Aston martin V8 Vantage club sport type thing
Discussion
Class thread. These are such a good looking car, the engine builders i help out at had one in for a full engine build and it was a nice thing to look at. It had Nitron suspension and some silly loud exhaust, right up my street 
Im sure you've heard of them but Valiant Ecosse are worth a look for some of your more fancy GT4 parts and the cars they churn out are lovely to look at.
Im sure you've heard of them but Valiant Ecosse are worth a look for some of your more fancy GT4 parts and the cars they churn out are lovely to look at.
Its great that there is so much interest in this, gives me hope that there may be others taking up the challenge. my thinking on this was pretty simple in that an upscaled lotus Elise floor plan with 2/3 times the power couldn't be a bad thing and that this was borne out by the cars success at a GT4 level and above. It is however a hard road, information is thin on the ground and owner base is of a certain disposition (huge generalization) that does not perfectly align with this type of endeavor 
.
Maintenance wise, i would suggest that you don't believe the hype, these cars are hand built, what that means in reality (in my experience) is that they come apart by hand without too much drama. Parts are frequently interchangeable, maintenance can be undertaken DIY with little issue. If of course you are looking to get the maintenance done for you, this will be expensive as unfortunately there is a general view that anything for an aston is ten times the price of a regular car, you only need to look at the price of a de-cat where people are trying to pedal a 30cm length of tube with a ball flair on for 1k to realise the level of legging over that can occur, the answer to this is to refuse to engage with it and simply make your own or get it made wile avoiding mentioning the words "aston martin" before you have paid the invoice
.Maintenance wise, i would suggest that you don't believe the hype, these cars are hand built, what that means in reality (in my experience) is that they come apart by hand without too much drama. Parts are frequently interchangeable, maintenance can be undertaken DIY with little issue. If of course you are looking to get the maintenance done for you, this will be expensive as unfortunately there is a general view that anything for an aston is ten times the price of a regular car, you only need to look at the price of a de-cat where people are trying to pedal a 30cm length of tube with a ball flair on for 1k to realise the level of legging over that can occur, the answer to this is to refuse to engage with it and simply make your own or get it made wile avoiding mentioning the words "aston martin" before you have paid the invoice
Having changed the exhaust , i had created another problem (this is slightly out of sequence so bear with)
It sounded mega, but was also too much for all the time use and would rapidly get me ejected from a track day, so i partially fixed my new problem by putting fuse 22 back in.
The problem that left me with, was that Aston martin have setup the flaps so that the fat bald guy with aspirations to be james bond (original owner profile) could rumble up and down the high street of their local market town impressing 16 year old girls.
What the above means in practice is that the valves are open at idle until about 2k ish rpm, then close from 2k to 4, then open again from 4k to the 7500 redline this is pretty naff as standard but when you make it louder it makes the problem bigger essentially it makes it sound like you pull away at full chat, then get shy and then vigorously telegraph that your speeding.
On the plus side the modified box was truely brilliant, almost silent with the flaps closed, unhinged with the cabin doors to manual
What i wanted was for the car to be nice and quiet when required and loud and stupid when i was in the mood. there was a smattering of information about but mostly DB9 and some vague talk that it could be done.
So to clarify, here is how you can do it for the price of some wire,a double pole switch and a bit of wear on a drill bit
you need to intercept the ECU line, the ecu controls the exhaust valves by controlling a compressor, the compressor is switched by the earth line.
So with earth discontented its loud, with earth applied its quiet.
This means your 3 way switch can give you 3 options, factory teenage girl mode (connected) Yob mode (disconnected) and covert mode, permanently to earth.
the connector that was alluded to in the interwebs was here, down next to the accelerator on the drivers side
In this horrible crevice you find this, the black connector next to the green one is the one you want.
