Good things come to those who wait
Discussion
I've been papped.....
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgwhbaMHUrq/?tagged=va...
(two pics there to scroll through)
So, having bored everyone to death with the common themes to our cars, time to bore you all even more, this time with the individual details pertaining to my car
Although we worked together on so much and have been communicating, it seems, almost daily for many many months, we have also each gone our separate ways to an extent when it comes to spec. But we shared literally everything with each other, so we could learn & get ideas from each other
I was considering going all frosted glass blue with a navy interior, possibly with some orange highlights and also, a deep traditional BRG with a tan interior. possibly with gold or yellow highlights
But in the end, I guess what really swung it was seeing the 'demonstator' V12 at Gaydon, in Halo. It was a manual coupe and I was blown away. I was literally sat next to it whilst discussing these different ideas, some of which reached dead ends for one reason or another. Let's just say having it there kept distracting me ! This was actually a little before the official launch at Le Mans where they showed the same car to the public, so I'm not going to say the LM24 win clinched it because I'd already agreed Halo and much of the smaller ideas at that stage, but winning certainly made me think I'd made the right choice
I also realised that the AMR cars have a huge amount of trim thrown in as standard which are normally either not available or charged for. To start again with a different scheme would work out very poor value - effectively, frosted glass blue for example, would cost the same to put on a standard vantage as on an AMR vantage, but the AMR cars already have special two tone paint jobs as standard. Same idea with the interior which on AMR includes welts, metallic leather, higher quality leather, etc but the same price to put say an all navy blue interior on an AMR through Q as on a standard vantage which has a lower price point starting interior
Essentially I decided to embrace the theme and expand upon it rather than fight it
The pics so far show much of what I did to the exterior
I kept full Halo, added the painted inner CF grille (that was a standard factory option if in the same colour as the stripe, so not through Q) and ordered the AMR wheels in satin black plus the TI exhaust (which comes with a new Cf rear blade), with the wheels & exhaust being items that have to be fitted by the factory
Graham sourced the 'old style' wheel centres in matt that don't have the silver surround and I sourced (with the help of HWM) the black wheel caps, to give the wheels a stealth look
I used Q to paint the 4 lime stripes on the rear fins that come on the CF blade, to highlight the feature, but Q then supplied the blade off the car to be fitted with the exhaust by Wilmslow. We had the common features of AMR foil to the CF side strakes and the Q badges on the wings
I deliberately decided not to go CF mirrors or rear light infills, for a variety or reasons but this post is already too long !
I wanted to get some really unique touches on the outside though. So I came up with the idea of the black painted window surround and the black mirrors with the very wide lime stripe. One reason for painting the mirrors black rather than having CF is to tie in with the window surround. The wide lime stripe is to tie in with the wide stripe on the car and also, to help look like the WEC car mirrors
I like that roof up, the windscreen surround blends in with the black hood and roof down, it keeps all the body colour below the waistline of the car, so gives an impression of the car being lower. I felt narrow stripes on the mirrors wouldnt work on mine (Graham went narrow but that ties in with the narrow stripes on some of his CF elsewhere - I don't have that) and I thought all lime caps would accentuate how large the mirrors are plus, I wanted it to be really unique
I'm overjoyed with the finished look. I'll cover the inside in a different post
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgwhbaMHUrq/?tagged=va...
(two pics there to scroll through)
So, having bored everyone to death with the common themes to our cars, time to bore you all even more, this time with the individual details pertaining to my car
Although we worked together on so much and have been communicating, it seems, almost daily for many many months, we have also each gone our separate ways to an extent when it comes to spec. But we shared literally everything with each other, so we could learn & get ideas from each other
I was considering going all frosted glass blue with a navy interior, possibly with some orange highlights and also, a deep traditional BRG with a tan interior. possibly with gold or yellow highlights
But in the end, I guess what really swung it was seeing the 'demonstator' V12 at Gaydon, in Halo. It was a manual coupe and I was blown away. I was literally sat next to it whilst discussing these different ideas, some of which reached dead ends for one reason or another. Let's just say having it there kept distracting me ! This was actually a little before the official launch at Le Mans where they showed the same car to the public, so I'm not going to say the LM24 win clinched it because I'd already agreed Halo and much of the smaller ideas at that stage, but winning certainly made me think I'd made the right choice
I also realised that the AMR cars have a huge amount of trim thrown in as standard which are normally either not available or charged for. To start again with a different scheme would work out very poor value - effectively, frosted glass blue for example, would cost the same to put on a standard vantage as on an AMR vantage, but the AMR cars already have special two tone paint jobs as standard. Same idea with the interior which on AMR includes welts, metallic leather, higher quality leather, etc but the same price to put say an all navy blue interior on an AMR through Q as on a standard vantage which has a lower price point starting interior
Essentially I decided to embrace the theme and expand upon it rather than fight it
The pics so far show much of what I did to the exterior
I kept full Halo, added the painted inner CF grille (that was a standard factory option if in the same colour as the stripe, so not through Q) and ordered the AMR wheels in satin black plus the TI exhaust (which comes with a new Cf rear blade), with the wheels & exhaust being items that have to be fitted by the factory
Graham sourced the 'old style' wheel centres in matt that don't have the silver surround and I sourced (with the help of HWM) the black wheel caps, to give the wheels a stealth look
I used Q to paint the 4 lime stripes on the rear fins that come on the CF blade, to highlight the feature, but Q then supplied the blade off the car to be fitted with the exhaust by Wilmslow. We had the common features of AMR foil to the CF side strakes and the Q badges on the wings
I deliberately decided not to go CF mirrors or rear light infills, for a variety or reasons but this post is already too long !
