Le Mans Aston Martin

[Speedman]

Whilst flicking round PH the other day I was reading a thread about Marsh Plant Astons and someone mentioned that one of the cars carried the same scheme as an old 70s Le Mans car, a few days digging in some photo albums and I've unearthed the snaps I took in the mid 1990s at Littlecote House Motor Musuem, the car was hidden out the back of the workshops but we managed to have a nose round it.

The Aston Martin RHAM/1






This appears to be its 1980s incarnation when it sprouted the vast wing out back, theres a good potted history on wiki. It seems the car also held the LSR for caravan towing!

[Mystery Machine]

WOW!

That is just....AMAZING!

The lines are so purposeful, aggressive and right. As for the wheels....no other set of rims for the past year has made me OOOOF quite so much. Big want face donned for both car and wheels.

Thanks Steve, nice to see you back on here ;D

[Blown_Imp]

It was very very turbocharged AFAIK it also had a lot of cooling issues due to the massive amount of heat produced under bonnet.

J

[HoTWire]

Big fan of the Marsh Plant Hire cars,.. nice digging up Mr.Prior ... wonder if Fergus can find out any more info for us.

[Seth]

Goodwood FoS '09

[Foxy]

A photo from the 79 Le Mans



www.racingsportscars.com/chassis/archive/RHAM__001.html

[Speedman]

While very purposeful at the FoS, it really needs massive gold go faster stripes and a vast wing out back ;D

Theres a [url=http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=198&t=915828&mid=93155&nmt=Marsh%20Plant%20Aston%2.
0Martin%20Vantage]interesting thread[/url] developing on PH.

[bmcnut]

Words cannot express the OOOFFFFFFFFFFF

[skinnylew]

excellence, just pure excellence.

[fatbaldbloke]

Nov 8, 2010 21:51:42 GMT Speedman said:

It seems the car also held the LSR for caravan towing!

"14 October 1980. The turbocharged RHAM/1 breaks the world land speed record for towing a caravan at 124.91mph - in the wet!"

From Aston Martin V8 Race Cars, Paul Chudecki, Osprey Books 1990.

Edit:- The Le Mans car and the Marsh Plant cars are not the same beasts. The original Marsh Plant car was built as a 'Le Mans replica' by Hamilton for Peter Griggs and ran a non-turbo engine. I've not been able to find any pics of that car in the LM style livery originally but that doesn't mean it wasn't so. Shall have a look a bit later when I have more time.

[stealthstylz]

Thats brilliant. Have they dropped the front panel for aero the front wing looks to have much more curve than standard. Also agree with Bruce, those wheels are amazing.

Matt

[popuptoaster]

Now if someone could find one of those Capri based Aston kit cars you could knock up a half decent impression of that.

[Mystery Machine]

Nov 9, 2010 11:18:18 GMT stealthstylz said:

Have they dropped the front panel for aero the front wing looks to have much more curve than standard.

I was thinking the exact same thing. From a lot of shots I keep seeing this in my mind when looking at the front end:

[Mystery Machine]

....also, when I see this picture:



I keep seeing this as well:



This is by no means a bad thing. That Aston is so damn hard looking it should be viewed from behind a cage.

[popuptoaster]

[stealthstylz]

I often wonder how hard it would be to make a wheel look like that out of steel. Start with a deep dish banded wheel (17x10 or 12 ish) then make a hubcap out of something into it to make the smooth centre - maybe a wok or a pan lid or something similar as daft as it seems with fake fins welded to the back. Getting it true to the wheel could be balanced would be hardest i'd imagine.

Matt

[Seth]

Nov 9, 2010 11:48:45 GMT stealthstylz said:

I often wonder how hard it would be to make a wheel look like that out of steel.

Those wheels really weren't very technical. The "turbine" had been made out of a flat sheet of aluminium, riveted into a cone and then the vanes riveted to it. Was quite roughly done.

[stealthstylz]

Ah right, might be a way forward. Just need a car with arches big enough to fit a very wide 17" wheel in lol.

Matt

[Autofive]

N I C E

[autohausdolby]

Awesome