Aston Martin Racing
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Aston Martin DB7 in Joe's Garage
History:
The DB7, known internally as the XX project, was made mostly with resources from Jaguar Cars and had the financial backing of the Ford Motor Company, owner of Aston Martin from 1988 to 2007. The DB7's platform is an evolution of the Jaguar XJS platform, though with many changes.
The DB7 began life as a successor to the Jaguar XJS envisioned by Tom Walkinshaw of TWR. Walkinshaw had been impressed by the XJS' potential after driving it in the European Touring Car Championship in the late 1970s and early 1980s and wanted to re-body the car so it would have more modern styling. He initially wanted to engage Peter Stevens to design such a car but he refused due to his on going projects as the time. Walkinshaw then engaged Ian Callum, who was new in the car design work at the time, to design the car.
Jaguar had been struggling to replace the XJS due to its weak financial position. A project codenamed the XJ41/42 (41 for the coupé, 42 for the convertible) was already in development stage in the company, mooted to be called the F-Type when completed and was designed by Keith Helfet. When American automobile manufacturer Ford acquired both Jaguar and Aston Martin, the new management cancelled the XJ41/42 project in 1990 because of the car's heavier weight than the XJS, the project's high budget and also the employee overtime spent on the car. Seeing the potential of the abandoned project, Walkinshaw based his concept on the XJ41 and tasked Ian Callum to design his envisioned body around the XJ41. He presented the completed car to Jaguar's management who rejected it.
Due to the development of the Jaguar XJ220, Ford had not been very keen on development of new Aston Martin models due to high development costs and the wake of the 1990s economic downturn. Aston Martin CEO at the time, Walter Hayes approached Walkinshaw as he had seen the potential in Walkinshaw's proposition to succeed. Development started with a project name of XX. Ian Callum was again tasked to redesign the car so it would look like an Aston Martin. Due to a limited financial backing at the time, the final product shared many components from other marques owned by Ford. The tail lights came from the Mazda 323 F, the Chrome door handles came from the Mazda 323 Estate, the turn signals came from the Mazda MX-5 and the interior door mirror switches came from the Ford Scorpio. The only foreign component would be the wing mirrors which were shared with the Citroën CX. The whole project cost US$30 million.
On 1 January 1993, Jac Nasser was appointed the new chairman of Ford Europe. He presented the finished car, which had yet to be named, to the general public at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show. Due to the positive and overwhelming reception, the car was put into production as the Aston Martin DB7
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Or is it old colours. Aston Martin DBR9's at Le Mans this year will be wearing Gulf Racing colours.
Autosport/pistonhead show