The Colossal Failure of Aston Martin's Flagship Race Car 

Clever thumbnails, nice presenting and good homework done. Your channel is really excellent. Thank you for your content 🙏

Need an episode on Callaway now!!

I was at Le Mans in 1989. I thought the Sauber with it's twin turbo V8 sounded fantastic but the Aston Martin was much louder. In fact I could still hear it on Monday afternoon!

This car had HUGE potential. The main issue was excess drag, not lack of power. The 6.3 engine was up to the race-spec power level of Sauber and Nissan turbos (admittedly not qually but that is less important in endurance racing) and level with Jaguar V12s race or qually. The chassis had too much downforce and drag which massively limited top speed when they arrived at Le Mans. But in only their third race at Brands Hatch they finished 4th - in a field which contained works Mercedes, Jaguars, Nissans, Toyotas, Mazdas, various Porsche 962s, some excellent C2 cars etc. The high downforce was just what you needed at Brands hence the performance in what was still a very new car, beating local favourites Jaguar (as an aside, it is interesting how the fame and fortune of those two English brands has effectively switched in the intervening years).The car in the next few races secured 6th/7th/8th place finishes against the colossal competition listed above, at circuits like Spa, Nurburgring, Donington. The aerodynamics were being completely revised for 1990 and a lot of the drag/downforce had been dialled out. Their non-participation in 1990 is a huge "what-if?" of the Group C era and it is a terrible shame Ford pulled the plug as the AMR-2 was being designed (I think they got as far as building a tub or two). I was at both the Brands and Donington races in 1989 so at least got to see it raced in anger twice. The car had the most glorious exhaust note of any car in Group C, US V8s, Mazda rotaries, Merc turbo V8s and barking Jag V12s all included. It sounded like a classier version of a big American V8 and would purr, rumble and roar. The car was simply a glorious sight and sound and I loved its Union Jack-esque patriotic livery, actually a coincidence as the main title sponsor was French oil group Mobil, but nevertheless it looked great on a British car. A terrible, terrible shame the team didn't continue. I tend to think they could have won the 24 in '91 at what would have been their third Le mans assault. I should also mention a Scottish connection in all this - IIRC Protech had a lot of Ecurie Ecosse personnel on the team. At the famous 1993 F1 European Grand Prix meeting at Donington (where in soaking wet conditions Ayrton Senna at one point had lapped the field), despite being thoroughly cold, wet and miserable, I got into the paddock for the touring car support race (BTCC) and spoke briefly with the late David Leslie who was competing in that race and who signed my programme. A hugely underrated driver who was racing the AMR-1 in 1989 as a works driver. I immediately asked him about the Aston (LOL screw the touring cars - I think he was a works Nissan driver at the time) and the AMR-2's potential. He seemed as depressed as me about the programme being cut in its infancy (it was relatively recent history at the time) and felt the AMR-2 would have been mighty, particularly at Le Mans due to the reduced drag of the second chassis design. A biased view, perhaps, but the quiet Mr Leslie was no braggard or bs-er, so I tend to take him at his word. Btw, another of the AMR-1 drivers was the (still living) legend Brian Redman... The Toyota TS-010 was perhaps in essence Tony Southgate's design for the 3.5 litre Group C1, originally intended as the Aston Martin AMR-3, which would have been powered by a badged Ford F1 HB V8 3.5 - as was the utterly awesome 1991 title-winning Jaguar XJR-14. Another case of "what might have been?", although hard to see it beating that particular Jag! Southgate of course had designed the world title and Le Mans winning Jaguars to that point but was (presumably) let go when Ross Brawn and team came in for the XJR-14, so Aston tried to snap him up and would have done, but for the project cancellation. One can wonder whether a Ford HB V8 powered TS-010 would have been quicker than the Toyota V10 powered version we got, but I'm getting into alternative universes here. A footnote - the Nimrods were not a total disaster, nor a great success. They weren't designed as Group C cars which is not mentioned in the film - they were actually an out of date late 70s (Lola designed and built) flat-bottomed chassis design and they struggled to shoe-horn ground effect venturi and other features as a result. It was obsolete as soon as Group C came in. The original design, if racing in the late 70s, might have been nearer the front of the grid against e.g. Porsche 936s, Renault A442s, Alfa 33s etc, although not convinced they'd have beaten that sort of competition on such a limited budget! I think modified forms of Aston Martin Nimrod raced until 1985. Engine reliability (prep was by Tickford) was the main issue however (ditto with EMKA, Cheetah etc). They did achieve some IMSA top-6 finishes however, including at Daytona IIRC. For both cars, I recommend Paul Chudecki's book Aston Martin V8 Race Cars which sets out the full racing history of both Nimrod and AMR1 programmes. It's out of print but a superb read. And a big THANKS for covering this car, it is a largely forgotten late-ish works Group C effort which had bags of character and potential, first rate drivers etc. The project's cancellation is my motor-racing equivalent of the TSR-2 and it still pains me. I won't explain that reference, but those who know what I'm referring to will understand!

