Tales of a V8V (illustrated)

Tales of a V8V (illustrated)

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Mr.Tremlini

Original Poster:

1,460 posts

100 months

Wednesday 6th June 2018
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RobbW said:
Dean,

I very much enjoy your thread and seeing your travels and time with your Vantage. You have a very, very sharp car.

I hope you will continue to post with more stories and the great photos.

Did your rear require a bumper change for the carbon splitter or was it a direct transfer?

Can you share with us the lenses you used for the track day shots? Tilt shifts, or just primes wide open? Absolutely gorgeous like all of your work.

Robb
Thanks Robb, & others!
I guess you are referring to the rear diffuser? The carbon N420 one was a straight swap for the original, no new bumper or alterations required.
The last two shots from the track day were shot with a 50mm 1.4 or 35 1.4 - Primes wide open tends to be my default - but the side-on shot in the pit garage I gave a tweak in post for some added blur in a kinda tilt-shift way. Not part of my normal process, was just having a play really and liked the effect.



Edited by Mr.Tremlini on Saturday 26th October 18:54

telum01

987 posts

114 months

Wednesday 6th June 2018
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Fantastic pics and writing!

Mr.Tremlini

Original Poster:

1,460 posts

100 months

Sunday 14th October 2018
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Barn find!!



...ok, it`s my barn, and I knew it was there...
getmecoat

The Vantage has been not getting as much road time as usual, due to an inordinate amount of work and travel over the summer, but I feel the need to blow some cobwebs out of the car and myself in the next couple of weeks before winter takes hold... The Susten Pass is a convenient 3 hour 30 round trip, not including stops along the way, which might be a chance to farewell the Bridgestone Potenzas, (before they make way for the inevitable Michelin Pilot Sports) prior to fitting the winter wheels.



I am somewhat sheepish to admit I have also being toying with the idea of selling the car, not for any other reason than a lack of funds in other areas of life, as the previously mentioned house purchase meant a tightening of the purse strings, and having an Aston Martin parked downstairs seems somewhat frivolous while bargaining with the tax man, but thus far I have managed to keep the wolves at bay despite the sudden upturn in unexpected invoices!

On a slightly separate note, while I have been rather remiss in writing any updates for this thread, I have been equally slack at taking photos of the Tungsten Terror, however I did enjoy a modicum of creative license in the recent "Tuscany in our DB9 Volante" thread, which has been the most entertaining thread on here for a long time! I have the intention to correct the lack of anecdotal missives and imagery should the jaunt to the Susten proceed as planned...
I hope everyone had a great weekend!




Graze01

1,034 posts

91 months

Sunday 14th October 2018
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Dean

I'd come too, except
1. car is on other side of the world
2. car is RH drive
3. I am busy with new work at present (which is good)
4. I think I'm saving for a V12 & Moni thinks I'm saving for a new kitchen refurb
5. My passport need renewing
6. the list could go on, but it gets depressing

Look forward to seeing & reading about it

enjoy

Graeme

Mr.Tremlini

Original Poster:

1,460 posts

100 months

Friday 19th October 2018
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Graze01 said:
I'd come too, except…
Look forward to seeing & reading about it
Graeme.
I hope to indulge you and your problems in your antipodean driving wasteland… wink

Mr.Tremlini

Original Poster:

1,460 posts

100 months

Friday 19th October 2018
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So, on Wednesday, the forecast was outstanding. Nothing but sunshine and 18-20°C for central Switzerland so I threw a Nikon and a couple of lenses in the Vantage and cut a track to the aforementioned Susten Pass at 11:30am. A rather leisurely departure time I will admit but as I was interested in taking a few photos, I`d prefer to have a decent breakfast and a couple of flat whites behind me, and then be shooting with late afternoon/sunset light rather than heading out the door in early morning darkness to get a sunrise of unknown quality.

