Description:

Late in 2003, Aston Martin announced the company's long awaited and much anticipated return to international motorsport with a GT1 racer based on the DB9 road car. In partnership with Prodrive, the British manufacturer established Aston Martin Racing to design, build and race the new DBR9.

To meet the homologation requirements, the bonded aluminium chassis and the engine block and heads were carried over from the recently launched DB9 road car. Further torsional strength was added to the chassis by the elaborate roll-over structure. The suspension featured optimised geometry and consisted of double wishbones with adjustable Koni shock absorbers. The rolling chassis was clothed in a carbon-fibre composite body that featured wider wheel-arches, a sizeable front splitter and full width rear wing.

Mounted as far back as physically possible in the nose of the DBR9 was a thoroughly reworked DB9 V12 engine. The all-aluminium unit featured twin overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and dry-sump lubrication. Fitted with the mandatory 31.2mm restrictors, the howling V12 engine was good for a claimed 625bhp. This power was transferred to the rear wheels through a X-Trac six-speed, sequential gearbox.

A year after the program was announced, in November of 2004, the DBR9 was first shown to the public. It was not only made available to the factory racing team as Aston Martin also offered the car to customers. In good Aston Martin tradition, the factory cars received single-digit chassis numbers whereas customer DBR9s were tagged with triple digit numbers.

Following further test and development work, the DBR9 made its competition debut in March of 2005, at the Sebring 12 Hours where it scored a debut class victory, beating the dominant Corvette Racing team. During the subsequent two seasons, the works team was successful in the American Le Mans Series, while the satellite Aston Martin Racing Larbre team won the GT1 championship in the Le Mans Endurance Series. It would eventually take until 2007 before the DBR9 finally won the crucial class win at Le Mans, that feat was repeated again in 2008.

Aston Martin Racing stepped up to the LMP1 class in 2009, using a Lola-built prototype, powered by the glorious V12 engine used in the DBR9. Customers continued to race the DBR9 through to 2011. With class victories at Sebring and Le Mans, the DBR9 was successful in its own right. It also formed the foundation on which the prolific and successful Aston Martin Racing program was built.

The car we are thrilled to offer for sale was one of just two DBR9s constructed in 2007. The car was originally purchased by privateer Henry Barczynski and was initially run by the official Aston Martin Racing Partner team Barwell Motorsport. In their hands, the car contested the Zhuhai and Silverstone rounds of that year’s FIA GT Championship, finishing 8th and 10th respectively, prior to a late-season transfer to Barczynski’s newly-established Gigawave Motorsport team.

For its 2008 campaign, Gigawave recruited experienced GT racers Philipp Peter and Allan Simonsen, a decision immediately vindicated by excellent 3rd places in the Silverstone Tourist Trophy and at Monza, further to 4th place finishes at Nogaro and Zolder. At the 24 Hours of Spa in August, factory DBR9 driver Darren Turner joined the team and help drive the car to 3rd place overall.

In September, 2009, the car competed in the 1000 Kilometres of Silverstone where Ryan Sharp and factory driver Peter Kox achieved a GT1 class win. This would be the car’s last race under Gigawave Motorsport before ownership of the DBR9 passed to the German Young Driver AMR team in 2010.

The car competed in 8 races during the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship, with its season high point undoubtedly being an excellent 3rd in GT1 class and 22nd overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Christoffer Nygaard sharing with Peter Kox and fellow factory driver Tomáš Enge.

In 2011, the car’s final contemporary season Stefan Mücke partnered Darren Turner in all 10 FIA GT1 rounds. Although the team started the season modestly with 5th and 7th at Abu Dhabi and Zolder respectively, a strong mid-season sequence resulted in two 2nd-place finishes at Portimao and Paul Ricard, and 3rd at Sachsenring. Appropriately, the car scored a maiden Championship win in its final race, in Beijing, with Turner and Mücke securing 2nd place in the Drivers’ Championship and the team 3rd as a result.

This Le Mans podium DBR9 represents a real piece of motorsport history and is possibly the best value GT1 car available today. As such, it makes for a highly attractive proposition, and one which would be ideally suited to series such as the Peter Auto Endurance Racing Legends and events including the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona. Contact us now for more information or to arrange a viewing.

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