Aston Martin has made a bold move and decided to compete in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Even bolder, they have decided to enter a car powered by gasoline in a series dominated for several years by diesel cars. The AMR-One is an LMP1 car powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged six-cylinder direct-injection engine. They have built two cars, but only they will only be running one of them in ILMC, which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The car that will be at Le Mans is numbered 007 (I see what they did there) and the second car, numbered 009, will be competing in select non-ILMC events. The AMR-One is not only using a different fuel than the LMP1 big boys, but they are also using an open-cockpit design, which has also been abandoned by the top teams in the ILMC. We'll have to see if they can still make it work when the season starts at Sebring on March 19th.