On the 50th anniversary of its outright win at Le Mans, Aston Martin will return to La Sarthe with two Works LMP1 cars bearing the iconic blue and orange livery of Gulf Oil.

In an ambitious attempt to emulate the legendary achievements of the 1959 DBR1 driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori, Aston Martin will endeavour to bring the Le Mans title back to Britain.

"2009 is a hugely significant year for Aston Martin at Le Mans and the challenge of reclaiming victory in this famous race for Aston Martin and Great Britain was simply too great to ignore," said Aston Martin Chairman, David Richards. "However, we do not underestimate the task. While we have won the GT1 class for the last two years, competing against the proven speed and endurance of the diesel-powered cars with all their years of winning the prototype class, will be a massive undertaking. Nonetheless, I see this as a great opportunity to showcase the ingenuity of British engineering talent."

Dr Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer commented: "Racing has been, and still is at the heart of Aston Martin. Our cars today are subtle, elegant and handcrafted but they still have the genes for competition. I am happy that we have found partners who, with their support, will enable us to compete at the highest level of endurance racing. We will put all our heart and skill behind this project to demonstrate the essence of Aston Martin: Power Beauty and Soul."

The new car which is based on the 2008 Charouz Racing System Lola will be powered by the same production-based Aston Martin V12 engine which, last year, helped Aston Martin secure its second successive Le Mans GT1 title with the DBR9. It also powered the Charouz car to a new La Sarthe lap record for a petrol car.

Aston Martin Racing is developing the car in conjunction with Lola, Michelin, Koni and BBS and continues its relationship with major partner Gulf Oil and official clothing partner Hackett.

In 2009, the ACO is introducing new regulations aimed at balancing the performance of petrol and diesel engined prototypes making the LMP1 category more appealing and relevant to Aston Martin.

Signalling ongoing commitment to motorsport, in addition to the Le Mans 24 hour race, the team will also compete throughout the year in the Le Mans Series (LMS), which opens with the 1000 km de Catalunya on the 5th of April.

Aston Martin Racing Works drivers, Jan Charouz (CZ), Tomas Enge (CZ), and Stefan M

 

It sure looks like a serious contender.

In this current economic climate, it's good to see and hear about a manufacturer who is entering a car in a racing series rather than announcing they are exiting a racing series.

Gotta love the Gulf schemed and colored race cars!

 

The Gulf scheme is super

 

At first I thought it was new Porsche prototype. Then Aston Martin...nice!!!!! Id love to see this thing pass at Mid Ohio.

 

I do remember that paint scheme from MANY years ago. I always thought it looked cool.

 

That's pretty cool. I wish they could keep it simple like that without all the sponsor stickers and junk.

 

Phat city!! I've heard that Lola has three coupes with Aston V12s in their shop right now......

 

I completely agree! A lot of times those extra stickers are required by the race promoter and not the choice of the team if they want to be paid.

If you watched the 24 Hours of Daytona, it seemed like a lot of cars had a tone of decals on them, probably for one-off sponsorship deals.

 

Very nice news ;shame that there won't be a Honda/Acura entry

 

The frist day out, Tomas Enge wrote-off the 007 Lola-Aston a couple of weeks ago in a testing crash. The same guy who was fired for crashing cars for Peterson-Whitelightning.