What's the news?
Aston Martin won the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year in the GTE class, using its V8 Vantage racer - and now it has taken second place in the 24 Seconds of Le Ally Pally in a miniaturised, soapbox version.
The Red Bull Soapbox Race at Alexandra Palace, London, took place on Sunday, July 9th, featuring a shrunken V8 Vantage GTE.
Although Aston has a successful partnership with Red Bull Racing (they're working together on the AM-RB 001 Valkyrie hypercar, for instance), the British luxury marque insists there was 'no favouritism' shown to the GTE by Red Bull at the event, although the soapbox V8 Vantage was one of the favourites to win the event.
Designed, engineered and built at the Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell in England, the V8 Vantage GTE soapbox was 'driven' by Alex Summers, Aston's prototype operations senior engineer, and offering their support was two of the drivers who drove the big version to victory at Le Mans - Darren Turner and Jonny Adam, who had the honour of piloting the GTE across the winning line at the legendary French endurance race.
Speaking before the race, Turner said: "Having watched the Red Bull Soapbox Race numerous times, it looks the most amazing event so I can't wait to go and see it for real. There is no way in the world I would get into one but I'm very happy to wave the brave pilot on his merry way. I hope Alex manages to last for more than 24 seconds and, most importantly, makes it to the bottom in one piece!"
Anything else?
David King, the president of Aston Martin Racing, said: "When taking on a challenge as big as this, it is important to rally your troops and throw everything you've got at it. Aston Martin has enjoyed great on-track success with the V8 Vantage GTE, so it was the obvious choice for the design of our soapbox entry. I don't think we'll be putting our race drivers in it, though, as we need them to be in one piece for their next World Endurance Championship race the following week!"
If you want to find out more about the car, click here to visit the Red Bull Soapbox Race website.