H&T throttle peddle - why did AML not do this?

[V8V Pete]

Forum member Mansfield recently sold his Vantage and took some of his mods off to sell separately: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

One of these was a Heel & Toe throttle pedal that I have purchased and fitted to my manual Vantage S. Pictures below:



|https://thumbsnap.com/ce12VDqt[/url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/zFy4khgk[/url]

It is a very good quality item matching the OEM pedals. The only one I've seen before is on the BR race car which I think was made of a piece of plywood so didn't appeal to me that much. The new pedal arrangement is excellent and whilst previously I could only H&T (unreliably) in my wide chunky boots, it is now much easier.

My question is why didn't AML arrange the pedals closer together? What is the disadvantage? Anyway, if anyone else with a manual Vantage wants one it is made by Ultimate Pedals: https://www.ultimatepedals.com/aston_martin/vantag...

[wtdoom]

This reminds of a magical day I had at porsche a few years ago . Obviously accidentally Invited to this event I found myself on the dinner table with Michael Hoelscher and A couple of other porsche bigwigs . One of the people on my table was a fellow Carrera gt customer and he complained about the heel and toe ability of the Cgt , Hoelscher (project chief of Cgt) replied quite politely that the car was set up by Walter rohrl and thus it was probably a matter of technique rather than pedal placement .

Later (in this 918 presentation dinner thingy) a Walter Rohrl (I presume after some shandy’s) proceeded to tell us that the Carrera gt was a car for men and your granny could drive the 918 to the absolute horror of the porsche marketing men , it was priceless

[V8V Pete]

wtdoom said:

........the Carrera GT was set up by Walter rohrl and thus it was probably a matter of technique rather than pedal placement .

Maybe, but unless Walter Rohlr has the widest feet in the world even the very best technique wouldn't reliably bridge the gap in the Vantage. My question remains, what is the downside? I bet there's some kind of "safety" legislation that prescribes a minimum distance between the brake and throttle pedals. Not sure why but I suspect it must be something like that.

[telum01]

The V8 Vantage isn't exactly a good car to heel-toe. The factory throttle response is terrible for performance driving and it makes heel-toe in the car a bit impractical.

[divetheworld]

Absolutely. I managed to get the throttle pedal from a set of Sparco Reflex pedals to fit. Didn't take much. Improved the driving experience no end.

[V8V Pete]

telum01 said:

The V8 Vantage isn't exactly a good car to heel-toe. The factory throttle response is terrible for performance driving and it makes heel-toe in the car a bit impractical.

Yes, all true but I'm not the only one with a dual plate clutch, lightweight flywheel and remapped throttle pedal which transforms it from that point of view and makes H&T a viable and pleasing addition to the dying art of driving a manual performance car. Anyone seen the Henry Catchpole video on the subject. Might feature a certain Porsche but the point is well made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUCdAdaaj8&t=...

[telum01]

V8V Pete said:

Yes, all true but I'm not the only one with a dual plate clutch, lightweight flywheel and remapped throttle pedal which transforms it from that point of view and makes H&T a viable and pleasing addition to the dying art of driving a manual performance car. Anyone seen the Henry Catchpole video on the subject. Might feature a certain Porsche but the point is well made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUCdAdaaj8&t=...

You're absolutely right - all that can be done and it makes a huge difference. I've beaten that horse quite a bit over the years, and wrote an article about it a while back:
https://www.redpants.lol/power-mods-2-0508-v8-vant...

Problem is, most people haven't made all those changes to their cars and think a pedal will solve all the issues and make it far easier. The wider pedal does make it easier to manage as far as your feet are concerned, but the pedal alone doesn't fix the throttle issue that many people don't realize is holding the engine back.

[V8V Pete]

We're definitely singing from the same hymn sheet Rich

[TR-Spider]

V8V Pete said:

Yes, all true but I'm not the only one with a dual plate clutch, lightweight flywheel and remapped throttle pedal which transforms it from that point of view and makes H&T a viable and pleasing addition to the dying art of driving a manual performance car. Anyone seen the Henry Catchpole video on the subject. Might feature a certain Porsche but the point is well made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUCdAdaaj8&t=...

Great piece of work. HC is one of the finest motoring jounalists out there - his love for the Vantage is just the icing on the cake...

