to issues at the border," said Palmer.

Red Bull and Aston Martin are working together on a supercar

Ever since Adrian Newey stepped back from the day-to-day at Red Bull Racing last year, we've been wondering what he would do next. And here we very well may have the answer. According to Autocar, the legendary F1 engineer is working on a hardcore, track-focused supercar for Aston Martin. Details are few and far between, but it is believed that the project could make use of a Mercedes engine and take aim at the likes of the Ferrari FXX K and McLaren P1 GTR. That's more or less the same territory Aston is already going after with the Vulcan (pictured), but just how closely aligned the two vehicles would be remains unclear. Newey is said to be keen on making the vehicle road-legal, however – something which the FXX K, P1 GTR, and Vulcan are not. The news comes hot on the heels of an earlier report that indicated Aston Martin and Red Bull were in discussions over a potential partnership in F1 (together with Mercedes). Both developments appear to be stemming from the same rapprochement between the two outfits, but are said to be independent of one another in that one could go ahead without the other. It is just one of several projects, however, that Newey is said to be evaluating in his capacity as head of Red Bull Technologies. It would not be the first time we would see a high-end automaker team up with an F1 team to create a supercar, after all. McLaren built the SLR for Mercedes before going it alone, and Jaguar more recently collaborated closely with Williams Advanced Engineering on the C-X75 concept, an experimental supercar project that was unfortunately aborted prior to reaching production. We'll be watching and hoping to see how the Aston Martin/Red Bull partnership pans out.