Aston V8 Vantage 4.3
Discussion
Fascinating write up and that colour is absolutely gorgeous. Looking forward to more updates.
Most of my cars are usually a dk metalic blue or black ( 2 x Griff 500s, a Carbon Black E46 M3, my current Discovery 2, 911SC etc etc )
Back in late 2019, I was seriously considering one of these. Ideally a 4.7 version. I looked @ a few ( but sadly didn’t drive any of them ) but found one that I really liked, but couldn’t get any £ off of the price, which I thought was about £4K too much. My other choice was a 996 Turbo. I found the “perfect for me 996T “ but negotiations dragged on and in the end my offer of £ 32,500 was £3,500 out. So I lost the 996 and the Aston had also sold. However, a stunning 68 Camaro SS427 turned up. When the Camaro eventually has to go, I will look @ Astons again.
Most of my cars are usually a dk metalic blue or black ( 2 x Griff 500s, a Carbon Black E46 M3, my current Discovery 2, 911SC etc etc )
Back in late 2019, I was seriously considering one of these. Ideally a 4.7 version. I looked @ a few ( but sadly didn’t drive any of them ) but found one that I really liked, but couldn’t get any £ off of the price, which I thought was about £4K too much. My other choice was a 996 Turbo. I found the “perfect for me 996T “ but negotiations dragged on and in the end my offer of £ 32,500 was £3,500 out. So I lost the 996 and the Aston had also sold. However, a stunning 68 Camaro SS427 turned up. When the Camaro eventually has to go, I will look @ Astons again.
A very small update but the car has largely been parked up.
This is a bit of fun but my mum used her wizardry to finish off a cushion in the same fabric as the seats, for the parcel shelf for the dog
All in the details.
Haven't actually had a proper opportunity to try him out yet but it looks the part.
Next up was an attempt to smarten up the front grille which was discoloured and looking a bit past it.
It's not uncommon for the slats to fall out and go missing, or for the vertical supports to crack and fall out. Mine were all present but a mixed bag in condition. I used autosol to polish up the slats and sprayed the vertical supports silver.
As with lots of stuff on the Vantage, it's quite a heavy lump when all together, I can see why people opt for the lightweight options.
Another change I wanted to make was to wrap the chrome window trims in black, but turns out it's harder than it looks so don't have any pics of my failed attempt at that.
It's booked in in Feb to have the valve clearances measured the offending shims corrected in the hope that fixes the tick. Also going to have the EGR system removed, half the OEM cats removed, a remap and exhaust valve switch which will hopefully make it feel a bit more spritely.
It still needs a really good machine correction and polish too.
I'm going to investigate what would be cost effective ways to reduce weight too, it would be nice to get a bit of flab out of it without going crazy or stripping it out and compromising comfort.
This is a bit of fun but my mum used her wizardry to finish off a cushion in the same fabric as the seats, for the parcel shelf for the dog
All in the details.
Haven't actually had a proper opportunity to try him out yet but it looks the part.
Next up was an attempt to smarten up the front grille which was discoloured and looking a bit past it.
It's not uncommon for the slats to fall out and go missing, or for the vertical supports to crack and fall out. Mine were all present but a mixed bag in condition. I used autosol to polish up the slats and sprayed the vertical supports silver.
As with lots of stuff on the Vantage, it's quite a heavy lump when all together, I can see why people opt for the lightweight options.
Another change I wanted to make was to wrap the chrome window trims in black, but turns out it's harder than it looks so don't have any pics of my failed attempt at that.
It's booked in in Feb to have the valve clearances measured the offending shims corrected in the hope that fixes the tick. Also going to have the EGR system removed, half the OEM cats removed, a remap and exhaust valve switch which will hopefully make it feel a bit more spritely.
It still needs a really good machine correction and polish too.
I'm going to investigate what would be cost effective ways to reduce weight too, it would be nice to get a bit of flab out of it without going crazy or stripping it out and compromising comfort.
Loving the dog throne, i would think there may be a small market for more to be fair.
Grill wise i dont know how well it will stand up, a mate of mine had a vantage which had the same issue (as per) we got the grill powdercoated at the same time as mine but in chrome finish w, this was a sort of pearlescent siver. It actually looked very oem and of course was impervious to weather. Faff to put back together though as the powder coat needs to be filed down for each vertical to press in fully.
Keep up the good work!
Grill wise i dont know how well it will stand up, a mate of mine had a vantage which had the same issue (as per) we got the grill powdercoated at the same time as mine but in chrome finish w, this was a sort of pearlescent siver. It actually looked very oem and of course was impervious to weather. Faff to put back together though as the powder coat needs to be filed down for each vertical to press in fully.
Keep up the good work!
Some bits to report. I finally got round to changing the rear brake pads in January, they were getting low and I did briefly look at some of the more performance orientated pads but the fronts still have plenty of life in them and rear pads are only £100 so I've swapped them for now and will reconsider options when the fronts need doing.