I had already extended my Susten plan, as I figured I might as well loop in the Grimsel and Furka passes while I was in the neighborhood. Rude not to really. Google Maps had factored 329km and 5 hours 42 minutes for this jaunt. I ended up with 345km and 7 hours 40 minutes.



I headed south past Luzern, turning off on A8 in direction Interlaken to take the Brünig Pass across to Meiringen, the Aston chomping through the miles like the undercover GT it is. Just before the Brünig gets interesting you can veer off to Lungern (rather than take another wonderfully engineered and extremely boring Swiss tunnel) which has a self-serve Shell station if you need to top up on V-Power at about a 5% premium. The Brünig is a nice drive in itself if you strike it without traffic, which is seldom the case these days unfortunately, but at the top there is a wonderful second hand shop (Brockenhaus Brünig Passhöhe) filled with much Swiss paraphernalia of a bygone era, and a light sprinkling of dodgy crap, that is well worth a stop and wander, particularly if you need a cow bell or pewter wine jug for home.

After this it`s down a couple of km and left towards both the Grimsel and the Susten, and then depending on your fickle mood or GPS you can choose what ever you want… it`s like a bacchanal smorgasbord of driving pleasure.

I started with the Susten as I had already planned to turn around in Wassen at the other end and come back for the Grimsel/Furka. Susten was the first pass to be purpose built for vehicles, opened in 1945, and it is a very pretty drive this time of year. The trees are multiple shades of yellow, red and orange as autumn takes hold, the ice melt still creates small waterfalls that look like bridal veils in the sunshine, squirrels frolic on roadside rocks, unicorns can be glimpsed cantering through the trees and writers take leave of their senses and start scribbling fantastical nonsense, but it really is quite beautiful, and in all truth the roads are happily lacking the hoards of vehicles that traverse these passes through the summertime. There was a decent number of motorbikes but they are not a hindrance and very little four wheeled traffic. There was one Volvo S70 wagon with a BE number plate which already speaks volumes if you live here, driven by a stereotypical bearded Swiss gent of advanced age that looked like he`d come straight from filming a cheese commercial, that I passed on four different occasions, but nothing horrendous to report traffic wise for the entire day!



The Susten is a glorious ribbon of tarmac that suits the Vantage wonderfully, through the valleys leading out of Meiringen to Innertkirchen where it splits left to Gadmen then wends up through the trees while sheer rock escarpments lean in from the north, it already teases at what is to come, and after that onto a series of long switchbacks and subsequently flowing through a series of short tunnels built under rocky outcrops seems created more for the visual drama than practicality. Once past the small alpine lake and over the summit the views widen out and pushing on down to Wassen the road mostly bends rather than anything too tight and so the forward motion does not require as much leaning on the brakes compared to going down in the opposite direction. Spinning around in Wassen and back through the rocky tunnels and over the vaulted bridges crossing the bolder strewn melt water runoffs, it is more of the same in reverse. I think you could just run back and forwards all day. I wound the car out to around 6000rpm in third a few times, but mostly it is a second through to mid-third experience if applying yourself, but sometimes it`s nice to take it a bit more casually and soak it all in. There are more than a couple of restaurants along the way so if the need for “Sustenance” arises you have options.

On the way back I picked up a Serbian fellow, Alex, in a yellow Cayman that said he heard my car from at least half a kilometre away and was trying to catch up to hear it better as it was so amazing. A motorbike rider made a video as I drove past with Alex behind me and I doubled back to ask if he could send it to me, which he did (thanks Pierre) and it`s so nice to finally hear the car from an outside perspective since getting the BR mods. Now I know why the 488 driver looked at my car so belligerently when I pulled up near to him.

Here`s the link to it, quality is low but the volume works! wink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBbT1vNT9F4&fe...

Alex and I both parked at the Susten summit and had a chin wag and he was on his way to visit his sister in Paris via every driving road possible and he thought that he was in nirvana here in Switzerland. He was gob-smacked when I told him the age of my Vantage, he thought it was quite new, the ageless beauty of that Vantage design language, it really is sex on toast.



