Brabham: This Aston Martin is a stunning car.

David Brabham has joined his fellow Prodrive driver Darren Turner in praising the new Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans racer that is set to debut in GT racing in 2005.

After seeing his first run in the car cut short by mechanical problems, Brabham finally got to take the track at Donington Park last week, although persistent rain made conditions difficult, with the red flags brought out on numerous occasions to rescue other stranded cars from the gravel traps.

With the rain making it impossible for the team to push too hard, Brabham was able to put extra mileage on the car and was pleased to have got behind the wheel.

"The first impressions when I saw the car were that it is a stunning looking car," he told Crash.net, "and when you actually see it in the flesh it is. They have done a beautiful job in preparing this race car. Aston Martin is a big name and this is a big year for them. The car will certainly look the part.

"As far as any real impressions about the performance of the car, we aren't really there yet because last week I was only able to do an out lap and then we had a problem with the car and it was the end of the test. It was just one of those teething problems with a new car and we fixed that and got back out here at Donington where it has been very cold, rainy and the track is very slippery.

"Because of that, the tyres have no real temperature in them so at the moment we are just lapping the circuit and putting miles on the car as best we can. We are getting an idea of what water comes into the car and what these brakes are like when it's cold so there are some interesting shakedown things we are learning at this stage so hopefully we can get some dry running and put the car through its paces a bit more."

So far, testing duties on the new car have fallen to Brabham, Turner and Tomas Enge - drivers who all have experience with Prodrive in the past.

While Brabham admitting that he was talking to the team about the possibility of driving the car when it makes its race debut, he was quick to point out that nothing has yet been signed.

"Prodrive like to use drivers that they know and have worked with, hence I got the call," he said, "but we've been talking since this programme picked up momentum. During last year we kept in contact because they knew what they were doing and they've kept in contact with the drivers that they have used before.

"We are in pretty good negotiations at this point for next year, but nothing is signed and we are still talking and working on it. Obviously the idea is to get this car out quickly and get it running which it needs to do and I was available, Darren was available, Tomas Enge is here, all guys they have worked with the team before and had nothing better to do on a rainy day!"

Listen to Brabham talk about the new Aston Martin, and the upcoming Bahrain GT festival thanks to the Crash.net Radio archive.

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