Inspired or idiotic? "Cheap" V8 Vantage
Discussion
Nigel_O said:
so you've got a month left of being frivolous?
Get out there and buy one before you have to go all sensible.....
Yes, easy in theory but I already have an original quattro, a Caterham race car and a Mk2 Escort rally car!Get out there and buy one before you have to go all sensible.....
How frivolous can only bloke be?? Doesn’t stop me wanting an R8 or AMV8, though!
Nigel_O said:
I'd say that a Vantage is the height of responsibilty compared with your current fleet - SWMBO might even think you're calming down..... ;-)
Not sure about that!And I keep telling her that the quattro, Caterham and Escort are all worth more than I paid for them……always works until she reminds me how much I have spent on maintenance over the years (and she doesn’t know the half of it) and that I crashed the Escort on a rally last December which cost a few £ to repair!!!
Great write up and well done for getting a good example.
If you are a Youtube fan....there are some well know US youtubers who have Astons in their collection:
Hoovies garage and Tavarish are worth checking out.
I think your era of Astons was the best period for car design: your car has 'presence' that not many modern cars have IMO.
As a past Alfa owner, ( a 156 TS 1.8 followed by a 156 JTDM 150 ( remapped) I am sure you are used to shelling out on Italian cars...I know I was !
But I would imaging that your Aston will appreciate, especially as you are improving it all the time.
I have just gone back to a mint 20 year old BMW E46 after trying the 'modern car' route... i bought a very low mileage diesel Volvo C30 for mainly economy reasons, but with all those sensors/DPF issues etc I wanted to go back to the build quality of a year 2002 BMW.
Keep the photos/updates on the Aston coming.
If you are a Youtube fan....there are some well know US youtubers who have Astons in their collection:
Hoovies garage and Tavarish are worth checking out.
I think your era of Astons was the best period for car design: your car has 'presence' that not many modern cars have IMO.
As a past Alfa owner, ( a 156 TS 1.8 followed by a 156 JTDM 150 ( remapped) I am sure you are used to shelling out on Italian cars...I know I was !
But I would imaging that your Aston will appreciate, especially as you are improving it all the time.
I have just gone back to a mint 20 year old BMW E46 after trying the 'modern car' route... i bought a very low mileage diesel Volvo C30 for mainly economy reasons, but with all those sensors/DPF issues etc I wanted to go back to the build quality of a year 2002 BMW.
Keep the photos/updates on the Aston coming.
A long time since the last update, but mainly because I haven't used it very much. The Aston is sometimes kept in my small garage and sometimes on the drive under a cover. It's usually easier to take SWMBO's Volvo XC60, rather than faff about getting the Aston out....
Anyway - one recent improvement. The grille has a few light scratches which have always irritated me. To be honest, they can't really be seen from a couple of yards away, but I knew they were there. I tried to get the grille apart to polish the slats a year or so ago, but it didn't co-operate. At the time, I didn't want to force it and break something.
After the very nice people at Aston Martin Bits relieved me of yet another chunk of my reserve fund, a shiny new grille arrived and was very quickly fitted.
This left me with a slightly scruffy, but intact grille. I know that the slats sell for a few quid on Ebay (as they have a habit of falling out). So - I thought I'd have a crack at polishing them. A bit of assistance from a rubber mallet had eight slats and seven intact uprights on my bench, which I then polished up with a mop in a bench grinder.
Before:
After:
There's still some scratches, but it's a lot cleaner than it was. To be honest, if I'd known I could get the old grille cleaned up this well, I probably wouldn't have bought a new one... Still, the old one is on Ebay now so I might recoup a bit of the outlay.
Anyway - one recent improvement. The grille has a few light scratches which have always irritated me. To be honest, they can't really be seen from a couple of yards away, but I knew they were there. I tried to get the grille apart to polish the slats a year or so ago, but it didn't co-operate. At the time, I didn't want to force it and break something.
After the very nice people at Aston Martin Bits relieved me of yet another chunk of my reserve fund, a shiny new grille arrived and was very quickly fitted.
This left me with a slightly scruffy, but intact grille. I know that the slats sell for a few quid on Ebay (as they have a habit of falling out). So - I thought I'd have a crack at polishing them. A bit of assistance from a rubber mallet had eight slats and seven intact uprights on my bench, which I then polished up with a mop in a bench grinder.
Before:
After:
There's still some scratches, but it's a lot cleaner than it was. To be honest, if I'd known I could get the old grille cleaned up this well, I probably wouldn't have bought a new one... Still, the old one is on Ebay now so I might recoup a bit of the outlay.
Long overdue update....
Absolutely nothing has gone wrong. It's behaving perfectly. I've driven it quite a bit and enjoyed every mile. Not much of an update, I'll grant you, but the utter relaibility is extremely welcome.
Only three bits of maintenance:
1) New HID bulbs, as one of them was going yellow and dim. Should have been an easy job, but one of the riv-nuts for the wheelarch liner spun in the chassis, so it turned into a three-hour task. I have a riv-nut tool from my kit car days, so once the knackered old one was out, replacement was easy.
2) The doors would only just stay open on level ground on a warm day. Throw in a bit of a slope or some cold temperatures and they would close themselves. £56 on a pair of genuine Aston door gas struts and an hour fiddling in the wheelarches had that fixed. Doors now stay open even when facing uphill.
3) I also did a precautionary battery swap. The old one was appeared to be fine and had never given any problems, but on checking, I found it was dated 2015. Hailing from Yorkshire, I'd normally wait for a battery to exhibit signs of tiredness before replacing. However, SWMBO needed a battery to power her electric fence to keep her horse in its field. We were going to buy a cheap car battery from Halfords, when I twigged I use the horse fence as an excuse to get a new battery for the Aston and donate the old Aston battery to the wife. I know - all heart.... Callum / Fisker should be applauded for the timless body design, but whoever designed those f****ing battery clamps needs to be beaten to a pulp with a knobbly stick full of rusty nails - what a rubbish bit of engineering....
Other than that, its just been a case of driving it, which I did a lot of last weekend.... entertaining 240 mile round trip into North Wales and back - used a whole tank of Super U/L and averaged just over 19mpg
V8 Vantage on Hirnant Pass by Nigel Ogram, on Flickr
Absolutely nothing has gone wrong. It's behaving perfectly. I've driven it quite a bit and enjoyed every mile. Not much of an update, I'll grant you, but the utter relaibility is extremely welcome.
Only three bits of maintenance:
1) New HID bulbs, as one of them was going yellow and dim. Should have been an easy job, but one of the riv-nuts for the wheelarch liner spun in the chassis, so it turned into a three-hour task. I have a riv-nut tool from my kit car days, so once the knackered old one was out, replacement was easy.
2) The doors would only just stay open on level ground on a warm day. Throw in a bit of a slope or some cold temperatures and they would close themselves. £56 on a pair of genuine Aston door gas struts and an hour fiddling in the wheelarches had that fixed. Doors now stay open even when facing uphill.
3) I also did a precautionary battery swap. The old one was appeared to be fine and had never given any problems, but on checking, I found it was dated 2015. Hailing from Yorkshire, I'd normally wait for a battery to exhibit signs of tiredness before replacing. However, SWMBO needed a battery to power her electric fence to keep her horse in its field. We were going to buy a cheap car battery from Halfords, when I twigged I use the horse fence as an excuse to get a new battery for the Aston and donate the old Aston battery to the wife. I know - all heart.... Callum / Fisker should be applauded for the timless body design, but whoever designed those f****ing battery clamps needs to be beaten to a pulp with a knobbly stick full of rusty nails - what a rubbish bit of engineering....
Other than that, its just been a case of driving it, which I did a lot of last weekend.... entertaining 240 mile round trip into North Wales and back - used a whole tank of Super U/L and averaged just over 19mpg
V8 Vantage on Hirnant Pass by Nigel Ogram, on FlickrMegaflow said:
Stop it.
I have a really bad hankering for one of these and your stories of bullet proof reliability and the prospect of zero depreciation are not helping!
LOL - I waited slightly too long and prices firmed while I was prevaricating. In the end, I paid £30k, rather than the £25k that entry-level cars were fetching pre-Covid.I have a really bad hankering for one of these and your stories of bullet proof reliability and the prospect of zero depreciation are not helping!
I was worried about the lack of performance often mentioned for the 4.3. Sure, it’s not ballistic, but it’s still a quick car and with less than 400bhp more of the performance can be used more of the time. It also sounds like it has 1000bhp - the noise is truly addictive at any speed.
Just do it - there probably isn’t a better time…
Megaflow said:
I’ve been thinking about it for a while, back when the bottom end of the market was £30k, so now it is back to £30k I don’t really see as I have lost out.
I had stopped thinking about them, then I saw one at a local show, and this thread has me thinking impure thoughts again
Like Nigel says - just do it. I was absolutely terrified and “what have a done” when I bought my entry level one last year.... it’s been absolutely good as gold, apart from one or two extremely minor niggles that have been sorted out for about 10 pence and a quick question in the AM forum on here I had stopped thinking about them, then I saw one at a local show, and this thread has me thinking impure thoughts again
They are just the best cars
Edited by Krhuangbin on Sunday 4th June 22:25
therealsamdailly said:
Saw you cruising through Uttoxeter a couple of weeks ago, looking/sounding absolutely lovely. I'm such a nerd a noted the reg in my phone
LOL - thanks! Whilst it sounds epic as it closes in on 7,000rpm, I also like the ‘lazy’ V8 burble at <30mph. It’s almost as enjoyable driving it at 2/10 as it is at 9/10 and clearly, the ‘lack of power’ of the 4.3 ceases to be an issue.I suppose it was an inevitable consequence of buying a 'cheap' Aston Martin...
The car has gone in for a service and MOT. Because its the 70,000 mile service, it will have gearbox oil and spark plugs, on top of all the usual filters and 10 litres of oil. That is going to be the thick end of £1,400.
On top of this, I've OK'd aux belts and tensioners, for another £375. There's also a couple of other bits to do, so I reckon it'll be around £2k by the time we're done.
That's the good news.... (it worries me that I've got tto the point of treating a £2k service as 'good news'...)
When I bought the car, I knew the rear subframe was looking a bit brown. For some reason, in the last two years it hasn't got any better, so it now looks like this:
So - it needs removing, shotblasting and powder coating. It's almost inevitable that some fixings will be rusted solid, so it will need other bits as well.
It will also need new suspension fairly soon. The (in)famous Aston Dynamics shocks were fairly poor when they were new and 17 years and 65,000 miles haven't been kind to them. It is now fairly under-damped, which is not an issue when cruising around at 'normal' speeds, but it gets a bit unruly when pressing on. Again, something I was aware of when I bought the car, so no great surprise there.
Other than that, there's a mention of clutch being towards the end of its life (which might be another 5+ years with the mileage I'm doing) and it also needs rear discs and pads (I class these as DIY, as they really aren't difficult.
So - the next 12 months will probably see a £5k dent in my emergency fund, but the money has been sitting there for two years without being touched, so I count myself fairly lucky.
Most importantly however, it's still a joy to look at, listen to and drive around.
The car has gone in for a service and MOT. Because its the 70,000 mile service, it will have gearbox oil and spark plugs, on top of all the usual filters and 10 litres of oil. That is going to be the thick end of £1,400.
On top of this, I've OK'd aux belts and tensioners, for another £375. There's also a couple of other bits to do, so I reckon it'll be around £2k by the time we're done.
