2009 Lola - Aston Martin B09/60 #007 (LM24)

Norev 1/64

Car: Lola - Aston Martin B09/60 #007
Series: 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours
Class: LMP1
Team: AMR Eastern Europe
Drivers: Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge, Stefan Mucke
​Result: 4th overall, 4th in LMP1

This is my first ever Norev casting and it is a pretty good one. I was actually expecting this to be bigger so I was quite happy to see that it is actually smaller than the Suntory Audi LMP1 castings that I have, making it easier to fit in the display case of my Le Mans cars. I really liked the look of this Aston Martin LMP1 car and I've unfortunately missed out on buying some of the Kyosho versions before so I was glad to get this one.

The Lola - Aston Martin B09/60 was an LMP1 car built by Lola with some help from Prodrive who ran Aston Martin's racing program. It was an updated version of the Lola B08/60 which was also used by Aston Martin's partner Charouz Racing Systems in the 2008 season. In the 2009 Le Mans Series season, the Lola - Aston Martin was quite successful, with the No. 007 car winning 2 races and actually never finishing outside the podium which resulted in them winning the LMP1 championship.

This particular example from Norev is based on the No. 007 car that participated in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours race. In qualifying, this car was the fastest non-diesel car and they qualified 8th on the grid. In the actual race, the Lola - Aston Martin cars were outpaced by the diesel-powered cars from Peugeot and Audi. Still, the No. 007 car finished 4th overall and best of the petrol-powered cars after some of the diesel entries encountered issues.