Aston’s Ring racer

By Tom Phillips

06th April 2010

Aston Martin is taking its Rapide racing! This is the first official picture of the firm’s specially-built four-door racer which will be driven by Aston CEO Ulrich Bez in the Nurburgring 24-hour race on 15th and 16th May.

The Rapide marks Aston’s fifth consecutive entry in the race which takes place on the legendary 12.9-mile Nordschleife. The car will be entered in near-standard specification – the only changes will be a number of mandatory safety modifications, reduced interior trim to save weight, re-tuned suspension slick tyres.

Joining Bez in driving the Rapide will be a team made up of Aston engineers. The firm will also enter a near-production specification V12 Vantage which won its class at last year’s event.

The Astons will race in the same SP8 class as our very own road tester Owen Mildenhall who will campaign a Lexus ISF in the race. He’ll share the car with ex-Indy 500 star Hideshi Matsuda and Gran Turismo game creator Kazunori Yamauchi. You can read about his first warm-up race in the car by following this link.