Otherwise, aside from photo stops it was drive, drive, drive. The photo stops were odd because I felt the need to take some shots but didn`t start shooting until my second run on the Susten. I was enjoying the driving so much it was mostly spot a location, park at what seemed an appropriate angle, choose a lens, take a few quick shots, back in the car, keep moving. None of this back it up two metres, line up the background, turn the car 30 degrees left kinda stuff that I typically find myself doing. Sometimes I shot just with my phone too, as I couldn`t be bothered with getting the camera out. Having said that I think the photos give a nice representation of the roads which is testament to the idyllic scenery and backgrounds.

Back through to Innertkirchen and left to the Grimsel, some 50 years older than the Susten, and things get good pretty quickly. It starts off flowing beautifully and then quickly becomes something very different from the Susten visually. During the late afternoon when I was there, the light was behaving well and the sinuous veins of tone in the rock combined with the alpine lakes gave a very much otherworldly feel. It is an extremely nice drive and I had both windows cracked open so I could listen to the car`s gruff voice bouncing off the granite, but eventually I found myself a little overwhelmed by the scenery and photographic possibilities. It`s one of those places that must look so different hour to hour as the light and shadow play their theatre.









With the thunderous exhaust note echoing off the rock walls I plied on, past what looked like a dark red Ferrari F12 parked well back off the road and the two men standing next to it seemed to be paying the Aston a fair amount of attention. A surprise along the way at the top of the three dam walls of the Grimselsee was the Historisches Alpinhotel Grimsel Hospiz located across the top of a dam wall on what appears as an island, and it all had a very Bond location feel about it. I ventured across for a few snaps and would have liked to explore more but with the light ever diminishing I felt the need to press on. Another day maybe. I was surprised that I have never heard mention of this place.

The top of the Grimsel is similar to the Susten, a smidge under 2200M but feels somehow more alpine, and the eastern side is nowhere near as interesting as the west, but then when you run the switchbacks down to the derelict and deserted Gletsch, you get a glimpse of the Furka, in the late afternoon sun, beckoning you.





The Furka is a different beast. At nearly 2500M/8000ft it reaches higher than it`s colleagues, has been around longer, since 1867, and still struts its age with pride and a sniff of hostility. As you approach this road you feel the history and once on there, ricocheting up the switchbacks to the now abandoned Belvedere Hotel alongside the steadily retreating Rhone Galcier, you become a part of it. There is some expectation here. It`s a great road to feel the past and after leaving the Belvedere behind you find it is still a little raw in places and it narrows occasionally to where you or the other vehicle need to stop to allow passage, a waterfall cascades down right next to the road, and the with the last direct sunlight gone and virtually no traffic it feels special, lonely and somehow a little sad.



It`s a nostalgic drive, but unlike the Grimsel and Susten not as driver focused, and not one that I would choose to do repeatedly, but I certainly would do it again. Being on this road at the end of the day is probably a perfect closure to several hours of driving pleasure, as it gives time for some reflection, certainly about the amount of enjoyment this Vantage provides on these unique stretches of black top, but also the nature of these roads, why and how they were built and the millions of people and vehicles that have traveled over them. The ghost of Goldfinger and the halcyon days of tourism still lurks here but like Gletsch at the start of the Furka drive, you know it`s best days are well behind it.



