RE: Aston Martin V8 Vantage X-Pack: Spotted
Discussion
tless driving it, admittedly my friends example was & still is in need of TLC (I have first dibs on it) !!!!!astonemble said:
The article
Wow Top lurking, 2 posts in 84 months.It would seem that of the 95 cars produced a high percentage of their current owners frequent Pistonheads.
Had mine for over 10 years, thanks to Rikki Cann she is a delight to drive and to answer the question as to when anyone would ever drive it, she has made many trips to the camping fields of LeMans. As to the vulgar subject of value, this would seem to be the only X pack for sale in the world.
jhoneyball said:
This is mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it6Hny77PPM
That is fabulous. At about 50 seconds I half expected to see a mushroom cloud appear on the horizon.One of my very favourite cars since I saw an article for it in about 1977 in Motorsport magazine. The first car I'll go and get if I win the lottery.
astonemble said:
The article states that these cars were hard to sell. I will try to keep it short. In 1987 I had bought PBM 744W a vantage, ex Victor Gauntlett for 28,500 from HWM at Walton on Thames.The car was a pup and I almost lost the faith. My Father had been a mechanic at the factory, I had the bug but I was 33 before I bought a DB6 for the princely sum of 3,250 ! JMR 968E.Anyway,I had a few V8s before PBM. but now I was stumped. The salesman at HWM one Simon Godfrey convinced me I could afford a new one and that a two year wait would pass quickly.So I parted with my 10k and waited. I had wanted a Vantage, Chichester Blue magnolia piped blue, blue top roll,I dont remember when they said I couldnt have the fixed head, but a Volante I could. Aston couldnt build the V8 after 2000 due to the unleaded fuel directive which resulted in the hastily conceived Pup the Virage. Anyway my car was scheduled for late 89 build. You will all know that 3 months was the time it took to build. And that the time it took to build the bonnet, 3 pieces, was the same time it took to build an allegro start to finish. Michael Fleming, the guy that put together the Green collection, offered me 50k for my deposit. a few months later 100k.
HWM offered me 100k and a Virage for my Volante. Top offer was 400k and I still said no. Nothing will ever take the smile off my face when I collected her from Newport Pagnell !!These were heady times and they are back.If my dear old Dad had worked at Fords he would have saved me a fortune... Fast forward to 91 and with the help of the Gulf war and Lord Brockett the market collapsed.
You mean this one - I was 16 y/o at the time this magazine came out and I still remember buying the CAR magazine that day. This remains bed-side reading to date.HWM offered me 100k and a Virage for my Volante. Top offer was 400k and I still said no. Nothing will ever take the smile off my face when I collected her from Newport Pagnell !!These were heady times and they are back.If my dear old Dad had worked at Fords he would have saved me a fortune... Fast forward to 91 and with the help of the Gulf war and Lord Brockett the market collapsed.
Same Vantage, PBM 744W was in the Bonham's Aston sale in 2013 where it made £98,940.
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20927/lot/238/
You can tell I still have a place for it in my heart!
VantageV550 said:
You sir,are a very lucky man.That is quite beautiful, and in a fabulous colour.
I was under the impression these drove like a very fast lorry,its good to hear owner's stating otherwise and giving them plenty of use.
Autocars roadtest of a v8 vantage quoted 170 mph max and 0-60 of 5.4 secs, figures that seemed impossibly fast 30 yrs ago. And a 13.5 mpg average thirst!
And yes,I do recall these being a relative bargain not too many years ago.
Love these cars. I'm currently in the market for one and am horrified at the prices being asked.
Nicholas Mee are asking £265k for this car which I think is very ambitious. But it is the last, low mileage and a very usual spec (roll cage, elec seats and many many other bespoke bits)
Hexagon Classics, remarkably, have the sister car for sale (ie the last but one Vantage with the exact same specification) but higher mileage and has had a colour change, priced at £195k.
Mee had a lovely low mileage 1984 Vantage for sale earlier this year for £140k. Annoyingly I just missed that one but I think this is a more representative price for a very good non-X pack V8 Vantage
Pre-1980 V8 Vantages seem to struggle to get over £100k which is odd because there are very few mechanical or cosmetic differences to the car across its production life (1977-1989). Anyone care to suggest why? Surely Ronal wheels and an extra 30bhp cannot be worth an extra £100k?!!
