Aston Martin debuts LMP1 cars: 50 years of aesthetic decline

Oh, this is going to be big. To commemorate the Aston Martin company’s only overall win at Le Mans in 1959 –- and to help sell a bunch of dirty-hot sports cars in the process -– the automaker will go for the overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Though this was an open secret in racing circles, this week the company released images of the Lola-chassis’ed LMP1 cars with traditional orange-and-blue Gulf Oil livery. Very shagadelic. The LMP1 cars –- P1 cars, for short -– will be powered by the same V12 engine that was under the hood of Aston’s GT1-winning cars for the last two years. To focus maximum “energy” (read: money) on the P1 effort, Aston will not field a works team to defend the GT1 title.

The P1 works program sets up a high-stakes showdown between the gasoline-powered Aston Martins and diesel-powered entries from Peugeot and Audi. For those just getting, shall we say, up to speed: The Audi R10 TDI diesels are undefeated in three years at Le Mans. In 2007 and 2008, Peugeot fielded smoking-hot diesel-powered P1 cars of its own, which were quicker per lap than the Audis, but ultimately met with bad luck. The success of diesel racing cars has been held up as an example of the performance possibilities of more environmentally friendly technology. However, the race organizers have been under pressure to minimize, by rule, the inherent mileage advantage of diesel engines. The new rules come into force this year.

And so the shootout with the gas-powered Aston Martins takes on symbolic, even political overtones, as the classic high-revving performance of gasoline competes against the long-legged endurance of diesel.

"Racing has been, and still is, at the heart of Aston Martin," said Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin's chief executive. "Our cars today are subtle, elegant and handcrafted, but they still have the genes for competition.... We will put all our heart and skill behind this project to demonstrate the essence of Aston Martin: power, beauty and soul."

Speaking of Bez, a few years ago I had the pleasure of being taken around a racetrack in the right seat of Aston Martin’s Le Mans-winning DBR1 (pictured) with Bez at the controls. Bez is a skilled driver and the DBR1 -– a race car of half-century vintage -– scared the hell out of me. It is also one of the most beautiful competition cars ever made, in the same class as the Ferrari 250 Testarossa, Jaguar D Type and first-generation Bentley Speed 8.

So, compare and discuss? If pretty were speed, the old car would leave the new car for dead.

-- Dan Neil

Photos: Aston Martin, astonmartins.com

Allard rides again

Sydney Allard is a pretty obscure figure in motorsports, one of a generation of British enthusiast racer-builders who, after World War II, knocked together cars for road and track, usually in a fog of penury. Unlike Colin Chapman (Lotus) and William Lyons (Jaguar), Allard’s fame did not outlive him.

Allard Motor Company built 1,908 cars, with the only notable ones being the fiery, American V8-powered J2 and J2Xs. In 1950 Allard and Tom Cole managed to wrestle a Cadillac-engined J2 to a class win at Le Mans (third place overall) and for several years thereafter the J2X was a formidable but by no means dominating presence in road racing. Among Allard’s alumni are Carroll Shelby, John Fitch, Masten Gregory, Steve McQueen and Corvette engineer Zora Arkus Duntov.

According to the Allard Registry, 83 J2Xs were built between 1951-53. There history would have left it, a dusty footnote, but for the strange passion of one man, and his coincidental last name.

Roger Allard, 62 (above), admits he is no particular kin to Sydney, except insofar as –- going back to  William the Conqueror -– English-speaking Allards are probably all related. In fact, he had never heard of Allard cars until a chance encounter in 1996 at England’s Beulieu National Motor Museum, where he saw some literature in the bookstore referring to the Allard. Curious, he asked a museum docent, who led Allard to the namesake car in the collection.

“It was purely serendipity,” says Allard, when he visited the L.A. Times last week.

He might have remained a richer man if he’d remained ignorant, he admits. Allard, a marketing consultant by trade, got it in his head to re-create Allard as a bespoke sports toy for rich enthusiasts; a modern, high-performance car with the charismatic shape of the British racing roadster. Such enterprises almost always end in tears. Then again, Allard –- a motorcycle rider, skydiver and scuba diver –- is accustomed to risk.

Helio Castroneves: Fast and loose with the IRS?

Dance your way out of this, Twinkle Toes....

Helio Castroneves, the most successful and charismatic driver in Indycar racing, two-time Indy 500 winner, as well as the victor in some dancing competition with half-naked women, was indicted Thursday on charges of income tax evasion. The U.S. Justice Department alleges that Castroneves -- Helio to just about everybody on the planet -- used an offshore account to hide income from sponsors and Penske Racing. Roger Penske is not going to like that.

Helio faces up to 35 years in federal prison if convicted of this tax chicanery, or chicane.

Full item here. PHOTO: PENSKE RACING.

-- Dan Neil

Book review: 'Hard Driving' tells the story of the man who crossed NASCAR's color line

Wendell Scott is frequently called the Jackie Robinson of American stock car racing. In 1952, at Virginia’s old Richmond Speedway, he was able to talk his way past a NASCAR race steward and compete, thus crossing the sport’s color line.

Except that it wasn’t a line; it was a wall, guarded by racist track promoters and white Southern fans seething over the civil rights movement. Not to mention Scott’s fellow drivers. In his long and unfailingly miserable career, carefully documented in Brian Donovan’s “Hard Driving,” Scott was often wrecked by white drivers who knew he didn’t dare retaliate. Whatever Robinson’s travails, nobody ever tried to kill him on the baseball diamond.

For more click here.

Photo: Steerforth Press

Racing trophy queens on display

Women and fast cars seem to go together like, well, women and fast cars.

And that’s not a recent development — as evidenced by the “Trophy Queens” exhibit opening today at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona.

As the title suggests, the exhibit features dozens of rare photos of the generally swimsuit-clad young women who presented a trophy and a kiss to winning race drivers.

The exhibit covers trophy queens from the 1930s through the 1970s and includes photos of a certain 19-year-old model named Raquel Tejada, who went on to fame and fortune as actress Raquel Welch. From 1956 is a photo of Barbara Huffman, dressed differently than in her '60s sitcom heyday when, under the name Barbara Eden, she starred in “I Dream of Jeannie.”

“Wherever there are race cars, there always seems to be pretty girls,” museum spokesman Bill Groak said. “Funny how that works."

Trophy queen legend Linda Vaughn, named Miss Hurst Golden Shifter in 1966, will be on hand at the opening to greet fans and pose for pictures.

The exhibit opens to the public around 2 p.m. after a private preview. It will run for a year during regular museum hours Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for kids 6 to 15. For more information, call 909-622-2133 or go to museum.nhra.com.

-- Martin Zimmerman

(See another pic after the jump)

Photos Raquel Tejada (Welch), top, and Linda Vaughn, bottom, from collection of Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.