Highest mileage Gaydon era Aston?
Discussion
Dropped my car off today at a dealer for some post purchase work. When being given a lift in to town we obviously got in to a conversation about cars. We spoke about the huge prices the air cooled Porsches are going for now and he mentioned he'd seen one with 250k on it still going strong. He then made a comment that Aston engines could probably never get that high, so I'm interested to know what the highest mileage Gaydon era AM is, with the original engine?
Barnezy said:
Dropped my car off today at a dealer for some post purchase work. When being given a lift in to town we obviously got in to a conversation about cars. We spoke about the huge prices the air cooled Porsches are going for now and he mentioned he'd seen one with 250k on it still going strong. He then made a comment that Aston engines could probably never get that high, so I'm interested to know what the highest mileage Gaydon era AM is, with the original engine?
250k? With how many £15-20k engine rebuilds?I would have thought given how low stressed the V8 engine is in standard tune (power vs capacity) that starship mileage would be no problem. You'll be looking at suspension and transmission consumables, but everything else should be rolling maintenance as you get above 100k?
Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
krisdelta said:
I would have thought given how low stressed the V8 engine is in standard tune (power vs capacity) that starship mileage would be no problem. You'll be looking at suspension and transmission consumables, but everything else should be rolling maintenance as you get above 100k?
Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
Mines on 50k too and sounds / runs as sweet as a nut. Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
northernmedia said:
krisdelta said:
I would have thought given how low stressed the V8 engine is in standard tune (power vs capacity) that starship mileage would be no problem. You'll be looking at suspension and transmission consumables, but everything else should be rolling maintenance as you get above 100k?
Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
Mines on 50k too and sounds / runs as sweet as a nut. Mines on 50k, so not really trying that hard vs 260k!
"more chance of a Gaydon V8 doing it than a 30 year old air Porsche lump, thats for sure."
Whilst I'm an Aston fan I can assure you an air-cooled flat six is able to do and exceed that kind of mileage. 30 year old you're talking of one of the most reliable Porsche engines, the 3.2L Carrera engine which is pretty much bombproof. My father bought one new in 1984 and still going strong. He also ran a 2.7 RS up to 500,000 kms.
Whilst I'm an Aston fan I can assure you an air-cooled flat six is able to do and exceed that kind of mileage. 30 year old you're talking of one of the most reliable Porsche engines, the 3.2L Carrera engine which is pretty much bombproof. My father bought one new in 1984 and still going strong. He also ran a 2.7 RS up to 500,000 kms.
KnowsAnAston said:
I know of a 4.3 V8V with 260k+ and still going, not so much of a triggers broom as you would think.
That's great to know. I'm not among those who find that hard to believe, and I'd love to know more about the work it has required. Do you know whether the engine (or the gearbox) has had any work along the way?About air-cooled 911 engines, with some exceptions, they are well-known to be capable of mega mileages (full disclosure: I own a 993 (only 71K so far)). I know of two 993s that have gone beyond 600K miles without any engine work, and many other 993s as well as 911SCs (3.0) and Carreras (3.2) that are well over 300K miles. But then came the 996...
I used to have a 3.2 carrera 1986 and bought it as a fixer upper. When we finally got round to stripping theengine you would have thought it should never run because the tollerances were all over through 200+ k miles. Never let me down once tho. As an asside i had a 996 for 8 years. iMS seals done when i bought it and never had a single running issue. Bloke i sold it to wrecked the engine within a month.
997 is still running strong at 65000 miles and my V8V runs better with 40k miles than my old one did brand new. I think the vantage block will be very reliable long term..
997 is still running strong at 65000 miles and my V8V runs better with 40k miles than my old one did brand new. I think the vantage block will be very reliable long term..
CSK1 said:
"more chance of a Gaydon V8 doing it than a 30 year old air Porsche lump, thats for sure."
Whilst I'm an Aston fan I can assure you an air-cooled flat six is able to do and exceed that kind of mileage. 30 year old you're talking of one of the most reliable Porsche engines, the 3.2L Carrera engine which is pretty much bombproof. My father bought one new in 1984 and still going strong. He also ran a 2.7 RS up to 500,000 kms.
yeah, I can believe that and was being a bit sarcastic Whilst I'm an Aston fan I can assure you an air-cooled flat six is able to do and exceed that kind of mileage. 30 year old you're talking of one of the most reliable Porsche engines, the 3.2L Carrera engine which is pretty much bombproof. My father bought one new in 1984 and still going strong. He also ran a 2.7 RS up to 500,000 kms.
the old aircooled lumps were not in a high state of tune and relatively simple compared to the modern cars
to be honest, the majority of production engines from 30 years ago could still be going strong now...its usually the cars that get scrapped first, not a worn out engine at all...
DB4DM said:
It would be interesting to know what unplanned maintenance it's needed in getting to 174K which is about the same as my 52 year old rotbox
I'll try to get the breakdown off him. He bought it 4yrs ago on 41k, was commuting to Belgium every week for most of the time hence 30+k/m.
Interesting post and good to see a lot of Gaydon era cars doing high miles. So it then begs the question why there are so many DB9's that I have seen for sale that have "New engine fitted (for example) 6000 miles ago?". I have seen this on quite a few 04/05 DB9's with even low mileage. I know there was an issue with the dipstick being too short on early models but have seen 'new engine fitted' on a few newer cars aswell.
willow65 said:
Interesting post and good to see a lot of Gaydon era cars doing high miles. So it then begs the question why there are so many DB9's that I have seen for sale that have "New engine fitted (for example) 6000 miles ago?". I have seen this on quite a few 04/05 DB9's with even low mileage. I know there was an issue with the dipstick being too short on early models but have seen 'new engine fitted' on a few newer cars aswell.
really ? how many are there ? ..a couple out of 3500 cars in the UK alone ? whats the percentage failure rate Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff