Inspired or idiotic? "Cheap" V8 Vantage

Inspired or idiotic? "Cheap" V8 Vantage

Author
Discussion

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Friday 28th January 2022
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Great looking car Nigel. thumbup

Not tame at all! Life's too short to end up with "what ifs". If you want it go for it.



Edited by Mr Tidy on Friday 28th January 22:55

StonedRollin

1,671 posts

209 months

Friday 28th January 2022
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Superb. I'm in.

outnumbered

4,067 posts

233 months

Friday 28th January 2022
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Lovely car, and excellent pictures as well.

Fury RS

463 posts

181 months

Saturday 29th January 2022
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I'm in toosmile. Time for a Weekend Toy for me again after 4 years without. Watching with much interestthumbup
Car looks lovely, good luck with it.


Edited by Fury RS on Saturday 29th January 13:32

matty13

111 posts

157 months

Saturday 29th January 2022
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Im very tempted to trade my z4m coupe in and get one of these.
I will keep an eye on this tread.
Enjoy the car - it looks great

monthou

4,545 posts

49 months

Saturday 29th January 2022
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That looks absolutely fantastic!
Good luck.

Jim on the hill

5,072 posts

189 months

Saturday 29th January 2022
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Fantastic thread, definitely one of the best looking things on the road. Well done.

r1ch

2,867 posts

195 months

Saturday 29th January 2022
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Yep you’re doing it right op, well done. Look forward to the updates, looks excellent.

Nigel_O

Original Poster:

2,858 posts

218 months

Friday 18th March 2022
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Update

Just got the car back from the rather capable people at Aston Engineering in Derby. Surrounded by all manner of pre-Gaydon cars, my lowly V8V was probably the cheapest car there.

However, I really wanted a thorough check-over by people that really know what they are doing, and I’m guessing a factory-accredited heritage workshop fits that bill.

So, I was slightly worried that as well as a full service, they were going to find something I wasn’t prepared for.

I was right - they found something….. thankfully, it was confined to evidence of a really low speed bump on the near side front corner. The headlamp adjuster had been broken and the near side air box was cracked. A new adjuster was about fifty quid and they managed to plastic-weld the air box, so it cost very little, especially as they were already in that area to replace the air filters.

They also bled the brakes and clutch, commenting that the fluid was really black. Sadly, it hasn’t solved the soft pedal feel when it’s taken to the redline, but the pedal feel is generally a bit better and it doesn’t slip, so it can wait for a while.

They also spotted a slight weep of air con fluid around the condenser, so I guess I’ll have to budget for one pretty soon. Today was the first warm-ish day since I bought the car and the air con was only slightly cool - one to be done before summer, I think. Looks like a condenser is about £400, so not too bad compared with some AM parts prices.

So - I’m £1,200 lighter, but I now have a car that I’m confident is not a lemon - a good feeling.

Finally, the fuel consumption has been pretty awful. A lot of the driving has been local, and, erm, “enthusiastic” so the last tank was 16.3 mpg. £1.60 per litre means about 45p per mile, but I really don’t care - every journey is such an event.

Future developments will be something to hook the phone into the car for music streaming and phone calls - some kind of Bluetooth box of tricks. Also going to do a full paint correction, as it’s very swirly and has a few scratches - waiting for some warmer weather first though…

DanG355

526 posts

200 months

Friday 18th March 2022
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Bet it was a relief to get away with a £1,200 bill? Might sound a strange comment, but given the list of issues you listed when you bought it I was wondering what may be lurking beneath.

Fair play, you took it to the professionals and it seems a good car with what really amount to minor issues to fix.

Weather this weekend is looking good so hope you can get out and enjoy it - and treat some fellow petrol heads to the glorious sound of that V8.

Court_S

12,764 posts

176 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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That looks lovely and it’s a nice colour combo. Those pictures from the Elan Valley are brilliant.

Good to hear that it’s not a lemon either.

MB140

4,027 posts

102 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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OP, bloody lovely car. I’ve always been looking at one of these but with a 120 mile commute 20mpg just won’t cut it.

Hope she gives you years of joy and doesn’t try and break the bank to often.

jwwbowe

571 posts

171 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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Brilliant OP, doing what many of us haven’t had the b******s to do. Hope it works out, it’s an absolute beauty, they sound awesome. Keep the posts up thumbup

trails

3,624 posts

148 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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Don’t blame you getting the car checks over in the way you have, that money buys lots peace of mind smile

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Sunday 20th March 2022
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Well it's good to hear the service wasn't too painful. thumbup

When you car looks that beautiful and has a great V8 soundtrack fuel consumption is just a number!

Enjoy driving

tintopracer

139 posts

166 months

Monday 21st March 2022
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This has made a great read. Fingers crossed that no big bills come your way.

Rory1984

35 posts

127 months

Monday 21st March 2022
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Great work! I was torn between this and a GT but really needed 4 seats.

I therefore did the same with a Granturismo and whilst there have been ups and downs, nothing replaces a good blast, especially in this current weather.

Opted for a very cheap and cheerful bluetooth transmitter for now as headunit upgrades seem to be £1k - works fine until i bite the bullet.

Enjoy!


LanceRS

2,171 posts

136 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2022
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Quite possibly the best looking car ever made.

The last couple of years have shown us that you never know what life has in store for us. As such many of us are starting to take a bit more of a ‘seize the moment’ mentality, rather than the usual attempt at being a responsible adult.
I hope that this keeps you happy for many years to come.

Nigel_O

Original Poster:

2,858 posts

218 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2022
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Chatted with the very helpful people at Aston Installations yesterday.

Firstly, I have to admit to not listening to much music when I'm driving. Even when I was tooling around in my mega-mile Alfa GT diesel, I'd often drive for several hours without the radio or CD. Now that I have a tuneful V8 to listen to, I'm even less likely to have any music playing.

So - there's no way I'm spending close to £2k to have the full Apple CarPlay gubbins fitted - OK, it would be great to be able to use the inbuilt satnav screen to show Waze from my phone, but I've survived many years with a phone in a holder on the dash, so I'll continue with my cheapskate ways for now.

However, AI also do a Dension / Bovee set up for about £675 fitted - still a chunk of money, but somewhat easier to justify than the full CarPlay solution. From what I can see, the Dension is about £300 retail anyway and the Bovee another £80 on top, so it's a fairly decent price. Seeing as I haven't had a nasty surprise with the service bill, I might splash out a bit (or my Yorkshire ways might prevail and I'll keep the money for when the inevitable big bill arrives).

The only other aspect of the car that I'm going to have to work hard not to get sucked into is the performance. I came from a very highly modded Fiat Coupe 20VT, with over 480bhp in just 1300kg, so the V8V is a bit underwhelming in comparison. It just feels like it could handle another 100bhp without flinching. That said, I sold the Coupe because it was just too quick (50% higher power to weight ratio than the Vantage), so I need to learn to live within the Vantage's capabilities. I need to resist spending money on performance mods, simply because the return on investment is so low. I guess it's all relative - the Vantage isn't exactly slow....