V8 vantage upgrades - AMR clutch and performance mods

[Boshey]

Hi first posting on the AM forum..

Have recently bought my "dream car" - since I first saw the Vantage in 2005 Ive always thought t was the most beautiful cars and am now lucky enough to have one. She is a lovely 2007 4.3 V8 with just over 30000 miles.
I have d one a decent amount of research but am far from being expert, but as part of my budget I did allow for a clutch replacement/upgrade to the AMR twin plate - this seems to be a improvement for the driver and for longevity. Have also read about the significant performance upgrade that can be achieved by fitting upgraded catalysts and Air intakes.
I'm not looking to turn the car into a rocketship but I think a bit more low end punch would be great
Was hoping that folks on here had one or both of the upgrades and could let me know which makes the most difference to the overall driving experience.

thanks
Bosh

[bogie]

All you want to know here on Bamford Rose site https://bamfordrose.com/road-car-upgrades/introduc...

[Dewi 2]

Welcome Boshey.
Firstly, please post a photo of your car. PHers here like pictures.

My Vantage has a twin plate clutch and recently has had the cat and airbox modification.
If your car is a manual, then the twin plate is I believe fairly straight forward.
The driving improvement is great, because the pedal action is so much lighter.
Sportshift is more complicated and I don't think main dealers will fit a twin plate, to avoid later complaints.
If you look at the Bamford Rose YouTube video about Sportshift and twin plates, the background is explained.
How bad is the normal low speed gear chatter on your car? If quite pronounced, then go for the twin plate, but don't have a lighter flywheel fitted, because that will make the chatter worse.

Your car will I think only have one catalyst (with two cats inside). Leaving the 400 cell section inside is an economical mod, giving about 20 bhp and noise increase. Some have said replacing with a 200 cell cat, can change the exhaust sound in a way they don't like. With 400, the tone remains the same, but noticeably louder.

[BiggaJ]

The twin plate clutch is a must but if your clutch still has life in it, leave it until it really needs to be changed. The difference though is incredible.

The 200 cell cats to my mind are a very worth while upgrade over the stock 600 cell cats. I haven't noticed a big change in the sound at all but the car ertainly feels more lively and part of this is the lightened flywheel mixed with the hi flow cats.

I have done the air filter upgrade and personally feel it's been worth doing however, Mike at Bamford Rose feels the stock filters in their large boxes are already good for engines upto 600 hp. This was something he mentioned in a very recent video he did.

The changes made coupled with a remap have given the 4.3 a real pep up. It drives so much better in every gear.

If you go for the cat change, make sure you get your old ones back and sell them... I managed to make around £500 quid each for them.

[Dewi 2]

BiggaJ said:

The 200 cell cats to my mind are a very worth while upgrade over the stock 600 cell cats. I haven't noticed a big change in the sound at all ....

I thought the 4.3 has the same single cat (one on each cylinder bank) as the early 4.7 ie. one container, but with two matrices, a 900 cell and 400 cell. You mention 600 cell, so they may be different.
I think I recall hearing that the stock 4.7 is slightly quieter than the 4.3, so if you did not notice a big change in sound, then perhaps the exhaust systems are not identical, in which case my experience will not apply to our OP.

[Riddochg]

Welcome to the fold.

I've got a 2006 4.3 with 75,000 miles on it. Daily driver for the last 13 years. Great car still get a buzz out of driving it. Bamford Rose have a great reputation. David Appleby are also very good.

I've used them for the last 10 years. They really know their stuff. They support one of the vantage GT classes. I always drive up happy with my life then see the cars they are working on and wonder where it went wrong!

One of the benefits is that they do piles of upgrades and as a result have shelves of nearly new parts.

[Boshey]

As requested my current favourite photo of the Vantage with my ugly mug blanked out

Thanks so much for the replies, really helpful. The car is a 4.3 manual hence the questions around clutch and performance upgrades. I do find the clutch really heavy and needs to be right on the floor to get a smooth change, however there isn't any significant noise or grinding so I don't think it needs changing imminently, but given what ive researched and you guys have confirmed I am still considering changing it anyway. Sounds like the advice is to go with one of the renowned specialists rather than an AM dealer, do you know if any specialists can or do fit the AMR twin plate, and if they don't are there any downsides to not fitting genuine AM parts?
With regard performance upgrade Im just looking for bit more oomph at low revs. I decided not to go with the 4.7 for budget reasons but I did drive a couple and I think the low end grunt difference s noticeable.
I do have some idea of costs but would be really helpful to if anyone is happy to share what they have spent or what tehy think teh market rate is for these upgrades,

thanks again

Bosh

[leerandle]

If you don't need to do the clutch yet, then maybe get the performance upgrade first to give a bit more ummph (manifolds, cats and retune) and then when required, get the clutch done.

Mine is still on a single clutch and have only read good things about the twin plate clutch (whether that be at BM or DAE).

One of my future upgrades for sure.

Enjoy and welcome to the AM fold...........

[Dewi 2]

Your Vantage is looking beautiful Bosh.