I wanted to get some really unique touches on the outside though. So I came up with the idea of the black painted window surround and the black mirrors with the very wide lime stripe. One reason for painting the mirrors black rather than having CF is to tie in with the window surround. The wide lime stripe is to tie in with the wide stripe on the car and also, to help look like the WEC car mirrors
I like that roof up, the windscreen surround blends in with the black hood and roof down, it keeps all the body colour below the waistline of the car, so gives an impression of the car being lower. I felt narrow stripes on the mirrors wouldnt work on mine (Graham went narrow but that ties in with the narrow stripes on some of his CF elsewhere - I don't have that) and I thought all lime caps would accentuate how large the mirrors are plus, I wanted it to be really unique
I'm overjoyed with the finished look. I'll cover the inside in a different post
Jonby , interested in your thoughts on the Ti exhaust box, I test drove the factory Coupe with the full performance pack and concluded the Ti box would be too intrusive, resonance seemed to be an issue, on the roadster especially on motorways/autoroutes etc with the hood down?
Your car looks fabulous, can’t imagine the level of patience to get that detail right, quite beyond me.
Your car looks fabulous, can’t imagine the level of patience to get that detail right, quite beyond me.
callevascm said:
Jonby , interested in your thoughts on the Ti exhaust box, I test drove the factory Coupe with the full performance pack and concluded the Ti box would be too intrusive, resonance seemed to be an issue, on the roadster especially on motorways/autoroutes etc with the hood down?
Your car looks fabulous, can’t imagine the level of patience to get that detail right, quite beyond me.
Thanks ! Its a good question on the exhaust. The problem is that it's so difficult to break down the different components to see what changes each one makes to soundYour car looks fabulous, can’t imagine the level of patience to get that detail right, quite beyond me.
If you put to one side BR type solutions which change the header manifolds & decat same, on the V12, I do believe the biggest change to volume in absolute and bang for buck terms is the rear decat
The AMR cars come out of the factory with rear decat as standard - the only other V12s that applies to are GT12, Vanquish S and Vanquish Zagato. The AMR cars also come with revised inlet manifolds, which account for the rest of the power increase
So on an AMR, apart from the CF rear blade which doesn't alter sound, you just get the titanium pipes & backbox as the other elements of the performance pack are already fitted and as I've not heard an AMR without the titanium set up, I'm not at all sure what difference the titanium box makes to an AMR car in terms of sound - anecdotally it would seem it's not that much, but I'm just not sure. I couldn't resist taking the option but I'm just not sure how much I've got in sound terms, for the money
With the AMshift switched on, the noises are insane in my set up when changing gear and the valves are fully open but with AM shift switched off, it's not too obtrusive, particularly when cruising, especially with the valves closed - I have had a simple switch fitted to override the fuse22(or whatever the current equivalent is) so I can leave fully open or closing higher up the rev range
I would have thought your best bet is to fit rear decat pipes (which are pretty cheap - significantly less than £500 and very easy to fit) and see how you find it - perhaps a worthwhile investment when you are contemplating the £15k or whatever it is for the performance pack. If you get on with that, I can't imagine you wouldn't get on with the full system. If you don't, it's not such a big spend to find out before committing to the big investment and you'll surely get some money back on the pipes
Jonby, thanks for your insight. I have already had the secondary decat and magnesium headers(manifolds) fitted plus the engine remap, I am delighted as in the cirumstances I found myself in, I “missed out” on an AMR allocated slot so, for me I got to as near as I could without it being an AMR replica. The truth is they are all great cars. I don’t think I have the patience to spend all that time with Q, you three are very special in my book.
callevascm said:
Jonby, thanks for your insight. I have already had the secondary decat and magnesium headers(manifolds) fitted plus the engine remap, I am delighted as in the cirumstances I found myself in, I “missed out” on an AMR allocated slot so, for me I got to as near as I could without it being an AMR replica. The truth is they are all great cars. I don’t think I have the patience to spend all that time with Q, you three are very special in my book.
