After three years of trying AMR finally took the GT1 crown at Le Mans. Defending it in 2008 would be no mean feat with the challenge as ever coming from the Corvettes and Saleens. The cars run in virtually the same spec as last year but the works team features sponsorship from Gulf Oil International, iconic light blue and orange first seen 40 years ago on a Porsche that went on to win the race. The #59 car is making it's third appearance, this year fully updated to current specs with the air conditioning system as seen on last years works cars. #53, a newcomer to Le Mans is the Vitaphone car. Vitaphone are more used to running the Maserati MC12 in the FIA GT series, but this car is both to long and too wide against the AMC permitted dimensions for the class. For LM08, Vitaphone have teamed up with British based Strakka Racing who are to take charge of much of the day-to-day running of the car and who run the car at other events.

Of great interest and as a way to pointing the way forward, #10 is a closed Lola LMP1 prototype with a mid-mounted DBR9 V12 engine, the only LM prototype to use effectively a production engine within the current regulations. Whilst entered by Czech team, Charouz Racing System, the car is effectively prepared and run by Aston Martin Racing, perhaps to gather information about moving fully upto LMP1 next year.

Test day was a very wet affair - will the race itself follow the same way? Whatever, the LMP1 Lola-Aston achieved 9th fastest in class, and works DBR9 009 in the hands of David Brabham was quickest of the GT1's closely followed by a Saleen and a Corvette. Will 2008 be a three way battle - the Saleen looks strong as do the Corvettes. One must remember that the last time the AMR team competed was a year ago at Le Mans whereas the Pratt and Miller Corvettes have been running in the ALMS since last years encounter. Some will see that this makes the Gulf AMR DBR9's the under-dogs.