The DBR9 was developed as a competition variant of the Aston Martin DB9 road car. It retains the road car's chassis, engine block, and cylinder heads, with the rest of the car re-engineered for racing. All body panels except the roof are constructed from carbon fibre composite to minimize weight. The flat underbody runs from the front to the rear diffuser, and a carbon fibre rear wing provides additional downforce.
The V12 engine produces 625 bhp (466 kW; 634 PS) and 746 N·m (550 lb·ft) of torque with two 31.2 mm air restrictors in place; unrestricted, it is capable of over 750 bhp and 880 N·m. The car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and 0 to 100 mph in 6.4 seconds.
For 2007, Prodrive modified the design to comply with new Le Mans regulations requiring an air conditioning unit to protect drivers from heat. Prodrive also fitted a heat-resistant white roof on all new cars to further reduce cockpit temperatures. Aerodynamic refinements that year included the removal of two cooling vents from the side mirrors, which had become immaterial to the car's thermal management.
The DBR9 debuted in 2005, winning the LMGT1 category at the 12 Hours of Sebring and finishing fourth overall. At the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans, the car finished third in class behind Corvette Racing due to fuel problems. In 2006, the factory team finished second behind Corvette at both Sebring and Le Mans. Away from those headline events, Aston Martin Racing regularly challenged Corvette Racing across the American Le Mans Series schedule, taking wins at Lime Rock Park, Miller Motorsports Park, Mosport, Petit Le Mans, and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The factory team finished second in the GT1 Manufacturer's Championship for 2006, earning an automatic entry to the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In European competition, Larbre Compétition won the 2006 Le Mans Endurance Series Team's Championship with victories at the 1000 Kilometres of Istanbul and the 1000 Kilometres of the Nürburgring. In the 2006 FIA GT Championship, the DBR9 was considered a title contender but secured only two wins, at Mugello and Dubai. BMS Scuderia Italia cited difficulty finding the right tyre compound with their Pirelli tyres as the reason for their lack of success.
In 2007, Aston Martin secured the GT1 class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the #009 factory car, with Larbre's entry also finishing third in class. All DBR9s entered finished the race. To mark the victory, Aston Martin produced a limited edition DB9 called the DB9 LM, finished in "Sarthe Silver" with specific interior detailing and individual numbering.
In 2008, Prodrive fielded a two-car factory team at Le Mans. The #009 car, running a Gulf Oil livery and driven by Darren Turner, Antonio Garcia, and David Brabham, won the GT1 class. The DBR9 also made its debut in the Japanese Super GT series in 2009. In the FIA GT1 World Championship in its final seasons of eligibility, Hexis AMR used chassis DBR9/1 to win the 2011 Team's Championship.
The DBR9 was operated by three factory programmes: Aston Martin Racing run by Prodrive (2005–2008), Aston Martin Racing Larbre run by Larbre Compétition (2005–2007), and Aston Martin Racing BMS run by BMS Scuderia Italia (2005–2007). Customer teams included Team Modena, Jetalliance Racing, Phoenix Racing, Barwell Motorsports, Gigawave Motorsport, Bell Motorsports, Strakka Racing, Team Nova, Hexis AMR, and Young Driver AMR. The car was sold for private use in the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, FIA GT Championship, FFSA GT Championship, and Super GT.
A total of 16 DBR9 chassis were built. DBR9/1, the first chassis, qualified on pole and finished third in class at Le Mans in 2005 and won the LMGT1 class at the 2005 12 Hours of Sebring; it later won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Team's Championship with Hexis AMR. DBR9/8 raced in the 2006 ALMS and won the GT1 class at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans. DBR9/9, raced by BMS Scuderia Italia, was written off at the 2007 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. DBR9/10 raced exclusively at the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning the GT1 class and finishing fifth overall. DBR9/106, raced by Gigawave Motorsport, took a GT1 class win at the 2009 Silverstone round of the Le Mans Series.
Aston Martin launched the DBS road car in 2007, incorporating styling cues and technology from the DBR9 programme including carbon fibre and aluminium body construction and an upgraded engine. The DBS appeared in the James Bond film Casino Royale. Aston Martin Racing's factory DBR9s raced in 2006 and 2007 under the numbers 007 and 009 in tribute to the Bond connection.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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