The Aston Martin AMR-One was a

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

built by

Prodrive Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races automobile, cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advan ...

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

arm. The car was a successor to the Aston Martin DBR1-2.

Development

To meet the new regulations brought in by the ACO for endurance racing, the AMR-One is powered by a downsized, 2.0-litre turbocharged straight six petrol engine and features a blade-fin behind the cockpit. The AMR-One is built around a light

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

chassis with open top bodywork, in contrast to the closed cockpits of the contemporary

Peugeot 908 The Peugeot 908 is an auto racing car developed by Peugeot Sport in 2011 for the Le Mans Prototype category of racing. Powered by a diesel engine, it is the successor to the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP which competed since 2007. The newer 908 features ...

and

Audi R18 The Audi R18 is a Le Mans Prototype (LMP) racing car constructed by the German car manufacturer Audi AG. It is the successor to the Audi R15 TDI. Like its predecessor, the R18 uses a TDI turbocharged diesel engine but with a reduced capacity of ...

. The car has a very high belt-line, broad shapes and few surface breaks. The front of the car is designed to develop minimal downforce and to force as much air into the ducts. The air then moves through the car instead of over the top. There are numerous ducts inside the high bodywork, one for brake cooling, two through the side vents and one for rear gearbox cooling. One air scoop is in place to feed the turbocharger. Two side ducts on the rear of the car are for rear-brake cooling. The exhaust exits at the bottom of the vertical fin.

Racing History

2011

Six cars were expected to be built, with

participating in several international endurance events in 2011, including the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

. At the 6 Hours of Castellet, the new AMR-One qualified 5 seconds behind the Pescarolo. In the race things took a downturn and the AMR-One finished way down the order. Further problems continued as they only completed a handful of laps at the Le Mans Test Day and were far slower than the top running LMP1 cars. The poor testing was followed by their withdrawal from the 1000 km Spa in order to continue private testing for Le Mans. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the #009 car retired after only two laps, whilst the #007 car spent four hours in the pit before officially retiring, having driven only four laps. Aston Martin decided to skip the Imola round in favour of developing the car, earning them 3 DNS in 4 races and no points. At the 1,000 km of Silverstone, Aston Martin dropped the AMR-One and replaced them with their older but much faster

Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 The Lola-Aston Martin B09/60, also known as the Aston Martin 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 ...

. Two of the AMR-One chassis were later sold to other programs. The

DeltaWing The DeltaWing is a racing car designed by American race car designer and engineer Ben Bowlby and debuted at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. The entry was run under the Project 56 name, composed of Ben Bowlby (design), Dan Gurney's All American R ...

project utilized an AMR-One chassis for the base of its radical design due to the team not needing to rehomologate a chassis which had already passed safety tests. A second AMR-One chassis was sold to

Pescarolo Team Pescarolo Sport was a motorsport team based in Le Mans, France and founded in February 2000 by French racing driver Henri Pescarolo and his friend and partner, French publisher François Granet. They raced in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours ...

for their use in developing the

Pescarolo 03 The Pescarolo 03 is a sports prototype racing car built and designed by French team Pescarolo Team. It is designed to meet the LMP1 regulations of 2012, and act as a successor to the Pescarolo 01, with the design including a Mandatory Shark-Fin, al ...

LMP1 chassis.

Discontinuation

In January 2012, Aston Martin Racing announced they were ceasing development of the AMR-One and instead focusing once again on their GT program. Racing driver Darren Turner blamed the public development of the AMR-One and its rushed entry as its undoing citing that most teams develop their new cars completely behind closed doors for at least a year before attempting to race with them.

Gallery

File:Aston Martin AMR-One Le Mans 2011.jpg, Front view File:Aston-Martin-AMR-One-1300ccm.de.JPG, Right view File:Aston Martin AMR-One Q3 Le Mans 2011.jpg, Front left view

References

External links

Aston Martin Racing- AMR-One
{{Aston Martin Sportscar Racers AMR-One Le Mans Prototypes 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars