Taking cues from the 1978 Pininfarina XJSpider concept car, Keith Helfet would design the F-Type. The range would contain a Coupe/Targa (XJ41) and a convertible (XJ42). Sir William Lyons had retired from Jaguar, but the team took the XJ41 for his approval. Apparently Lyons was fond of Helfet’s work and deemed it worthy of the badge.

Almost a decade later, the XJ41/42 project was bloated with safety legislation and unnecessary complications. A separate dashboard for right and left hand drive cars was decided on, rather than a modular one that could be adapted for both. The design team opted for a big hatched boot rather than the simpler, smaller boot. As the car got bigger and heavier, the engine was changed to a twin turbo straight six with four wheel drive.

While it was apparently very fast with the new engine (easily past 170mph at Nardo) the 1800kg the XJ41 wasn’t the sports car Jaguar intended to be.

When Ford took over Jaguar in 1999 projects were reviewed. The expensive and delayed XJ 41/42 project came under close scrutiny. The XJ41 had turned from a small lightweight sports car into another XJS.

Employees booked a lot of overtime against the project so Ford put it on hold. Jaguar was in a precarious financial situation, so had no choice but to go along with Ford’s recommendation.

Another Chance?

Tom Walkinshaw at Jaguarsport (part TWR part Jaguar owned sub company) saw an opportunity with the XJ41 and attempted to get Peter Stevens to re-design it. While this didn’t come to fruition due to Steven’s workload, Walkinshaw contacted Ian Callum instead. The XJ41 was redesigned and presented to Jaguar. The XJ41 was turned down again, due to the company’s precarious financial position.

The Jaguar Changes Its Spots

When Ford started looking at building a new Aston Martin, the XJ41 project seemed to be the obvious contender. Ian Callum’s redesigned XJ41 became Aston Martin’s new DB7.

Revealed at the Geneva show in 1993, the Aston Martin DB7 received a rapturous reception. The complicated bloodline of the DB7 could be traced right back to a car intended to replace the legendary E-Type. The DB7 was launched in 1994 and its strong sales enabled Aston Martin to grow as a brand under Ford.

The new car would be named the Aston Martin DBR9, echoing the name of the 1956 Le Mans winning DBR1. While the Aston Martin Nimrod raced at Le Mans in 1982; the return to the sports car category was the first since the DP cars were forced to retire in 1962.

DBR9 & Prodrive

The DB9 would provide the basis of the new racing car, with Prodrive brought in to design and manage the racing programme. It seemed like the perfect match – Prodrive had helped a privateer transform the Ferrari 550 Maranello into a class winner at Le Mans in 2003.

Prodrive used the aluminium chassis and roof, together with the V12 cylinder block from the road car. Other than that it is completely re-engineered. The body work is made from carbon fibre composite, computer designed for maximum aerodynamic effect. Inside, a steel roll cage is fitted for safety. The car is so that much lighter that it has almost twice the power to weight ratio of the standard DB9 road car. It does 0-60mph (0-100km/h) in just over three seconds.

Aston Martin’s works team DBR9s made their debut at the 2005 Sebring 12 hour race, followed by the Silverstone Tourist Trophy race where they took 1st and 2nd places.

DBR9 Top Gear Lap Time

Return To Le Mans

At Le Mans, the DBR9 won the GT1 class in 2007 and 2008. 2008 would mark the end of the factory sponsored racing for the DBR9.

In 2009 some privately entered DBR9s appeared at Le Mans, but the factory now focused on the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 in the sports prototype category, where cars 008 and 009 were entered.

With support from Prodrive, the DBR9 had successfully taken the famous brand back into the world of sports car racing.

Privateer Use

The car pictured is chassis DBR9/101 and is the first privately raced model. Delivered to its owner in July 2005, it initially raced under different colours and had its first outing at the Silverstone 1000km race.

In 2006, it was transferred to Team Modena and, over the next three seasons, raced in the FIA GT series, European Le Mans Series and the American Le Mans Series. At Le Mans in 2006, it finished 9th place overall and 4th in class, with drivers David Brabham, Nelson Piquet Jnr and Antonio Garcia.

DBR9/101 is regarded as the most successful DBR9 and the most successful privately owned racing car in Aston Martin’s history. A very special example of a car that took Aston Martin racing again.

The “Tadek Marek” V8 Engine

Designed in 1968 Marek’s V8 went on to power a variety of cars from the Vantage, Volante, Virage models. It was also modified for use in the Bulldog concept car, the Nimrod racing car and the RHAM/1.