The white wire is the one to intercept, not as easy as it looks as access sucks to get crimping tools in etc
So make up a switch with the ecu out line to the middle pin and the receive line on the other and ground on the other to give you your three options
splice it into the connection
and mount your switch, i decided to tuck it under the headlamp switch cover to make it as unobtrusive as possible and keep black plastic on black plastic (i.e. not drill through leather)
To be clear this is very simple stuff, the middl pin is from the compressor, side pin one is from the ecu and side pin two is wired to ground.
the switch either connects the compressor to nothing, the ecu or ground giving you loud, factory, or quiet in that order
And there you have it, one user controllable exhaust allowing you to be as obnoxious or otherwise as you choose and hopefully not get kicked off circuit.....
It sounded mega, but was also too much for all the time use and would rapidly get me ejected from a track day, so i partially fixed my new problem by putting fuse 22 back in.
The problem that left me with, was that Aston martin have setup the flaps so that the fat bald guy with aspirations to be james bond (original owner profile) could rumble up and down the high street of their local market town impressing 16 year old girls.
What the above means in practice is that the valves are open at idle until about 2k ish rpm, then close from 2k to 4, then open again from 4k to the 7500 redline this is pretty naff as standard but when you make it louder it makes the problem bigger essentially it makes it sound like you pull away at full chat, then get shy and then vigorously telegraph that your speeding.
On the plus side the modified box was truely brilliant, almost silent with the flaps closed, unhinged with the cabin doors to manual
What i wanted was for the car to be nice and quiet when required and loud and stupid when i was in the mood. there was a smattering of information about but mostly DB9 and some vague talk that it could be done.
So to clarify, here is how you can do it for the price of some wire,a double pole switch and a bit of wear on a drill bit
you need to intercept the ECU line, the ecu controls the exhaust valves by controlling a compressor, the compressor is switched by the earth line.
So with earth discontented its loud, with earth applied its quiet.
This means your 3 way switch can give you 3 options, factory teenage girl mode (connected) Yob mode (disconnected) and covert mode, permanently to earth.
the connector that was alluded to in the interwebs was here, down next to the accelerator on the drivers side
In this horrible crevice you find this, the black connector next to the green one is the one you want.
The white wire is the one to intercept, not as easy as it looks as access sucks to get crimping tools in etc
So make up a switch with the ecu out line to the middle pin and the receive line on the other and ground on the other to give you your three options
splice it into the connection
and mount your switch, i decided to tuck it under the headlamp switch cover to make it as unobtrusive as possible and keep black plastic on black plastic (i.e. not drill through leather)
To be clear this is very simple stuff, the middl pin is from the compressor, side pin one is from the ecu and side pin two is wired to ground.
the switch either connects the compressor to nothing, the ecu or ground giving you loud, factory, or quiet in that order
And there you have it, one user controllable exhaust allowing you to be as obnoxious or otherwise as you choose and hopefully not get kicked off circuit.....
Just chipping in to say a resounding smurf yeah to modifying your Aston.
Doesn't surprise me that an Aston owner's club is full of a very dreary sort. Utter piffle.
Thoroughly look forward to seeing what you get up to, and will also agree with others that I enjoy your writing style so please do keep us informed.
Now that you've improved the clutch, will it do a burnout without the car disintegrating? Childish indeed, but I for one would like to see / hear a V8 Vantage with a load of smoke pouring off the rears.
Doesn't surprise me that an Aston owner's club is full of a very dreary sort. Utter piffle.
Thoroughly look forward to seeing what you get up to, and will also agree with others that I enjoy your writing style so please do keep us informed.
Now that you've improved the clutch, will it do a burnout without the car disintegrating? Childish indeed, but I for one would like to see / hear a V8 Vantage with a load of smoke pouring off the rears.
SturdyHSV said:
Just chipping in to say a resounding smurf yeah to modifying your Aston.
Doesn't surprise me that an Aston owner's club is full of a very dreary sort. Utter piffle.
Thoroughly look forward to seeing what you get up to, and will also agree with others that I enjoy your writing style so please do keep us informed.
Now that you've improved the clutch, will it do a burnout without the car disintegrating? Childish indeed, but I for one would like to see / hear a V8 Vantage with a load of smoke pouring off the rears.
