J.F. MUSIAL: Hidden down some street next to some motorway
in England is a place called Prodrive.
Further down that random street is a building with a
room, but not like any other room.
In fact, if I tried to explain it with no visuals, you
wouldn't believe me.
At one side, you have something
called the P2 concept.
It's Prodrive's attempt at building a production car.
On the other side of the room, you'll find the 550 GTS, a
Ferrari built for Le Mans with no support
from the boys in Italy.
And then there's this, Colin McRae's 1996 Subaru Impreza,
the year he missed out on the driver's championship but won
it for the brand.
Next to what some would consider the most recognizable
Subaru of all time is the Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 from a
few years back.
And then there's this, the most modern thing in the room,
the Vantage GTE.
That's because Prodrive is home to Aston Martin Racing,
and we're here three weeks before Le Mans, probably the
best time of the year to film a major race shop.
Everyone is doing something.
As the factory effort for Aston Martin, cars need to be
prepped, not only GT3, GTE spec Vantages, but also
closer-to-street-legal GT4s.
DAN SAYERS: This is the GT4 race car.
based on the Vantage V8.
You can see the chassis over there, which is basically
where it starts.
The chassis are actually made at Gaydon on the same
production line as the road cars.
So they come down the same production line, have all of
the same technicians put them together.
We go out there and do some help.
We help out with a small bit of lightweighting, wiping some
of the glue, making it look nice.
But essentially, they are exactly the same chassis as
used on the road car V8.
All the body panels are standard road car, apart from
the side seals.
So again, you've got the main chassis.
Literally the only difference here is the roll cage, which
is the FIA roll cage.
Every race car needs an FIA-approved roll cage, so
that's basically all we do here.
We put that roll cage in, paint it, and then
it's good to go.
It's good to start assembly.
These are about 400 man-hours, the GT4.
It ranges-- starts, so it's GT4 is about 400,
the GT3, 500, 550.
And then you go up to the GTE, which is 700.
But all the suspension is essentially standard.
The wiring looms are modified standard looms.
There's a lot of standard car in the GT4.
They're all delivered pretty much ready to race.
J.F. MUSIAL: Ready to go?
DAN SAYERS: Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
They'll play with the set up and the dampers with a bit of
the aero, but essentially they're ready to go.
Quite a few people actually have their car.
They drive it to a track day on the road, race around for
the day on the track, and then they drive it home again.
So we've sold, I guess, 10 or so track day cars.
J.F. MUSIAL: Really?
DAN SAYERS: So you can make them street
legal, which is an advantage.
And there is a market there for it.
The majority, obviously, aren't street legal.
But this one, this one is an example that is.
That's the GT3.
It's the Rolex car, if you want to--
J.F. MUSIAL: Oh, yeah.
We'd love to talk about that.
DAN SAYERS: So TRG, again, have ordered the first Rolex.
J.F. MUSIAL: So this is for Grand-Am, probably-- this is
not continental.
DAN SAYERS: Correct.
This is Grand-Am, yes.
Grand-Am.
So it's based on the GT3, the V12.
J.F. MUSIAL: Got it.
DAN SAYERS: It's got quite a few changes for
the Grand-Am car.
So you'll see the roll cage is specific to Grand-Am, which is
different to the one you'll see in that shell.
Things like anti-extrusion bars, the spoke to Grand-Am,
and the fuel cell insulation is different.
It's something that Grand-Am have stipulated we change.
We're not massively keen on, but the chassis
is exactly the same.
It's manufactured at Gaydon.
Same line.
J.F. MUSIAL: It's not like an RX-7.
DAN SAYERS: No, no, no.
None of that.
It is the basic standard.
There's more modifications to this shell.
You'll see this, a few cut outs for restrictors.
But a few more modifications, but nothing drastic.
Still the same base.
All the sub frames are the same, standard road car.
The engine is based on the V12, so the block and heads
are all the same.
Frame's the same.
It's a lot of standard car in this again.
And it came second at the weekend British GT, and we're
out at Blancpain this weekend with three of them, I think.
J.F. MUSIAL: Are you doing your own CFD work, your own
aerodynamic work in house?
DAN SAYERS: We are.
We've actually just started this year.
So we've started this, and it should be up and running
hopefully in the next six weeks, which is quite a new
development for us, and will make things a lot easier.
A lot easier, because it's an expensive thing.
We've got the expertise here.
We're just getting the software up and running.
J.F. MUSIAL: Got it.
DAN SAYERS: So yeah, that should be going in six weeks.
So that's a brand-new chassis, again, the
same as the GT3 chassis.