Nicholas Mee are asking £265k for this car which I think is very ambitious. But it is the last, low mileage and a very usual spec (roll cage, elec seats and many many other bespoke bits)
Hexagon Classics, remarkably, have the sister car for sale (ie the last but one Vantage with the exact same specification) but higher mileage and has had a colour change, priced at £195k.
Mee had a lovely low mileage 1984 Vantage for sale earlier this year for £140k. Annoyingly I just missed that one but I think this is a more representative price for a very good non-X pack V8 Vantage
Pre-1980 V8 Vantages seem to struggle to get over £100k which is odd because there are very few mechanical or cosmetic differences to the car across its production life (1977-1989). Anyone care to suggest why? Surely Ronal wheels and an extra 30bhp cannot be worth an extra £100k?!!
RRG said:
Oh, and can the owners of V8 Vantages posting on this thread tell us:
1. what real world fuel consumption is actually like - is it really as bad as 10mpg??
2. approx annual maintenance costs to keep it running well assuming 3,000 miles per annum?
1.12ish1. what real world fuel consumption is actually like - is it really as bad as 10mpg??
2. approx annual maintenance costs to keep it running well assuming 3,000 miles per annum?
2. more difficult, most years not a lot, the year the engine was rebuilt more than a left testicle.
When it is parked up in the garage during the salty months you cant think why you have it, then you take it out for a drive and all the little boy inside you remembers the dreams and the grin spreads from ear to ear.
RRG said:
Oh, and can the owners of V8 Vantages posting on this thread tell us:
1. what real world fuel consumption is actually like - is it really as bad as 10mpg??
2. approx annual maintenance costs to keep it running well assuming 3,000 miles per annum?
Some insider info. The standard spec cars are ok to drive, but not very good really. You really need to have the suspension in tip-top condition before the car will "dance" properly. When new, and when right, they are absolutely stunning. With old, tired rubbers they are a wallowing mess. 1. what real world fuel consumption is actually like - is it really as bad as 10mpg??
2. approx annual maintenance costs to keep it running well assuming 3,000 miles per annum?
The same goes for the engine. As standard, they are really badly tuned with huge wafts of unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust, especialy at low revs.
Remember that the factory was hugely constrained by type approval and money at the time - they went for carbs because it was the best known quantity. But there was little else they could do at the time.
Since then, technology has moved on hugely. The MSD ignition change is transformative for the engine - it runs much cleaner, much leaner and has massively better low-end torque. There are far better brakes (my xpack was a real experience when i started doing some track days 14 years ago and I quickly went for the RSWilliams Brembo upgrade). Getting tyres for 255/50/16 wheels is a real tough one, and for a while there was nothing on sale (and what was on sale was often a decade old rubber) which is why i have custom 18" wheels which allows me to take modern Pirelli Pzero rubber. (supercar tyres is the great untold scandal)
Now here is the conundrum -- do you want a car to polish as an investment piece or do you want a car to drive? If the former, then the cars from Mee etc are excellent and are just as ex factory. I bought exactly the same in 2000 with my 1989 car which had 28k miles on the clock. Full history, mint, blah blah -- and it was a howling dog when you actually went to drive it. Pulling one of these masterpieces into shape requires a lot of work, but when you have it right it is brilliant. Think of a shiny Strad violin with strings out of tune.
All the engines will need or will have had a full rebuild by now. If it hasnt, then expect it to need it real soon now. If a dealer says "nah...." then remember they are a car dealer. The rubber o-rings on the cylinder liners perish with time, and water/oil leaks out of the weep holes on the block. And this can go wrong very suddenly. The o rings are a few pence each, but an engine rebuild is 15-25k. When mine went at 80k miles 7 years ago, we decided to keep the standard liners but overbore then by 130tho, new pistons, new lightweight conrods, v careful gas flow of heads, took the carbs to 50mm etc. Transformative on the engine at the top end, but kept the important pieces standard size. Go for a 6.3 engine and you have bored out the block, never to return. Go to 7 litre and you have machined out the bottom end for the bigger crank, never to return to standard. And there are no more blocks. Think v carefully before going beyond standard sized liners and/or crank, because it cant be undone, and many people (myself included) think the standard block is worth keeping and any benefits of the 6.3 or 7 are overstated and easily acheieved in better, more modern ways on the standard block.
I could go on for hours... email me if you want more.
MPG -- realistically around 8mpg. I get somewhere around 200 miles on about 80 litres of fuel. Maybe this is an indication that I *drive* the car.... :-)
Costs: think 3k per year minimum, with £1/mile. But its worth it.
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