This is a bit of a quandary, in not really a burnout guy, but at the same time I am beholden to say "of course it can do it" but then i would have to prove it. quite the pickle. I think once TT is over and the hordes have left i will see what can be done before I take the horrible bridgestones off the back and put something with actual grip on. Doesn't surprise me that an Aston owner's club is full of a very dreary sort. Utter piffle.
Thoroughly look forward to seeing what you get up to, and will also agree with others that I enjoy your writing style so please do keep us informed.
Now that you've improved the clutch, will it do a burnout without the car disintegrating? Childish indeed, but I for one would like to see / hear a V8 Vantage with a load of smoke pouring off the rears.
Court_S said:
This is brilliant, looking foot seeing where you end up going with this.
I drive past a chap last week who had is Vantage up on axle stands and was doing something op under it and I thought there can’t be many Vantage owners who get stuck into working on their car themselves.
It wasn't me as I only do this kind of thing in the privacy of my own environs but provided he wasn't cleaning the wheel arch liners i am very pleased to hear it.I drive past a chap last week who had is Vantage up on axle stands and was doing something op under it and I thought there can’t be many Vantage owners who get stuck into working on their car themselves.
RicksAlfas said:
Great thread, thanks.
(Also discovered Mr Clutchfix is about two minutes away from my work)!
(Also discovered Mr Clutchfix is about two minutes away from my work)!
Honestly, i rarely rave about anyones service, but i was really pleased with the care and attention to detail that had been taken with the work they did for me.
So, onto the next thing, the brakes in the car are rubbish. I strongly suspect that the factory four pots, with really good fluid, a much much better pad (something like a ferodo DS1.11 or 3.11) and some cooling ducting would make it work, this was of course my initial thinking. by plans turned out a little differently.
There is one place in particular that advocates fitting CCB's which as anyone who uses their car on a track and is not a funded race team knows is a stupid idea, not only are they not very well modulated but they are simply ruinous to maintain in those conditions, so if you see that kind of suggestion i would file it under "fantasist bull$hit" the next and simplest option is to look at the 4.7 option where you went from 355mm with four pots to 380mm with 6 pots, the issue so to speak with the 4.7 conversion is that you also need to change the upright as the calipers are a radial mount without an adaptor. I than had a look at putting a huge set of alcons i have sat on the shelf doing nothing that will run a 400mm disk (i have used the same calipers on an e46 in the past and they are now fitted to phil morisons v10 if you were to take a look) but the lug positions were supposedly a bit marginal.
Again, many words not enough action, I was dithering, anyway a bit of nerding turned up a guy who had a gt4 kit, so ling story short, i bought it.
This is very fancy stuff and for a niche pursuit, anyone with half a brain knows its not really road car stuff, no rattle clips un restrained floating disks, endurance racing pad compounds, as such he was struggling to shift it, so we agreed a small price, and everything arrived as agreed, which was nice.
Now when i say fancy, this stuff is fancy, its unpainted anodised stainless heat buttons blah blah blah each caliper is pretty eyewatering
In the spirit of careful planing i slapped them on the car, but then the oem wheel didn't fkn fit, so a put a spacer on, and then the nuts wouldnt do up because aston martin use a ford transit wheel nut which has an un-threaded section (nerd moment, an vantage uses as a ford transit 60mm twin axle knock in wheel stud, so if you need them, they are pennies, just not from aston martin of course) anyway, i ordered some fully threaded transit wheel nuts and the car sat about immobile with no front wheels for a bit
Tranny nuts and studs (definitely a joke in there somewhere but certainly not one I intend to find........)
Brakes on, to be covered by a wheel, finally
Looks ace right?
There is one place in particular that advocates fitting CCB's which as anyone who uses their car on a track and is not a funded race team knows is a stupid idea, not only are they not very well modulated but they are simply ruinous to maintain in those conditions, so if you see that kind of suggestion i would file it under "fantasist bull$hit" the next and simplest option is to look at the 4.7 option where you went from 355mm with four pots to 380mm with 6 pots, the issue so to speak with the 4.7 conversion is that you also need to change the upright as the calipers are a radial mount without an adaptor. I than had a look at putting a huge set of alcons i have sat on the shelf doing nothing that will run a 400mm disk (i have used the same calipers on an e46 in the past and they are now fitted to phil morisons v10 if you were to take a look) but the lug positions were supposedly a bit marginal.
