Discussion
12pack said:
Though I must say my personal experience with the China grey/yellow demo also had me very concerned that this manual is beyond just slower than a DCT. It felt more difficult and hence slower than any other manual that I have experienced apart from my old 355.
Huh - It's only difficult if you pause to think about it, which of course is the natural thing to do when confronted with the apparent upside down presentation of "the Dogleg". Once you forget about it and realise that its just a matter of moving the stick in the same direction regardless as you would with a normal box to change up or down and forgetting about the quirky 1st, it's intuitive again. Took me a few mins too to forget overly thinking about "what gear am I in" and from that point it was simple. The test drive instructor did say that some people just took to it very quickly and others consistently struggled through the whole of their drive experience. I found the box itself very slick to use with nice short throws so for me at least was very quick. AMShift added a new dynamic with the full throttle changes and that did take quite a few attempts to master as I have hard programmed my right foot to lift off when the left foot presses the clutch, but once mastered it was a lot of fun and felt rewarding - key point for a "drivers car".I think the issue is that any old school manual is never going to be as quick round a track as a similar car with a modern super quick DCT box, but then we knew that already. This was billed as a "drivers car" contest as which point the fact you have to interact and drive the car rather than it just driving itself at insane speeds (ala the McLaren), should have meant it was placed somewhat high in the final results.
Whatever anyway, those who are buying one will agree its great, and those who aren't won't, so there is little point in debating or falling out about it... All the V12 Vantages are very special cars, original or S, Manual or SSIII, Coupe or Roadster - we now have a choice to allow us all to pick our personal favourite combo, so lets embrace and rejoice at AM for producing this swan song Manual N/A V12 Aston.
Ok just to add to the apparent craziness of this review, here is Motor Trend's follow up video of "The World's Greatest Drag Race 6!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNAt9bQZtY
Seems they drop the V12VS in favour of Dodge Charger Hellcat as they want to race this and only have 12 drivers, so drop the V12VS as its the slowest - before the race was run! Oh well, life's too short! :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNAt9bQZtY
Seems they drop the V12VS in favour of Dodge Charger Hellcat as they want to race this and only have 12 drivers, so drop the V12VS as its the slowest - before the race was run! Oh well, life's too short! :P
AdamV12V said:
Whatever anyway, those who are buying one will agree its great, and those who aren't won't, so there is little point in debating or falling out about it... All the V12 Vantages are very special cars, original or S, Manual or SSIII, Coupe or Roadster - we now have a choice to allow us all to pick our personal favourite combo, so lets embrace and rejoice at AM for producing this swan song Manual N/A V12 Aston.
Totally agree Adam, there is a choice now. I'm just frustrated because for me there is nothing that AM have released in the last 6 years or so that I see as a replacement for the V12V. The DB9.2 is beautiful but a different type of car, nothing else they've done floats the boat. I was pinning my hopes on the new one but was disappointed, the rest of the car was great, suspension, new interior tweaks, extra oomph, all good. The gearbox and the exterior styling tweaks were the fly in the ointment on the 'S' and it didn't stack up for me. I hope you enjoy yours when it arrives, speccing your own car and experiencing the process must be fantastic
Gettoff said:
Totally agree Adam, there is a choice now. I'm just frustrated because for me there is nothing that AM have released in the last 6 years or so that I see as a replacement for the V12V. The DB9.2 is beautiful but a different type of car, nothing else they've done floats the boat. I was pinning my hopes on the new one but was disappointed, the rest of the car was great, suspension, new interior tweaks, extra oomph, all good. The gearbox and the exterior styling tweaks were the fly in the ointment on the 'S' and it didn't stack up for me.
I hope you enjoy yours when it arrives, speccing your own car and experiencing the process must be fantastic
I am exactly in the same boat. I would like to get back into the Aston (modern era) fold but I can't get around the fact that they are either not that pretty (DB11) or just a bit too old tech and as a result too expensive for what they offer. The V12S manual is the pick of the range but i had a V12V in 2009 and to buy a car again which basically has not changed in 10 years and is due for a renewal any time soon at £+150k simply does not stack up when comparable cars like the Merc GT s, Porsche Turbo S, McLaren are either significantly cheaper and/or much more up to date. I test drove the 8 speed Vanquish the other day and yes it is great but its a GT and not a sports car. You can get a used F12 for that money and that is lightyears ahead in everything from power, gearbox to electronics. The heart says "yes" the brain says "no no"I hope you enjoy yours when it arrives, speccing your own car and experiencing the process must be fantastic
hornbaek said:
The heart says "yes" the brain says "no no"
Ah, but if everyone always listened to the head and not the heart, the world would be a much more boring place.In my life the best experiences have been the ones driven by emotion, as in "f@@k it, you know it doesn't make sense but do it anyway"
hornbaek said:
I am exactly in the same boat.
Well if you discover a solution let me know 
I'd be interested to hear what it is. I tried a 570S, liked it, but prefer the looks and idea of the GT version. It's beyond my budget at the moment so I may have to wait a couple of years for that one. I'm now looking at the other end of the spectrum and thinking of either an Exige V6S or Evora 400, completely different type of car in the case of the Exige but the Evora seems to do the sports car role with enough carrying capacity for a week away touring. It's available as a manual, sounds pretty good and performance should be on a par with the V12V for most situations.
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