Edited by Mr.Tremlini on Saturday 26th October 19:05

Gettoff

1,434 posts

206 months

Friday 19th October 2018
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Beautiful shots, car helps but scenery is top notch, bravo clap

ashway

532 posts

164 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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Absolutely stunning photographs

V8V Pete

2,496 posts

125 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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You're making me seriously jealous Dean. We're heading to Switzerland next summer but unfortunately will be in the family bus unless I can somehow insist that it has to be a two car holiday biggrin

ashway

532 posts

164 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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V8V Pete said:
You're making me seriously jealous Dean. We're heading to Switzerland next summer but unfortunately will be in the family bus unless I can somehow insist that it has to be a two car holiday biggrin
Good luck with that Pete ha ha. I tried many times without success

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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Super pics and write up dean. Great to see you getting use of the car. I did those roads on a bike 5 years ago, completely understand your reluctance to stop and take pictures, bravo for doing so. Best wishes.

bignoise

311 posts

100 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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absolutely stunning

thanks for taking the time to post

pschlute

714 posts

158 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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Terrific photos my friend

Graze01

1,034 posts

91 months

Saturday 20th October 2018
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Dean

Brilliant, when I get my passport renewed and cross all those other things off the list I'll call you

Thanks for posting, just stunning photos

Graeme

Gene G

150 posts

97 months

Sunday 21st October 2018
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Absolutely stunning pictures. Thanks for sharing. I have really enjoyed reading your posts. I’m with you I think the original V8Vantage design is perfection and timeless.

Ken Figenus

5,678 posts

116 months

Sunday 21st October 2018
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>save as< in my potential drives crib notes folder smile

Great pic and write up mate - you could sell that you know wink

D


BassFlyer

93 posts

82 months

Sunday 21st October 2018
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Well now, just as a thought. Why don't we fix thick end of a week in the diaries for next year? Rendezvous at Folkestone and schlep down to Switzerland (one overnight stop?). Dean can maybe recommend a hotel somewhere near him which is then a base for a bit of hooning round the passes. Evenings spent quaffing wine, eating well and gabbing about Astons.

V8V Pete

2,496 posts

125 months

Sunday 21st October 2018
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BassFlyer said:
Well now, just as a thought. Why don't we fix thick end of a week in the diaries for next year? Rendezvous at Folkestone and schlep down to Switzerland (one overnight stop?). Dean can maybe recommend a hotel somewhere near him which is then a base for a bit of hooning round the passes. Evenings spent quaffing wine, eating well and gabbing about Astons.
Sounds like a great plan. Just remind me what the speeding fines are like in Switzerland and how you can avoid them .........

Mr.Tremlini

Original Poster:

1,460 posts

100 months

Sunday 21st October 2018
quotequote all
Thanks everyone! smile

V8V Pete said:
You're making me seriously jealous Dean. We're heading to Switzerland next summer but unfortunately will be in the family bus unless I can somehow insist that it has to be a two car holiday biggrin
My commiserations Pete, I guess a Ford Mondeo Estate won`t quite handle the streets in quite the same way as an SP10... grumpy Good luck with your campaign!

soofsayer said:
Super pics and write up dean. Great to see you getting use of the car. I did those roads on a bike 5 years ago, completely understand your reluctance to stop and take pictures, bravo for doing so. Best wishes.
Thanks Andy. Yes, a motorbike would be a fun and hairy ride at times I`m sure, especially over some of the bumpy and uneven stuff!

Gene G said:
Absolutely stunning pictures. Thanks for sharing. I have really enjoyed reading your posts. I’m with you I think the original V8Vantage design is perfection and timeless.
They got it right. I have to suspect that not many reviews or opinions would have been in the mould of some of those for the current Vantage...

BassFlyer said:
Well now, just as a thought. Why don't we fix thick end of a week in the diaries for next year? Rendezvous at Folkestone and schlep down to Switzerland (one overnight stop?). Dean can maybe recommend a hotel somewhere near him which is then a base for a bit of hooning round the passes. Evenings spent quaffing wine, eating well and gabbing about Astons.
Good thinking Skipper! I`d be very happy with that or a similar scenario, Paul smile however my participation would be subject on having my confirmed work/travel schedule in place which normally doesn`t happen until around Jan/Feb...


Edited by Mr.Tremlini on Sunday 21st October 23:23

Gene G

150 posts

97 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2018
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Very nice. You have some seriously good photo skills. Nice looking car also.