Again, many words not enough action, I was dithering, anyway a bit of nerding turned up a guy who had a gt4 kit, so ling story short, i bought it.
This is very fancy stuff and for a niche pursuit, anyone with half a brain knows its not really road car stuff, no rattle clips un restrained floating disks, endurance racing pad compounds, as such he was struggling to shift it, so we agreed a small price, and everything arrived as agreed, which was nice.
Now when i say fancy, this stuff is fancy, its unpainted anodised stainless heat buttons blah blah blah each caliper is pretty eyewatering
In the spirit of careful planing i slapped them on the car, but then the oem wheel didn't fkn fit, so a put a spacer on, and then the nuts wouldnt do up because aston martin use a ford transit wheel nut which has an un-threaded section (nerd moment, an vantage uses as a ford transit 60mm twin axle knock in wheel stud, so if you need them, they are pennies, just not from aston martin of course) anyway, i ordered some fully threaded transit wheel nuts and the car sat about immobile with no front wheels for a bit
Tranny nuts and studs (definitely a joke in there somewhere but certainly not one I intend to find........)
Brakes on, to be covered by a wheel, finally
Looks ace right?
IainWhy said:
This is a bit of a quandary, in not really a burnout guy, but at the same time I am beholden to say "of course it can do it" but then i would have to prove it. quite the pickle. I think once TT is over and the hordes have left i will see what can be done before I take the horrible bridgestones off the back and put something with actual grip on.
I'm not generally one for peer pressure, but you've just volunteered the information that you're getting rid of the old rear tyres so.... 
Either way, very much enjoying the progress. As you mention Phil, I assume you've seen Craig's mildly fettled Vantage?
So, time to sort this brake saga
Sorry for the long pause, i takes quite a long time to actually write this up and find the corresponding image thats not a picture of my wifes backside or similar.
NERD WARNING, this is hugely nerdy content, so if thats not your thing, your probably reading the wrong journal.
ok, so, how were the brakes? terrible, really terrible. i knew they would be noisy, its not my first rodeo, but jesus christ, this was another level. the bells had wear in so the disk noise was truly something else, think the kind of sound you would get if you had only done up 2 wheel nuts loosely, then add in the clack of the pad rattle it was dire, and completely at odds with the idea of "arrive and track" that the car was aimed at, i dont need something else that should be trailered.
So problem solving hat on again. I could get new discs and hats (expensive), time consuming as they would need a custom hat offset to match the calipers etc etc or try and sort out the ones i had.
I went with the latter, the brake discs were currently fitted with Brembo T type fully floating fittings which were horrible, and were causing some really notable wear on the alloy hats thus creating an ever increasing racket, the wear is also really annoying as it could be mitigated or likely eliminated by running an abutment fitting, but i guess thats not how you sell hats at 500 quid each. The guys at track formula were selling a disk kit for £80 per disc for full h type brempo fittings complete with the abutments, screw, tension spring and bobbin. i chanced my arm and hoped it would all fit. The ones cleverer that me will already be getting ready to point out that this would in effect change the disc offset, i knew this, but figured there was enough slop between the pad, and the disc with the pistons fully retracted. by figured i mean, hoped, i didn't actually measure anything....
You can see the wear on the hats
differences between the T and H type bobbins
Anyway, they didn't fit, firstly because the existing Brembo discs used a oblong hole not a round one so the bobbin was too big by about 0.3mm and secondly the wear on the hats meant the abutment plate would no longer seat in the hat, FFS.
So, out with the grinder, air spot grinder, file, micrometer and sandpaper
corrected hat
Modified bobbin
Quite a long time later.....
Did it work? Absolutely! now only the pad rattle could be heard and that only happened every time a disc groove went past the pad, or i turned a corner or went over a bump, so really only 8 or 9 times a second really........, still, small victories and all that.
Sorry for the long pause, i takes quite a long time to actually write this up and find the corresponding image thats not a picture of my wifes backside or similar.