I hadn't realised you can get the magnesium headers on their own - sounds like a fab car you have !I guess with the number of AMR cars who have taken up the Ti option, you should be able to get a direct side by side comparison to yours which will genuinely show what difference the exhaust will make - I imagine that will be of great interest to AMR owners too. What part of the country are you in ?
EDIT: I see you're in Berkshire. Wrong end of the country for me but sure there are plenty of other owners near you
Edited by jonby on Wednesday 28th March 07:48
Edited by jonby on Wednesday 28th March 07:48
Apologies for the poor quality photos - not my forte !
The first few photos show the new (I think ?) Aston presentation box that holds 2 regular keys and the emergency key, which looks pretty good, plus my custom fobs
There are some AMR fobs available in the new accessories range - as with the AMR bags and one or two other bits, Aston effectively have a small number of items made up in a custom design, but I wanted a fob with all three interior colours rather than just black/lime. Also, I didn't place any value in the fancy box that comes with the 'standard' AMR fobs, so once I went custom, I had the choice. Incidentally such are the nuances of the system, I suspect custom ordering a black/lime fob without a box as a special order may well cost as much as ordering the 'off the shelf option' which comes with a box
Once I was custom ordering anyway, I went for one in all lime too - one for each glass key.....
I do genuinely tour a lot in my car. I wasn't overly happy with the AMR luggage option - it's a small, medium & large holdall which won't all fit in the boot of a roadster at the same time (they will in a coupe, well certainly if you put one behind the seats. I could have bought the set for the small & large bags, then ordered the garment bag & beauty bag via Q, to make up the standard arrangement for a roadster boot (Marcel has come up with a different arrangement that works) but the problem was the way they have applied the three colours to the AMR holdalls doesn't lend itself to the garment & beauty bags - the way the leather is cut just wouldn't quite work
So I went totally bespoke for the full 4 piece set - essentially the black & tan are how you get a 2 colour bag set if you order through Q, but I had the welts done in lime, to replicate the interior of the car. The custom bags come with a leather 'plaque' on each side, so one says Aston Martin and the other side says Q. The lime fobs are stamped AMR.
Then I ordered one additional bag, an XL holdall. You can't use it at the same time as the rest of the luggage, but it holds well over 50% more than the next size down and I know from experience, the large holdall isn't quite big enough for a weekend but the XL definitely is - when I'm travelling alone for a couple of nights, I'd prefer to be able to get everything into one bag. Overkill - yes. But these items will genuinely get used a lot
The first few photos show the new (I think ?) Aston presentation box that holds 2 regular keys and the emergency key, which looks pretty good, plus my custom fobs
There are some AMR fobs available in the new accessories range - as with the AMR bags and one or two other bits, Aston effectively have a small number of items made up in a custom design, but I wanted a fob with all three interior colours rather than just black/lime. Also, I didn't place any value in the fancy box that comes with the 'standard' AMR fobs, so once I went custom, I had the choice. Incidentally such are the nuances of the system, I suspect custom ordering a black/lime fob without a box as a special order may well cost as much as ordering the 'off the shelf option' which comes with a box
Once I was custom ordering anyway, I went for one in all lime too - one for each glass key.....
I do genuinely tour a lot in my car. I wasn't overly happy with the AMR luggage option - it's a small, medium & large holdall which won't all fit in the boot of a roadster at the same time (they will in a coupe, well certainly if you put one behind the seats. I could have bought the set for the small & large bags, then ordered the garment bag & beauty bag via Q, to make up the standard arrangement for a roadster boot (Marcel has come up with a different arrangement that works) but the problem was the way they have applied the three colours to the AMR holdalls doesn't lend itself to the garment & beauty bags - the way the leather is cut just wouldn't quite work
So I went totally bespoke for the full 4 piece set - essentially the black & tan are how you get a 2 colour bag set if you order through Q, but I had the welts done in lime, to replicate the interior of the car. The custom bags come with a leather 'plaque' on each side, so one says Aston Martin and the other side says Q. The lime fobs are stamped AMR.
Then I ordered one additional bag, an XL holdall. You can't use it at the same time as the rest of the luggage, but it holds well over 50% more than the next size down and I know from experience, the large holdall isn't quite big enough for a weekend but the XL definitely is - when I'm travelling alone for a couple of nights, I'd prefer to be able to get everything into one bag. Overkill - yes. But these items will genuinely get used a lot
jonby said:
callevascm said:
Jonby, thanks for your insight. I have already had the secondary decat and magnesium headers(manifolds) fitted plus the engine remap, I am delighted as in the cirumstances I found myself in, I “missed out” on an AMR allocated slot so, for me I got to as near as I could without it being an AMR replica. The truth is they are all great cars. I don’t think I have the patience to spend all that time with Q, you three are very special in my book.
