Bought a V12V and not a fan...

[TDIPLC]

johng39 said:

Mark, not that I am cutting in on the offer, but I have a V12V and in Essex about 12 miles from you. I would be happy to bring it down for some alignment. I would be happy to provide feedback from the factory set-up and any changes you make.

Thanks John. Email received and responded! Thanks again

[Rex Racer]

Back to the OP's topic of handling/control of the V12V, I took mine up to the mountains this weekend with about 15 other cars, including an F430, several Gallardos (new and old), and 10 or more Lotuses, many of them extensively modded. I have to say that I was again amazed at what the V12V can do. The grip is just fantastic for a car of its size/weight, and I was able to keep up with the superlight Lotuses even in the twistiest of twisties. Although they're useless in the cold and in the wet, the Corsas are fabulous in warm, dry weather and the car feels very well balanced.

[MartinV12]

I must admit that I'm not enlighted by the performance of the Corsas. I'm used to Michelin Cup, Corsa Race and Dunlop Direzza tires on my other cars and they perform just amazing in dry conditions (altough bit of a nightmare in standing water).

But the Corsa "System" fitted to the V12V is clearly more street tire than semislick but still it peforms very poor in cold/wet.

I'm going to switch to the newly homologated P Zero once the Corsas have worn out. Not expecting significant loss in dry peformance but better overall experience in mixed conditions.

[clorenzen]

Buy a set of the winter/wet tyres (Sotozero) and then switch over in March/Oct and you have the best of both worlds.

[yeti]

Rex Racer said:

I was able to keep up with the superlight Lotuses even in the twistiest of twisties.

Sounds to me like you just might be a better/braver driver Rex

Sound like a great day out either way, Britain is too small for that stuff and has too many caravans...

[Rex Racer]

yeti said:

Sounds to me like you just might be a better/braver driver Rex

Sound like a great day out either way, Britain is too small for that stuff and has too many caravans...

Ha, well that may be part of it. Still, the grip is astounding and I don't want to take too much credit.

I'm lucky because there are some great mountain roads only about an hour away from the city. They can get a bit crowded on the weekends, but slower traffic often pulls to the side to let us pass when they see the line of exotics behind them.

[stanwan]

Sadly looks like mr space cowboy really isn't getting on with his V12.

My experience with it was the polar opposite. The instructor did compliment my smooth driving style - maybe the other cars he's driven are more forgiving when flung around corners.....

[MichaelV8V]

Perhaps someone else will do better with it:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/3788448.htm

[CatalystV12V]

An absolute bargin for someone.....

[Adam2S]

Indeed - looks like hes given up and is going to buy a Ferrari instead.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[yeti]

Adam2S said:

Indeed - looks like hes given up and is going to buy a Ferrari instead.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Lolz, if he thought the gentlemanly, stately V12V was a handful, not sure what he'll make of a 16M

I think Monsieur Cowboy needs a big loungey Merc or something.

[stanwan]

If he can't control a v12 vantage in a straight line I really do despair - even my wife found it easy to drive!!! I wonder if he buries his foot to the floor constantly?

[George H]

yeti said:

I think Monsieur Cowboy needs a big loungey Merc or something.

A big loungey Merc is the only car I've spun on the public road

Albeit with a supercharged 5.5 litre V8 in the front It could still bite if you didn't pay attention and buried your foot every time. My dad still doesn't know I span his car when I was 19, hope he doesn't read here

[superlightr]

perhaps the car need re-aligning/tracking further investigations - had a M5 a few years back that had a broken antiroll bar - handling was bad

[yeti]

stanwan said:

I wonder if he buries his foot to the floor constantly?

I have a mate who drives like this no matter what he's in, because he drives a diesel hack 25k miles a year and is used to absolutey stamping on the throttle. He stuffed my Tuscan into a bridge, spun a Mustang in Toronto and spun at Silverstone in single seaters. Sadly thinks he's a phenomenal driver and the cars are just twitchy. He now drives an Asta diesel and the world is a safer place...

Deftness of touch takes time to learn, and there is no better school of motoring than your first TVR. If you pass, you go indirectly to Aston eventually. If you fail, you end up backwards in a hedge with higher insurance premiums for 7 years

[UH-Matt]

I made a similar post last year about my limited experience with a V12 (test drove on a cold day). I drove for about an hour, dealer had bought the car down half the country for me, and I was ready to buy, but was left underwhelmed after test drive.

Unfortunately I feel AM is way behind other car makers on several fronts, and there is only so many combinations of car and engine they can do before they actually need to come up with something more up to date... The big boys are unfortunately leaving them behind and AM do not have the money to do anything about it.

Try a F430 or a Gallardo. The Gallardo you will STRUGGLE to wheel spin or lose traction, its super planted due to all wheel drive, and the F430 is still super planted but allows you to have a little more fun with the RWD....

[Mako V12V]

Engineering sports cars to the nth degree so they need less and less driver skill and interaction is not a sign of success. I for one do not wish to own characterless blobs with top-end statistics.

[Zod]

UH-Matt said:

I made a similar post last year about my limited experience with a V12 (test drove on a cold day). I drove for about an hour, dealer had bought the car down half the country for me, and I was ready to buy, but was left underwhelmed after test drive.

Unfortunately I feel AM is way behind other car makers on several fronts, and there is only so many combinations of car and engine they can do before they actually need to come up with something more up to date... The big boys are unfortunately leaving them behind and AM do not have the money to do anything about it.

Try a F430 or a Gallardo. The Gallardo you will STRUGGLE to wheel spin or lose traction, its super planted due to all wheel drive, and the F430 is still super planted but allows you to have a little more fun with the RWD....

So you didn't like the car because you actually have to drive it. Hmmm.

[superlightr]

UH-Matt said:

I made a similar post last year about my limited experience with a V12 (test drove on a cold day). I drove for about an hour, dealer had bought the car down half the country for me, and I was ready to buy, but was left underwhelmed after test drive.

Unfortunately I feel AM is way behind other car makers on several fronts, and there is only so many combinations of car and engine they can do before they actually need to come up with something more up to date... The big boys are unfortunately leaving them behind and AM do not have the money to do anything about it.

Try a F430 or a Gallardo. The Gallardo you will STRUGGLE to wheel spin or lose traction, its super planted due to all wheel drive, and the F430 is still super planted but allows you to have a little more fun with the RWD....

understand where your coming from. Been down the M5 996tt's Caterham7's etc and the reason why Im after a DB9 is because its the most beautiful car on the road. The others were all high end performance cars and looked ok but never got my heart thumping just by looking at them.

[Zod]

I owned an M5 and a DB9 (manual with sports pack) for two years and the DB9 was more fun to drive than the M5.