“NIMROD RACING” 🤣🤣🤣

I first known about this car back in Forza Motorsport 7. It’s nice to hear more about its story and how much of an impact it made in racing. Though it’s too bad that it wasn’t exactly the best thing along side the Jaguar or Mercedes, at least when Aston Martin returned with the Lola LMP1 car had much more success! Even winning the/a championship in 2009 as far as I heard. 👍

You skipped over the Aston Martin Nimrod entries at the 1984 Le Mans, which ended in disaster. Both cars crashed together, driver John Sheldon was badly burned, and marshall Jacky Loiseau was killed in the accident.

The music is great like usual anyways... 1. 1:33 "Disintegration of their racing partner" Shows wrecked car. Guess partnering with a nimrod was a terrible idea. 2. 1:45 "Michael Caine Racing. No relation." I mean Batman's butler could have a side hustle in motorsports. 3. Where have I heard of Brands Hatch before. I believe a RU-vidr has the track record or something.

i don’t even actively watch sports cars or rally racing that much, however I love all motorsport. & I’m so glad I found this channel. The way you present these with your story telling is incredible. You should have millions of subscribers

I was there at LeMans when it raced it was brilliant sounding and we all hoped they would continue to develop .. a shame it never did . Great production thank you 👍

Maybe as a tribute to the recently passed Hugh Chamberlain, you could do a video on his Le Mans history? There's a 20minute video just in him. My dad always said it was traditional for Radio Le Mans to have a breakfast time interview with Hugh for him to explain how they didn't make it through the night 😂 but the Vipers, the MGs and the success he had with the Lola's are iconic

I saw one racing in an Aston Martin owner's club race in the 90s on the Brands Hatch indy circuit, everything else was stuff like DB3s and DB4s. I think it was a 20 minute race and the AMR1 even with a 2 lap penalty.

Nice to see ur channel is growing

Amazing as usual, mate! Always looking forward to your uploads

Thank you for this video. Been waiting for such a story! 🙂

Really love your content, I know that whatever you decide to cover it will be well made and a lot of effort put into it, can't wait to see what video you make next 🎉

Great stuff as always !

Excellent production , keep it up!

Ulrich Baretsky said " don't do it it won't work" about the 2011 car. Both cars made it what? 6 laps. Collectively.

I've only ever seen this car in FM7 and the new FM game. Sounds incredible in both but a shame it never did well

Great presentation and footage, well recommended channel mate keep it up 👍🏻

Great timing since I just saw this car In Forza Motorsport having no recollection of it-

Incredible work 👏

Excellent video presentation!

Loved your castrol toms supra video hopefully we see a toms team evolution explained

It may have not been competitive but that 1983 EMKA car in red sure was pretty

nice vid about cool car i only discovered recently when watching some group C legend race footage.

“Nimrod” should have been the first warning.

You should do a video on your diecast collection.

There's one of these at Gaydon Museum, I remember thinking it was one of the coolest looking cars I'd ever seen. It's a real pity it turned out to be a beautiful brick.

