Aston Martin wages Gulf war

The unmistakable blue and orange of Gulf Oil's racing livery will be adorning two Aston Martin DBR9s at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours endurance marathon. It's 40 years since the Gulf racing colours first won at Le Mans in 1968, so Aston will be hoping some of the old magic rubs off on their two-car team in 2008.

Just for good measure, Aston Martin is also invoking another spirit by using the number 007 on one of its racers, while the other will use 009. Aston Martin boss David Richards says: "Endurance racing is engrained in the heritage of both Gulf and Aston Martin and we have both been intrinsically linked with Le Mans for many years. It was perhaps destined that, in the year we defend our GT1 title and Gulf celebrates its 40th anniversary of its first win, we would finally race together at La Sarthe."

Aston Martin is also planning to expand its endurance racing effort with a move into the top class of LMP1 racers. The Le Mans Prototype 1 class is the premier league of long distance motor racing and Aston is looking at using the DBR9's V12 engine in a British-built Lola chassis to take on Porsche and Peugeot at the top level.

Alisdair Suttie