That's the good news.... (it worries me that I've got tto the point of treating a £2k service as 'good news'...)
When I bought the car, I knew the rear subframe was looking a bit brown. For some reason, in the last two years it hasn't got any better, so it now looks like this:
So - it needs removing, shotblasting and powder coating. It's almost inevitable that some fixings will be rusted solid, so it will need other bits as well.
It will also need new suspension fairly soon. The (in)famous Aston Dynamics shocks were fairly poor when they were new and 17 years and 65,000 miles haven't been kind to them. It is now fairly under-damped, which is not an issue when cruising around at 'normal' speeds, but it gets a bit unruly when pressing on. Again, something I was aware of when I bought the car, so no great surprise there.
Other than that, there's a mention of clutch being towards the end of its life (which might be another 5+ years with the mileage I'm doing) and it also needs rear discs and pads (I class these as DIY, as they really aren't difficult.
So - the next 12 months will probably see a £5k dent in my emergency fund, but the money has been sitting there for two years without being touched, so I count myself fairly lucky.
Most importantly however, it's still a joy to look at, listen to and drive around.
When I bought my old V12 vantage from HWM in 2020 I had them undertake their ACf50 chassis treatment before collection.
I wasn’t expecting much however it worked remarkably well. I only had the car for 18months or so but the PPI the subsequent buyer undertook showed the surface rust has been completely stabilised, at least from the outside.
In fact, it looked just like it did in the post application photos on Day 1. A very dark brown colour.
Might be worth a go yourself if you can hire a ramp or back it into plastic ramps.
Note, having used ACF50 on my own driveway, I’d exercise caution re overspray as it stains block paving and tarmac. Hence my preference for Lanoguard.
Longevity wise, I would say they’re equal.
I wasn’t expecting much however it worked remarkably well. I only had the car for 18months or so but the PPI the subsequent buyer undertook showed the surface rust has been completely stabilised, at least from the outside.
In fact, it looked just like it did in the post application photos on Day 1. A very dark brown colour.
Might be worth a go yourself if you can hire a ramp or back it into plastic ramps.
Note, having used ACF50 on my own driveway, I’d exercise caution re overspray as it stains block paving and tarmac. Hence my preference for Lanoguard.
Longevity wise, I would say they’re equal.
When I bought the car back in October’21, I knew the subframe was a bit rusty and I also knew it was on its original shocks. I was therefore pretty certain that I’d have to spend some serious cash at some point. I had the cash put aside, but I was trying to stretch it out a bit.
The service at Bamford Rose confirmed what I already knew - the subframe needed sorting before another winter put it beyond a refurb and the shocks were tired enough that they were affecting the ride quality at anything other than a gentle cruise.
I accept that refurbishing a subframe on a ‘cheap’ Vantage doesn’t cost any less than on a much later car worth two or three times as much, but BR’s policy of ‘renew everything’ was just a bit to far for me. Additionally, BR’s suspension solution was 20%+ of the value of the car, so that idea was quickly dropped.
Extensive reading of the Aston sub-forum pointed me towards the Nitron road suspension from David Appleby Engineering, so I’ve bitten the bullet and dropped the car to them for the subframe refurb and new shocks all round. Should get it back in four weeks.
The service at Bamford Rose confirmed what I already knew - the subframe needed sorting before another winter put it beyond a refurb and the shocks were tired enough that they were affecting the ride quality at anything other than a gentle cruise.
I accept that refurbishing a subframe on a ‘cheap’ Vantage doesn’t cost any less than on a much later car worth two or three times as much, but BR’s policy of ‘renew everything’ was just a bit to far for me. Additionally, BR’s suspension solution was 20%+ of the value of the car, so that idea was quickly dropped.
Extensive reading of the Aston sub-forum pointed me towards the Nitron road suspension from David Appleby Engineering, so I’ve bitten the bullet and dropped the car to them for the subframe refurb and new shocks all round. Should get it back in four weeks.
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