What is Aston Martin up to?

[The359]

A lot of things seem to be falling together recently in regards to Aston Martin and what exactly they're going to be doing in 2008, at least for the factory Prodrive team. We already know the GT2 is in the works, however I don't really see that being a factory run car, and simply something shuffled off to whoever is willing to buy one, just like an F430 or 997 RSR.

At the same time, Larbre Competition has already given up their Aston Martin semi-works team to go to Saleen, and Scuderia Italia has done the same, moving to Ferrari. This leaves Prodrive as the only factory team, and they haven't announced anything.

And now we have the new LMP1 regulations with emphasis on 6000cc GT1-based engines, something which the Aston Martin V12 conveniently fits under.

There are already hints on DSC that a manufacturer is posed to enter LMP1 under these regulations, and it just seems to be working together perfectly that Aston Martin will be the one making the move. It may not be a full-on effort to take on Peugeot/Audi, but it could be as I suggested a toe-in-the-water: Running an Aston Martin V12 in the back of a Lola or Zytek or some other chassis in order to perfect the engine before building your own car, like Acura has been doing.

We already know Prodrive let slip that they might want to go for overall wins, so is this it?