Car Magazine - Aston Feature - DB9 Upgrade no no's
Discussion
Hi Phil.
No explanation given is the key point here - yes, why indeed?
If somebody saw fit to make such an authoritative statement it should have been backed up with data and reasoning.
One question for the outspoken WS person to answer would be the factory themselves updated to Billstein from dynamics dampers as a running change / an improvement during DB9. What change in suspension / hardware or vehicle spec made that possible and means an upgrade in latter life for early level cars now is not possible?
The corners are the same, bushing grades slightly different, motion ratio the same, Kerb weights slightly different, Volante to Coupe tub strength slight difference, Hz rate on old cars higher so slight change in piston size meaning different input/output reactions - but none of these differences create a cause for concern if upgrading to Billstein or warrant the use of the term "a no-no" in my opinion.
From my working knowledge of WS (i happily stand to be corrected), these days they seem to simply be fitters of the product the engineers at the factory design and supply to them. But because this product (AM Power upgrade kit for example) is supplied to the rest of the dealer network, means there is no exclusive WS products / upgrades like there used to be (Dragon's on seats i don't count as an upgrade and DB7 dynamic handling pack springs to mind as a fab upgrade). Here, I think they simply haven't tried and tested for themselves Billstein dampers and have not put in the leg work to offer this and the other sorts of upgrades other outfits offer nowadays. It is a proven concept by other outfits the suspension can be significantly improved upon, i guess in this case it's easy to hide blushes and say its a "no-no" rather than "errr, we haven't tried that yet".
Unfortunately for WS the bespoke modification world has considerably left them behind, the question of dynamics to Billstein is yesterday's fish and chip paper really as now there are outfits that can install electronic damping, which in the factory's world is the preserve of only the most expensive cars. Together with WS not being able to buck that strategy, if somebody calls WS and asks for electronic damping and the answer given is "sorry sir we don't recommend that / that's a no-no", the real answer should really be "sorry sir we cant do that".
Phil, why don't you contact the person that made those statements and invite him to come onto this forum and state his case? I think the lesson he will take away is learning the difference between 'no, we cant do that' and if something is 'technically incorrect not to do that'.
No explanation given is the key point here - yes, why indeed?
If somebody saw fit to make such an authoritative statement it should have been backed up with data and reasoning.
One question for the outspoken WS person to answer would be the factory themselves updated to Billstein from dynamics dampers as a running change / an improvement during DB9. What change in suspension / hardware or vehicle spec made that possible and means an upgrade in latter life for early level cars now is not possible?
The corners are the same, bushing grades slightly different, motion ratio the same, Kerb weights slightly different, Volante to Coupe tub strength slight difference, Hz rate on old cars higher so slight change in piston size meaning different input/output reactions - but none of these differences create a cause for concern if upgrading to Billstein or warrant the use of the term "a no-no" in my opinion.
From my working knowledge of WS (i happily stand to be corrected), these days they seem to simply be fitters of the product the engineers at the factory design and supply to them. But because this product (AM Power upgrade kit for example) is supplied to the rest of the dealer network, means there is no exclusive WS products / upgrades like there used to be (Dragon's on seats i don't count as an upgrade and DB7 dynamic handling pack springs to mind as a fab upgrade). Here, I think they simply haven't tried and tested for themselves Billstein dampers and have not put in the leg work to offer this and the other sorts of upgrades other outfits offer nowadays. It is a proven concept by other outfits the suspension can be significantly improved upon, i guess in this case it's easy to hide blushes and say its a "no-no" rather than "errr, we haven't tried that yet".
Unfortunately for WS the bespoke modification world has considerably left them behind, the question of dynamics to Billstein is yesterday's fish and chip paper really as now there are outfits that can install electronic damping, which in the factory's world is the preserve of only the most expensive cars. Together with WS not being able to buck that strategy, if somebody calls WS and asks for electronic damping and the answer given is "sorry sir we don't recommend that / that's a no-no", the real answer should really be "sorry sir we cant do that".
Phil, why don't you contact the person that made those statements and invite him to come onto this forum and state his case? I think the lesson he will take away is learning the difference between 'no, we cant do that' and if something is 'technically incorrect not to do that'.
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