The V8 was used in a one off DB7 in 1998 (which normally used either a straight six or a 5.9Litre V12). This was the 6.3 V8 as used in the Virage, not the standard 5.3. The details are shown below from Gov.uk showing the unusual capacity.

The last production car the V8 was used in was the Aston Martin Vantage Le Mans V600 in 1999. This car was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Aston Martin’s win at Le Mans.

From 2005 a variant of the Jaguar AJ-V8 engine (AJ37) was used to power the V8 Vantage. The engine was available as a 4.3 or 4.7 litre. This new engine replaced Tadek Marek’s V8 after over 30 years of powering various Aston Martins. This newer engine layout is flexible and the same block design is used for a V6, with blanked off cylinders.

Hamilton had previously developed a heavily modified 1969 DBS (Later named the RHAM/1) for use at Le Mans. Despite some funding from Aston Martin the car struggled to compete at Le Mans.

1979 Would be the last time the RHAM/1 would appear at Le Mans as focus, and funding, shifted to the Nimrod project.

With Gauntlett’s backing and sponsorship from Pace Petroleum (one of Gauntlett’s other companies), Nimrod Racing Automobiles was born. Nimrod’s chassis was conceived by Lola’s Eric Broadley, designer of the famous Lola T70 and was powered by a Tickford tuned version of Tadek Marek’s venerable Aston Martin V8.

Aston Martin Nimrod at Le Mans

For the 1982 Le Mans race, two Nimrods were entered; one Hamilton’s official works’ car and the other by Le Mans enthusiast and sometime racer Lord Downe’s stable, managed by Richard Williams. One of the Viscount Downe drivers was Ray Mallock, who soon brought his development skills to bear on the project. For the Le Mans 24 hour race, Mallock was joined by Mike Salmon and Simon Phillips, finishing a very creditable 7th overall, sometimes racing as high as third place and harrying the class leading Porsche 956s.

With more good finishes, the Nimrod also took third place in the 1982 World Sports Car Championship. With additional sponsorship from housebuilder Bovis and redesigned bodywork to improve aerodynamics, a single Nimrod was entered for Le Mans in 1983, again by Viscount Downe, as Hamilton had moved his attention and car to the US. Lord Downe returned in 1984 with two cars, the final year of the Nimrod project.

The Nimrod Group C racer was a superb way for Aston Martin to get back into racing. Group C cars might not share that much in common with road cars, but they are always sleek looking in order to reach high speed on the Mulsanne straight. More picture of this stunning car are available here.

The Nimrod is no different with super sleek bodywork. The designers had obviously thought about the car beyond performance however. The Bovis livery follows the sleek lines of the car and looks better than most sponsored cars. The front grille even has the gently tapered corners reminiscent of the Aston Martin road cars – someone with a keen eye designed this stunning racing car.

Unfortunately the Nimrod was up against the Porsche 956 which dominated the sports racing championship of that era. While some modifications to bodywork helped stability of the Nimrod, the more powerful Porsche was too good. The next Porsche, the 962C won in 1986 and 1987, and it took the might of the Jaguar XJR9 to take victory from Porsche in 1988.

First released in 2001 the first generation lasted until 2007. The faster “S” model was built between 2004 and 2007. Vanquish production stopped on 19th July 2007 which also marked the end of production at the company’s famous Newport Pagnell factory after 49 years of operation.

The modern VH platform that underpins all modern Aston Martins was first pioneered on the Vanquish. At the time it was not considered the VH platform, but in retrospect it was the very first version. The VH stands for Vertical /Horizontal and means the platform can be adapted for use on wider or longer cars rather than having to create a new platform for each new car.

The Aston Martin 6 Litre V12 is based around Ford’s V6 Duratec block and was tuned and optimised by Cosworth. It was initially built for the 1993 Lagonda Vignale, an Aston Martin concept car.

The Vanquish was criticised for its semi-automatic paddle shift gearbox which reviewers found slow and difficult to use. Part of the issue is that the gearshift is linked to a conventional torque converter automatic (a normal automatic gearbox) which made for slow gearchanges, not ideal for sports car use.

The V12 Vanquish is one of the most important recent Aston Martins as it was the first to be built using a modern platform. It was also the last to be hand built in Newport Pagnell, so the Vanquish is the end of an era in some ways but the start of a new exciting one at the same time.

The model name was revived in 2012 for the DBS replacement

James Bond’s Vanquish

The Vanquish featured in the James Bond film “Die Another Day”. Bond’s heavily modified car also included automatic shotguns, ejector seat and a cloaking system that made the car invisible. The car was dubbed the “Vanish”.