Lola: Astons lost Le Mans racer

Aston Martin’s Lola B09/60, also known as the DBR1-2,is a Le Mans Prototype sports car built by Lola Cars International and co-developed with Prodrive for use by Aston Martin Racing. It is the first prototype to bear the Aston Martin name since the AMR1 in 1989. Aston Martin’s internal name for the car, DBR1-2, refers to the legendary DBR1 chassis which won an incredible six races in 1959 on its way to clinching the World Sportscar Championship as well as that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now much later the car is back

This is what the other manufacturers had to worry about. Its Astons famed 6.0 N/A V12 with a good 600 to 650 bhp over its lifetime in the Lola. It’s aluminium alloy block and head
DOHC, with 4 valves/cyl - 48 valves total. Its aspiration being natural it made a great noise, it also had a Pectel multipoint electronic fuel injection. The other special features of the Lola included:

Carbon Fiber Monocoque chassis
F/R suspension, Double Wishbones with push-rod actuated coil springs and Inboard Spring-Damper Units
Power assisted rack and pinion steering
XTrac Type 529 6 speed sequential gearbox
AP 6 piston Racing calipers, carbon/carbon Brembo disks

Its size was like most other Le Mans racers. It’s length was 4634 mm (182.4 in), width 1990 mm and the wheelbase was 2890 mm (113.8 in). The front wheels were 13.5 x 18” and the rear wheels were 14.5 x 18”
The cars dry weight was 900kg making heavier than most of the field. That didn’t matter as the car had the power to keep up with the others.

Racing history

Two Lola B09/60s competed in the full Le Mans Series season, while a third car entered under the AMR (Aston Martin Racing) Eastern Europe team for Charouz Racing Systems also competed at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the last three races of the LMS. The number 007 car won the Le Mans Series overall, and the number 009 finished fourth. At Le Mans the Lola of racers Jan Charouz, Tomáš Enge and Stefan Mücke finished fourth behind the factory entries of Peugeot and Audi, as well as being the highest finishing petrol-fuelled car, Audi’s being diesel. The 008 car was running as high as 3rd overall in the morning until Anthony Davidson had a collision with a GT1 Aston :( Subsequent repairs and a 5 minute stop and a penalty—for causing the collision—dropped the car out of contention for the race.
A Lola Aston Martin competed at the 2010 12 Hours of Sebring, which marked the first time the Lola - Aston Martin entered a race in the USA. The Lowe’s sponsored car finished the race in 3rd position, three laps behind the two winning Peugeots (uuuuuuurgh). Three cars had also been entered in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, although only the 007 and 009 cars will be run by Aston Martin Racing. The 008 car was scheduled to be run by the French team Signature-Plus. Both the 008 and 009 cars suffered from problems (008’s being engine based and 009’s being electrics based) and had to be retired, leaving only the 007 to finish 6th overall and completing 365 laps, less than it did in 2009. It was the third highest petrol finisher behind Oreca and the LMP2 winner Strakka HPD. At the 1000 km of Silverstone, the Lola-Aston Martin finished 4th and the highest petrol finisher.

In 2011, the car was raced by Team Cytosport in the American Le Mans Series with regular drivers Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr. The team failed to finish the first round at the 12 Hours of Sebring, but rebounded by overtaking the polesitting Dyson Racing car at Long Beach to take the win. The team went on to win again at Mosport, Mid-Ohio and Road America and finished the season in second place in the LMP1 category behind Dyson Racing. With Aston Martin Racing switching to their new car, the AMR-One for the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, a new and improved Lola was entered. The car was driven by Vanina Ickx, Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin and finished the race seventh overall, twenty-seven laps behind the race winning Audi R18 TDI.
After suffering reliability problems and a lack of speed with its new AMR-One prototype, Aston Martin Racing reverted to using an older Lola for the final three rounds of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup as well as round eight of the 2011 American Le Mans Series season, the American Le Mans Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The lone factory Aston started third behind the two Dyson Lola machines, but the race would end with the Aston winning by three laps, notching up another victory for the car. The grandfathered car also got a surprise podium finish at Petit Le Mans after 3 of the 4 factory cars (Audi and Peugeot) crashed.

Since then Aston has dropped the Lola and sticked with only the Vantage chassis for World endurance and the DBR9 and the Vantage for 12 hours of Le Mans and the 24 hours of La Mans. But it has come at a price with the loss of Allan Simonsen in 2013 in a Vantage GTE.