The GT3 era of racing has seen plenty of incredible racing but for all that witnessed it the 2013 Nurburgring 24 Hours was certainly a highlight.
For so long dominated by the major German marques, Aston Martin had been building up to a charge and had set its sights on winning the race.
It’s weapon of choice was a brand new Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in the newly applied Bilstein livery, the German shock absorber sponsor attracted over from Audi the previous season.
The car qualified second overall and ran as a very strong contender, including a pair of fondly remembered full tilt passes for the lead from both the late lamented Allan Simonsen and from AMR’s long-serving Darren Turner with strong drives too from both Pedro Lamy and Stefan Mucke.
The car would fade when poor weather hit, finishing outside the Top 10 but Bilstein ‘Billie’ was established as a firm fan favourite.
Following on from that race, the car was run and maintained for the following two seasons by Prodrive/ AMR, as the ‘in house’ works run GT3 car under private ownership (the car is currently owned by Paul White) winning overall, and achieving podiums in Blancpain Endurance, Britcar, the 2015 Le Mans Support race, VLN, Dubai 24 hour, and finishing in the top 10 at the Nurburgring 24 hour race in ’14.
So when ‘Billie’ goes under the hammer at the ‘Salon Prive’ auction on 4 September whilst it certainly qualifies as a collector’s item there’s every prospect of the car finding its way back into competition as a still hugely competitive prospect (the car won the Aston Martin Festival race at Le Mans this year) .
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