NERD WARNING, this is hugely nerdy content, so if thats not your thing, your probably reading the wrong journal.
ok, so, how were the brakes? terrible, really terrible. i knew they would be noisy, its not my first rodeo, but jesus christ, this was another level. the bells had wear in so the disk noise was truly something else, think the kind of sound you would get if you had only done up 2 wheel nuts loosely, then add in the clack of the pad rattle it was dire, and completely at odds with the idea of "arrive and track" that the car was aimed at, i dont need something else that should be trailered.
So problem solving hat on again. I could get new discs and hats (expensive), time consuming as they would need a custom hat offset to match the calipers etc etc or try and sort out the ones i had.
I went with the latter, the brake discs were currently fitted with Brembo T type fully floating fittings which were horrible, and were causing some really notable wear on the alloy hats thus creating an ever increasing racket, the wear is also really annoying as it could be mitigated or likely eliminated by running an abutment fitting, but i guess thats not how you sell hats at 500 quid each. The guys at track formula were selling a disk kit for £80 per disc for full h type brempo fittings complete with the abutments, screw, tension spring and bobbin. i chanced my arm and hoped it would all fit. The ones cleverer that me will already be getting ready to point out that this would in effect change the disc offset, i knew this, but figured there was enough slop between the pad, and the disc with the pistons fully retracted. by figured i mean, hoped, i didn't actually measure anything....
You can see the wear on the hats
differences between the T and H type bobbins
Anyway, they didn't fit, firstly because the existing Brembo discs used a oblong hole not a round one so the bobbin was too big by about 0.3mm and secondly the wear on the hats meant the abutment plate would no longer seat in the hat, FFS.
So, out with the grinder, air spot grinder, file, micrometer and sandpaper
corrected hat
Modified bobbin
Quite a long time later.....
Did it work? Absolutely! now only the pad rattle could be heard and that only happened every time a disc groove went past the pad, or i turned a corner or went over a bump, so really only 8 or 9 times a second really........, still, small victories and all that.
Fast forward a little So onto problem number 2(0000000) stop the stupid pad rattle.
Couple of cheap brembo rattle springs (£7.75 from brakes international if your interested)
Drilled the rivets out, made up some spacers and cut down the primary spring to match the annular width of the caliper and shaved out the middle of the spring to allow space for the pad retention bars then dug out some stainless rivets to pull it all back together.
these fit into the calipers as such...
then to add in some additional safety, i broke out the lockwire and pliers to get everything secured
Does it, work, ahh, pretty much, it would be better if it spanned the pad length ways to spport them better, but its 80% there, so for now, i am calling that done.
Obviously running Pagid RSL1 world endurance pads is never going to be a silent option, but they are less squeaky than I had expected and cold bite is good with the traditionally flat pagid torque curve (that i don't really like, ferodo are nicer to use IMO). but stopping power is huge, they are fade proof as far as i can currently tell, though more ventilation is still on the radar.
Ultimately,i am happy, i am "confident" that the car will be able to do plenty of laps without losing pedal (famous last words)
Couple of cheap brembo rattle springs (£7.75 from brakes international if your interested)
Drilled the rivets out, made up some spacers and cut down the primary spring to match the annular width of the caliper and shaved out the middle of the spring to allow space for the pad retention bars then dug out some stainless rivets to pull it all back together.
these fit into the calipers as such...
then to add in some additional safety, i broke out the lockwire and pliers to get everything secured
Does it, work, ahh, pretty much, it would be better if it spanned the pad length ways to spport them better, but its 80% there, so for now, i am calling that done.
Obviously running Pagid RSL1 world endurance pads is never going to be a silent option, but they are less squeaky than I had expected and cold bite is good with the traditionally flat pagid torque curve (that i don't really like, ferodo are nicer to use IMO). but stopping power is huge, they are fade proof as far as i can currently tell, though more ventilation is still on the radar.
Ultimately,i am happy, i am "confident" that the car will be able to do plenty of laps without losing pedal (famous last words)
Edited by IainWhy on Tuesday 14th June 10:35
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