It's a really straightforward job but I'm clumsy so tape up the surfaces for when I inevitable slip with the hammer and punch.
All done.
Also got the chance to try the dog in his throne, happy as Larry.
Then last week I dropped it off at Bamford Rose. As I mentioned it, I bought it knowing it likely needed some attention to the exhaust valves shims. DAE measured them when I had my dampers fitted but the results weren't conclusive (which was mildly terrifying to be considering engine out solutions). At the end of last year I took it to Mike at BR for a listen and he thought it was likely tappet shims out of tolerance but wouldn't know until they were measured. So this was the main purpose of dropping it off. Thankfully a few days later I had the good news "The tappet shims are now sorted. One exhaust shim on cylinder 6 was at an extremely excessive @ 0.508mm, the upper limit of tolerance is 0.27mm."
With the engine now smooth as it should be I had some of their performance upgrades done, a partial decat, an engine remap, 3-way exhaust switch and removal of the EGR system. The difference was instantly noticeable, the one inch dead travel of the throttle had gone which makes such a huge difference, the engine map itself feels superb, I believe the standard map is quite rich (to spare the life of the cats?) but with BR's tune on it it just feels so much better, more responsive, more tractable and I doubt I'm more than 10-20bhp better off but the package feels like how it always should have done and goes well with the other upgrades to the car. I had the opportunity at the same time to drive a friends car with the lightweight flywheel/clutch, manifolds and sports cats which is another step on in every area I mentioned above but it's also a very different level of cost. I'm quite content with where the car is now.
What's next? I need replace the front radiator as its past its best and the paintwork still needs a bit of attention but apart from some new front tyres it's good to go for the Spring
It's a really straightforward job but I'm clumsy so tape up the surfaces for when I inevitable slip with the hammer and punch.
All done.
Also got the chance to try the dog in his throne, happy as Larry.
Then last week I dropped it off at Bamford Rose. As I mentioned it, I bought it knowing it likely needed some attention to the exhaust valves shims. DAE measured them when I had my dampers fitted but the results weren't conclusive (which was mildly terrifying to be considering engine out solutions). At the end of last year I took it to Mike at BR for a listen and he thought it was likely tappet shims out of tolerance but wouldn't know until they were measured. So this was the main purpose of dropping it off. Thankfully a few days later I had the good news "The tappet shims are now sorted. One exhaust shim on cylinder 6 was at an extremely excessive @ 0.508mm, the upper limit of tolerance is 0.27mm."
With the engine now smooth as it should be I had some of their performance upgrades done, a partial decat, an engine remap, 3-way exhaust switch and removal of the EGR system. The difference was instantly noticeable, the one inch dead travel of the throttle had gone which makes such a huge difference, the engine map itself feels superb, I believe the standard map is quite rich (to spare the life of the cats?) but with BR's tune on it it just feels so much better, more responsive, more tractable and I doubt I'm more than 10-20bhp better off but the package feels like how it always should have done and goes well with the other upgrades to the car. I had the opportunity at the same time to drive a friends car with the lightweight flywheel/clutch, manifolds and sports cats which is another step on in every area I mentioned above but it's also a very different level of cost. I'm quite content with where the car is now.
What's next? I need replace the front radiator as its past its best and the paintwork still needs a bit of attention but apart from some new front tyres it's good to go for the Spring
Edited by olv on Friday 10th February 10:12
Love how you're evolving this car - i've taken inspiration and will be spraying the uprights on my grille silver this weekend and some spacers for the rear arrived today
The blue is stunning.. wish mine was that colour.
If you don't mind me asking - what did BR quote for the Cat change and remap? (I assume you had their 200 cell cats put on?)
Cheers
The blue is stunning.. wish mine was that colour.
If you don't mind me asking - what did BR quote for the Cat change and remap? (I assume you had their 200 cell cats put on?)
Cheers
Thanks for the replies everyone.
Krhuangbin said:
Love how you're evolving this car - i've taken inspiration and will be spraying the uprights on my grille silver this weekend and some spacers for the rear arrived today
The blue is stunning.. wish mine was that colour.
If you don't mind me asking - what did BR quote for the Cat change and remap? (I assume you had their 200 cell cats put on?)
Cheers
It's not letting me reply to you in full for some reason. I keep getting 403 Forbidden. Is talking about catalytic converters and costs banned?The blue is stunning.. wish mine was that colour.
If you don't mind me asking - what did BR quote for the Cat change and remap? (I assume you had their 200 cell cats put on?)
Cheers
Really no idea what is triggering the filter.
BR removed the primary cat on each side, I did not opt for their full sports cat, they're a bit raucously loud with the valves open. It was 2k all in for the remap, decat, exhaust switch and EGR removal which feels good value based on how it drives and compared to what VAP charge for a remap.
BR removed the primary cat on each side, I did not opt for their full sports cat, they're a bit raucously loud with the valves open. It was 2k all in for the remap, decat, exhaust switch and EGR removal which feels good value based on how it drives and compared to what VAP charge for a remap.
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