V8V lowest speed in gears?

[ian_uk1975]

Picked my manual 4.3 V8V up at the weekend and one of the things that has surprised me is how tractable the engine is from very low RPM in the higher gears. It also gives an odd impression of sounding like it's spinning faster than it is. Just wondering what folks treat as minimum speeds for 4th/5th/6th gear? Even going down to 35-40mph in 6th, the engine doesn't feel like it's labouring at all.

[nickv8]

Agreed - you always sound faster than you are (which can induce stalling on reverse!). Useful for (A) pretending you're as fast as a Nissan GTR and (B) keeping hold of your license and freedom

I've used 6th at 30mph with no issue. Even though the engine (4.7 in my case) lack torque to make it a true rocket ship, it's never at the detriment of usability or smiles/miles!

[bogie]

Considering that many armchair experts slate the 10 yr old 4.3 vantage as "not powerful enough" or "lack of torque" then as you have found, its surprisingly flexible. No issue at all with it in top at 30mph. Naturally theres not much go for overtaking at that speed, but it runs fine

[Manx V8V]

Same here, i'm impressed at how my 4.3 will trundle along in top gear at around 30mph without any feeling of labouring, ok it wont do a great deal if you put your foot down hard in that configuration but it seems quite happy to roll along smoothly.

[Jon39]

Not V8, but a point related to your topic, because it does involve lowest speed in gears.

If you have the opportunity to go to Millbrook, they will let you drive a V12 at just a crawl in 5th gear. You then floor the accelerator and reach 160 mph without changing gear. With that engine, doing the same again, but using all the gears, only adds about 5mph to the terminal speed.

[johns355]

When I was on my "selling drive" of my current V8VR the sales guy never touched the throttle and went from first though to sixth, great pub talk! Obviously I bought the car!

[XLR Motorsport]

I was contemplating this when I was out in mine on Sunday (4.7).

Before the positive pregnancy test several years back (the wife, not me!) I had an Audi S5 as my daily, which was the 4.2 V8. Instinctively I'd drive around town at 30mph with it in 6th gear effortlessly. It became second nature.

But the V8V just doesn't seem as comfortable doing that. It's not labouring but I can definitely feel it giving me an evil sideways glance.

Maybe it's psychological though. The S5 was a bit more refined and used every day whereas the Aston is a weekend novelty that's much more brutal when it boils down to driving style. Saying that, iirc the S5 was "get up and go" if you put your foot down at 30mph in 6th.

[bogie]

I would think the V8V gearing is longer than an Audi S5

The V8V is over 200mph in 6th ......