I think we need a episode of a big wing Group C car like Brun C91

Well "generally sub par weekend" not really an AM super-fan but I take issue there Finishing 11th at Le mans beaten by Mercedes, Jaguar and Porsche (and Mazda) all of whom were on a bigger buck and much further down the development path. IMO to finish is a spectacle - to finish 11th in yr 1 is SPECTACULAR Also as there is the chance - WSC 3.5L engine rules were stupid. "Merci Jean Marie"

The AMR2 ended up like the Alfa Romeo SE 048SP. Never saw the light of day and stayed away from racing

I hope that Aston Martin's new LMH Valkyrie program will not suffer the same fate

The look of that AMR-1 is fantastic and seems like it would have been ahead of its time aerodynamically. I wonder what could have been with real horsepower …

Yeah this blokes a top car nerd. Excellent content.

Looking forward for the DBR9 stories!

Babe, wake up! Automobilistic has just uploaded!

im sad now for aston, but very entertained

he needs display cases for his models, plastic or glass.

Recently I've found that there's no stories on Mazda RX-7 in IMSA championship. Which is weird, from what I found it was dominant, and is not something we can say abou to loudest Dorito at Le Mans, making it really worthy topic to share

The ultimate ground shaker

Praise the lord, he's back.... Hello, Mr Automobilistic, good to see another video. 🎉

I was hoping this was gonna be you wrecking Turn 10 and the neglect they’ve been guilty of with the Forza franchise. This is good too lol

What camera do you use?

❤️

What specific model C# Mercedes is that at 9:15? I’ve never seen one with those shaped front vents in it. Looks awesome

I watched this compete back in the day, I know the guy who owns all the drawings and blueprints, I also know Micheal Caine who lived in our village. Its easy to scoff but Aston Martin had a viable car - they just lacked money. Porsche, for example were no match for the Aston's performance, they were just more reliable thanks to much much a longer R&D time.

I remember this car from Forza, was fun in the gane

Bro your video on the 911 GT1 is not available

now i can place the noise was at the Brands Hatch race remember the Mercs and the noise of the Aston and some American noise maker

Aston didnt have a good time when they cam back to Lemans in the 2000s either, makes me worry that the new hypercar might cost aston more than it brings in from sales. They had to make a partnership with Mercedes to supply engines for the vantage for example

Someone is gonna steal the title to talk about Toyota in F1

It would be nice to know who drove

20 or so years later, Aston Martin debuted another underpowered dog of a prototype racer called the "AMR-One".

Dear god I hope the Valkyrie is fast next year.

Will you ever do a video of the history of GTP? Similar to your GC video

Aston has done this a few times now

Turntables: so they went racing in LM only providing the engine, now they have an F1 team but buy the engine. Either way I think it doesn’t fit such a stately brand. Or the heritage of the DBS3. I like them better when they do GT3 touringcars. The engine may still not be their own, but the car at least looks the part.

So with their current F1 car they are doing better than they've done in years..... Well done to the Canadian CEO for saving Aston. Apparently they've got a swathe of new cars coming this year It's such a nice marque I hope to see it prosper. If i was the marketing guy at Aston I'd really play up the Bond connection and use that to build a sporty yet luxurious brand identity. Modern, fast, capable, but also historic and luxurious

A couple of turbochargers to the V8 and that car would have been competitive

Rhythm comment

What happened to the GT3 and GT4 soundtracks? 😢

And then the AMR-One was a PoS...

They should have teamed up with Ferguson and competed in Group B.

If they ever get on the grid in Hypercar I've no doubt they will be nowhere.

no one the Aston: 🤨

At least it wasnt as bad as that god awful 2011 attempt

Umm... didn't Nimrod Aston Martin compete at Le Mans '83? The two cars collided at the Kink, bursting into flame and causing the death of a flag marshall.

AJ Foyt Daytona. AM nimrod expired and AJ drives swap shop 935 MB to victory. Yeah

1:03 Ah yes, the Nimrod. The modders that made the Gran Turismo 2: A-Spec mod added the Nimrod as one of the Group C mod cars and it's absolutely dogshit compared to any other Group C's that you can get XD

Just saw this masterpiece in Facebook a month ago

Do some #F1.

Yeah, I'd say Toyota's spectacular failure of an F1 team would be the most expensive way, but with memes a plenty on the internet... I don't think Toyota will ever be allowed to forget that.

Group C was flourishing to overtake F1 until Mr B.E destroyed it.

Whut 😮

First

It’s always funny how f1 constantly ruins more interesting and popular leagues