I hadn't realised you can get the magnesium headers on their own - sounds like a fab car you have !Don't you mean magnesium inlet manifolds ?
ds666 said:
jonby said:
callevascm said:
Jonby, thanks for your insight. I have already had the secondary decat and magnesium headers(manifolds) fitted plus the engine remap, I am delighted as in the cirumstances I found myself in, I “missed out” on an AMR allocated slot so, for me I got to as near as I could without it being an AMR replica. The truth is they are all great cars. I don’t think I have the patience to spend all that time with Q, you three are very special in my book.
I hadn't realised you can get the magnesium headers on their own - sounds like a fab car you have !Don't you mean magnesium inlet manifolds ?
jonby said:
Apologies for the poor quality photos - not my forte !
The first few photos show the new (I think ?) Aston presentation box that holds 2 regular keys and the emergency key, which looks pretty good, plus my custom fobs
There are some AMR fobs available in the new accessories range - as with the AMR bags and one or two other bits, Aston effectively have a small number of items made up in a custom design, but I wanted a fob with all three interior colours rather than just black/lime. Also, I didn't place any value in the fancy box that comes with the 'standard' AMR fobs, so once I went custom, I had the choice. Incidentally such are the nuances of the system, I suspect custom ordering a black/lime fob without a box as a special order may well cost as much as ordering the 'off the shelf option' which comes with a box
Once I was custom ordering anyway, I went for one in all lime too - one for each glass key.....
I do genuinely tour a lot in my car. I wasn't overly happy with the AMR luggage option - it's a small, medium & large holdall which won't all fit in the boot of a roadster at the same time (they will in a coupe, well certainly if you put one behind the seats. I could have bought the set for the small & large bags, then ordered the garment bag & beauty bag via Q, to make up the standard arrangement for a roadster boot (Marcel has come up with a different arrangement that works) but the problem was the way they have applied the three colours to the AMR holdalls doesn't lend itself to the garment & beauty bags - the way the leather is cut just wouldn't quite work
So I went totally bespoke for the full 4 piece set - essentially the black & tan are how you get a 2 colour bag set if you order through Q, but I had the welts done in lime, to replicate the interior of the car. The custom bags come with a leather 'plaque' on each side, so one says Aston Martin and the other side says Q. The lime fobs are stamped AMR.
Then I ordered one additional bag, an XL holdall. You can't use it at the same time as the rest of the luggage, but it holds well over 50% more than the next size down and I know from experience, the large holdall isn't quite big enough for a weekend but the XL definitely is - when I'm travelling alone for a couple of nights, I'd prefer to be able to get everything into one bag. Overkill - yes. But these items will genuinely get used a lot
Its like Christmas and Birthday all in one with so many presents to play with and try out. I think its great. Would love the luggage set and if you can then why not. Good fun and I'm sure will bring a smile everything you look/use them. Its lovely to see such enthusiasm and enjoyment. You cant take it with you hence enjoy it when you can. Big thumbs up. The first few photos show the new (I think ?) Aston presentation box that holds 2 regular keys and the emergency key, which looks pretty good, plus my custom fobs
There are some AMR fobs available in the new accessories range - as with the AMR bags and one or two other bits, Aston effectively have a small number of items made up in a custom design, but I wanted a fob with all three interior colours rather than just black/lime. Also, I didn't place any value in the fancy box that comes with the 'standard' AMR fobs, so once I went custom, I had the choice. Incidentally such are the nuances of the system, I suspect custom ordering a black/lime fob without a box as a special order may well cost as much as ordering the 'off the shelf option' which comes with a box
Once I was custom ordering anyway, I went for one in all lime too - one for each glass key.....
I do genuinely tour a lot in my car. I wasn't overly happy with the AMR luggage option - it's a small, medium & large holdall which won't all fit in the boot of a roadster at the same time (they will in a coupe, well certainly if you put one behind the seats. I could have bought the set for the small & large bags, then ordered the garment bag & beauty bag via Q, to make up the standard arrangement for a roadster boot (Marcel has come up with a different arrangement that works) but the problem was the way they have applied the three colours to the AMR holdalls doesn't lend itself to the garment & beauty bags - the way the leather is cut just wouldn't quite work
So I went totally bespoke for the full 4 piece set - essentially the black & tan are how you get a 2 colour bag set if you order through Q, but I had the welts done in lime, to replicate the interior of the car. The custom bags come with a leather 'plaque' on each side, so one says Aston Martin and the other side says Q. The lime fobs are stamped AMR.
Then I ordered one additional bag, an XL holdall. You can't use it at the same time as the rest of the luggage, but it holds well over 50% more than the next size down and I know from experience, the large holdall isn't quite big enough for a weekend but the XL definitely is - when I'm travelling alone for a couple of nights, I'd prefer to be able to get everything into one bag. Overkill - yes. But these items will genuinely get used a lot
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