On the topic - extending the throttle pedal was one of the first modifications I did to my Vantage, and it certainly helped.
Changing the shifter was the next one - maybe depends on your personal physiognomie, but the shifter location never felt right to me.
Which I thought was a pity, as the seating and steering position in the Vantage is superb for me.
It's all small pieces, but they make the whole picture of interacting with the car complete.

Looking ahead to get that lightweight clutch some day, and a mapping...

Thomas

[Cold]

£70 part that needs over £3000 of modifications to be properly useful. Fine if you're adding it after you've done some spending but fairly pointless on its own.

[telum01]

TR-Spider said:

Great piece of work. HC is one of the finest motoring jounalists out there - his love for the Vantage is just the icing on the cake...

On the topic - extending the throttle pedal was one of the first modifications I did to my Vantage, and it certainly helped.
Changing the shifter was the next one - maybe depends on your personal physiognomie, but the shifter location never felt right to me.
Which I thought was a pity, as the seating and steering position in the Vantage is superb for me.
It's all small pieces, but they make the whole picture of interacting with the car complete.

Looking ahead to get that lightweight clutch some day, and a mapping...

Thomas

Absolutely agree about HC, he's fantastic and I love his work.

Can you share more info about the shifter location change? The only change I can think of is to shorten the shift throw length. I've only had maybe two people ask me about whether there's an option for that, and I've never looked too far into it because 1) not much of a market for it, and 2) I'm worried about over-shifting and breaking a shifter cable, as people (myself included) are used to a given shift throw length, so over-shifting wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence, and breaking a shifter cable can leave you stranded (which I've done).

[TR-Spider]

telum01 said:

Absolutely agree about HC, he's fantastic and I love his work.

Can you share more info about the shifter location change? The only change I can think of is to shorten the shift throw length. I've only had maybe two people ask me about whether there's an option for that, and I've never looked too far into it because 1) not much of a market for it, and 2) I'm worried about over-shifting and breaking a shifter cable, as people (myself included) are used to a given shift throw length, so over-shifting wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence, and breaking a shifter cable can leave you stranded (which I've done).

My main issue was the gearknob too far back for my liking.
Especially the 3rd --> 2nd gear didnt match at all with my mountain driving habits.
You can find the documentation answer to question2 here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...


Thomas

Edited by TR-Spider on Friday 10th August 11:57

[V8V Pete]

Cold said:

£70 part that needs over £3000 of modifications to be properly useful. Fine if you're adding it after you've done some spending but fairly pointless on its own.

Thanks for your contribution

The total cost of the mods to make MY Vantage exactly as I want it is way over £3000 so far so I'll be fine thanks

[telum01]

V8V Pete said:

The total cost of the mods to make MY Vantage exactly as I want it is way over £3000 so far so I'll be fine thanks

I refuse to add up the money I've put into mine!!

[Cold]

V8V Pete said:

Thanks for your contribution

The total cost of the mods to make MY Vantage exactly as I want it is way over £3000 so far so I'll be fine thanks

What's with the snarky face? It was a perfectly valid comment as the lethargic throttle response is well known.
Without spending considerable sums of money to firstly alleviate that you're not going to get much satisfaction from h&t no matter comfortable the pedal layout.

[V8V Pete]

telum01 said:

I refuse to add up the money I've put into mine!!

Definitely the best approach Rich! You can't put a price on happiness

[divetheworld]

Cold said:

What's with the snarky face? It was a perfectly valid comment as the lethargic throttle response is well known.
Without spending considerable sums of money to firstly alleviate that you're not going to get much satisfaction from h&t no matter comfortable the pedal layout.

Wasn't there a gadget called "Pedalbox" or Sprintbooster that increased the throttle body speed? I wonder if they would make any improvement to the drivability.

[telum01]

divetheworld said:

Wasn't there a gadget called "Pedalbox" or Sprintbooster that increased the throttle body speed? I wonder if they would make any improvement to the drivability.

I've seen things like that from other companies. Back when I was beating Subarus, Nissans, and Mazdas with a hammer, there was a company called Blitz (probably still around) that offered a plug-and-play throttle adjustment module like that.

Changing the throttle mapping can be done with tuning, which is what I always recommend to people. Makes a pretty big difference, but needs to be done in balance. For example, making it very responsive at low RPMs can make the throttle super-twitchy at low speeds, which makes it a pain to drive smoothly.