Aston Martin: Eighth for V8

Aston Martin's engineers are grinning like city fat cats with a juicy Christmas bonus after their N24 V8 Vantage finished eighth overall in the inaugural 24-hour race of Bahrain.

Eighth may not sound great, but the production standard N24 V8 was competing against a field of motorsport homologated cars.

Starting from 14th on the grid, the N24 ran flawlessly through the night to complete over 2,600km, needing only fuel and tyres. None of which was a surprise to Top Gear magazine's Associate Editor Bill Thomas.

The first journalist to get a drive in the N24 back in November, Bill described the N24 as a "great GT racing car - enormously capable and road legal".

The only mark in Aston's copy book was the absence of chief executive Dr Ulrich Bez. After pranging the N24 in testing, the good Doctor was unable to race because of other commitments, but we reckon he'll be back in the driving seat of the N24 very soon.

© Source: article on topgear