That's literally straight from the shell shop.
So you'll see the roll cage is different to the Grand-Am one.
So basically, yeah, that's a GTE or GT3 chassis.
It uses either.
They both start the same.
Literally bare and ready for prep.
This is going to probably be used as a spare, just in case.
We start with such a different platform, so the Ferrari,
you've got to--
it's already a sports car, whereas the Vantage is very
much a GT car.
And I mean, they're massively different.
So to start with the Vantage is probably I'd say there's
more work involved to get it to the pace of the Ferrari,
for example.
So it has grown hugely.
And we made another good step this year, I think,
with the 2013 car.
And we're definitely close to the pace.
We're not quite sure where we are, still.
I think it'll become evident at Le Mans.
And it will be interesting to see.
So you've got these two.
It's your base 2012 spec.
And the other three are all 2013 spec.
So these subdue the M Series in work.
You've got to have a car that's
one year old, basically.
J.F. MUSIAL: Got it.
OK.
DAN SAYERS: So it has to be older than the pro car, than a
new pro car.
J.F. MUSIAL: Got it.
DAN SAYERS: So this is the young driver.
This has got a good shot at the championship,
I think, this year.
It should be quite strong at Le Mans as well.
J.F. MUSIAL: What series is it?
Is this--
DAN SAYERS: This is WEC.
All five are WEC, yeah.
They all go together, so there's an army of us that go
out, run the five cars.
The ideal world is you do a shakedown with
all your race parts.
You make sure they're OK.
You take them off, put on your practice
parts, do your practice.
And then you put back on the parts that you have shaken
down with, and you know they're OK.
So it's, again, logistically, even just going through that
process takes a lot of time.
So an engine, for example, will do 5,000 kilometers, so
you can't run it past 5,000.
The cars, all the cars are-- all the components are lifed,
so that's controlled by the sub assembly team.
They life all the components, so they know
when to change parts.
That's linked to the purchasing system, so they're
purchased accordingly.
Logistics--
we've got a team of people working on hotels,
flights, you know.
You can imagine, it's just,
logistically, it's a nightmare.
But I'm glad I'm not involved in that side.
There are guys that do the job list for each car.
You've got a number one for each car.
He then gets the job list, allocates all
the jobs to his crew.
So you do have a specific team for each car.
And you've got two or three guys in there that manage
those guys and make sure the build is
correct, the spec is correct.
Yeah.
It's just a lot of work.
We have cars that are 10 years old, still running, DBRS9s.
For example, the chassis last year, we have one car did
26,000 kilometers, I think, in that year.
And it was tired towards the end, but that's just to show
the average person probably does, I don't know,
10,000 max in a year.
So that's three years old of proper, world-class racing.
So customer cars, for example, can last a
long time, 10 years.
These pro cars will do at least two or three years, and
then we refresh them.
J.F. MUSIAL: What's been the biggest development in terms
of tech over the past--
DAN SAYERS: Actually, I think the regulations have pushed
you more to be road-based, these road-based components.
So the regulations have changed such that some of the
technology you can't use.
And they're quite strict now for a weight saving, or right
height, or--
J.F. MUSIAL: It's politics versus--
DAN SAYERS: There's quite a lot of that at the moment.
I think cost savings is a big thing.
If we spent a fortune developing a car, we wouldn't
be able to pay to run five, for example.
So there's a compromise there between spending money running
the cars as they are, and developing the cars.
So if you run them as they are and the other guys develop it,
then if you can get a break, you can carry on racing.
Everyone's happy because the championship's full.
So it's a lot of politics, and it is a trade off.
So we do spend--
probably 25% of my time is working with the FIA, ACO,
auto manufacturers, regulations and future
regulations.
Current balance issues--
there's a lot of it.
J.F. MUSIAL: Do you find that what you're doing has actually
started helping the road cars in terms of what they're being
produced for the road?
Like, is the knowledge transfer from what you're
learning going back to Gaydon in terms of future--
DAN SAYERS: Yeah.
Yeah, we work quite closely with Gaydon.
They pay a lot of attention to what we're doing.
We feedback on any issues we find, any improvements we find
that can be easily incorporated into road cars.
We help them out with their other projects, like, for
example, the hydrogen car at Nurburgring.
So we support them with that.
So it is a two way-- they offer us support with
the road car parts.
With data for the road car parts, information.
And we offer them support the other way around.
It is a close relationship now.
It's closer, probably, than it's been for quite some time.
J.F. MUSIAL: There is information exchange.
And we can be certain that the next Vantage, whenever it
comes, will have influence from the men and women
in this race shop.