The EMKA passes the Tiga Cosworth turbo at Brands Hatch
Aston Martin are a name synonomous with Sportcar racing, but their day of glory was way back in 1959, when their DBR3 won Le Mans and the World Sportscar championship.
Since then, they've never quite reached the level they seemed destined for. In the 70's a heavily modified V8 ran (slowly and unreliably) at Le Mans, but the arrival of Group C in the early 80s saw a return of the Aston name to happy hunting grounds.
With the Aston engined Cheetah and the Michael Cane run EMKA, the V8 was a favourite with small manufacturers, but it wasn't until the Nimrod project that Aston had an semi-official presence.
The Nimrod project was run by Victor Gauntlet, then boss of Aston, as a seperate project and had a fairly good first Le Mans in 1983. The second generation Nimrod was lighter and stiffer and ran well. However, the Nimrod project died after a freak accident eliminated both cars on the Mulsanne straight in 1984.
With the end of the Nimrod project, it wasn't until the AMR1 that Aston returned, but, despite positive showings, the AMR1 was killed by Ford, who by then owned both Jaguar and Aston and saw little value in two Ford companies fighting each other in Group C.
In 2004, Aston announced their return to Sportscar racing, finally getting clearance from the Ford parent. The format was to be the FIA and ALMS GT series, with the new DBR9 GT racer.
Only mocked up photos have been shown so far (September 2004), but the respected Prodrive operation are involved, although the
Maserati MC12 must place every GT project in doubt, especially as Ford are looking at selling their F1 operation and cutting back the
rallying programme.