I don't know where you live, but PHers on here have mentioned driving from Switzerland and the South of France, to have work done by Bamford Rose. The founders were AML development engineers and worked on your engine, so you can imagine the extent of their knowledge about Aston Martin cars.

Each independent specialist seems to use a slightly different flywheel, but I think the clutch part is usually the same as a V12 Vantage.
A low clutch pedal bite point must be a clue for something. Think wear leads to a high pedal bite point.
Cost is somewhere around £3,500. I changed mine when the clutch wore out and had got used to the heavy pedal, but some owners change earlier because they want to.

Edited by Dewi 2 on Tuesday 13th July 10:46

[BiggaJ]

Dewi 2 said:

BiggaJ said:

The 200 cell cats to my mind are a very worth while upgrade over the stock 600 cell cats. I haven't noticed a big change in the sound at all ....

I thought the 4.3 has the same single cat (one on each cylinder bank) as the early 4.7 ie. one container, but with two matrices, a 900 cell and 400 cell. You mention 600 cell, so they may be different.
I think I recall hearing that the stock 4.7 is slightly quieter than the 4.3, so if you did not notice a big change in sound, then perhaps the exhaust systems are not identical, in which case my experience will not apply to our OP.

Hi Dewi,

Sorry been to Manchester and back in mine today.
Mine is a 2009 car, this is when they moved from 4.3 to 4.7 I believe but mine is the 4.3 variant. All I know is mine had 2 x 200 cell cats fitted and 2 x 600 cell cats came off.

Doesn't the 4.7 have a primary cat on each bank near the headers and then 2 sets of cats under the car like the 4.3?

Anyway, it's a worthwhile upgrade and I can recommend AHM who also fitted twin plate clutch with lightened flywheel, egr delete, GT4 filters and remap.

Clutch and flywheel with AHM cost about £2500.

Edited by BiggaJ on Tuesday 13th July 18:50

[Dewi 2]

BiggaJ said:

Hi Dewi,

Sorry been to Manchester and back in mine today.
Mine is a 2009 car, this is when they moved from 4.3 to 4.7 I believe but mine is the 4.3 variant. All I know is mine had 2 x 200 cell cats fitted and 2 x 600 cell cats came off.

Doesn't the 4.7 have a primary cat on each bank near the headers and then 2 sets of cats under the car like the 4.3 ?

Hello Jon,

My understanding is that the 4.7 started having primary cats incorporated in the manifold in (about) 2010. Presumably, there must have been a tightening of the emmisions rules at that time, requiring the cats to become hot quicker from cold start, because cats do not work when cold. Until that change, the 4.7 only had two sets of cats under the car, like yours. As I mentioned, I thought the exhaust systems were the same for 4.3 and early 4.7, but it now seems not so.
Each of my cats contain two separate 'bricks', first 900 cell then 400 cell.
Perhaps that more than doubling the number of total cells, is why the 4.7 is slightly quieter than the 4.3. Removing fuse 22 made no
discernible difference from inside the car.

[BiggaJ]

Dewi 2 said:

Hello Jon,

My understanding is that the 4.7 started having primary cats incorporated in the manifold in (about) 2010. Presumably, there must have been a tightening of the emmisions rules at that time, requiring the cats to become hot quicker from cold start, because cats do not work when cold. Until that change, the 4.7 only had two sets of cats under the car, like yours. As I mentioned, I thought the exhaust systems were the same for 4.3 and early 4.7, but it now seems not so.
Each of my cats contain two separate 'bricks', first 900 cell then 400 cell.
Perhaps that more than doubling the number of total cells, is why the 4.7 is slightly quieter than the 4.3. Removing fuse 22 made no
discernible difference from inside the car.

I will bow to your better knowledge. I have the CC Charger remote fitted for control of the exhaust valve. I can hear a difference in the car under load but otherwise it makes no difference just cruising on light throttle input.

[Dewi 2]

BiggaJ said:

I will bow to your better knowledge. I have the CC Charger remote fitted for control of the exhaust valve. I can hear a difference in the car under load but otherwise it makes no difference just cruising on light throttle input.

If it is of interest to you, this is roughly the factory original exhaust valves operation;
0 to 1,500 rpm Open
1,500 to about 4,000 rpm Closed
Above about 4,000 rpm Open

The remote unit effectively removes and replaces Fuse 22, so it can only make a change to the 1,500 to 4,000 rpm range.
Whether Clive has an improved version now I don't know, but some owners have 3-way wired switches, which allow the valves to be closed throughout the rev range. Handy when a loud exhaust is fitted and you want it to be quieter, say on start up.

[NickXX]

I had a similar ‘problem’ to you with my 2007 v8v. At the start of last year I had the basic Bamford Rose mods done for about £2k. These consist of 200 cell cats, remap and exhaust switch. The airbox can be modified as part of this. Headline figures are +20hp, but it makes a big difference to drive-ability low down the revs (and importantly for me, throttle response). The exhaust switch is excellent too - stealth/loud and changeover at 5k(?) revs.

I went back at the start of this year to get the twin-plate clutch and manifolds done. There is a labour saving if you get these 2 done at the same time. The clutch, again, makes a big difference to low revs/low speeds around town. The manifolds are the ‘rocketship’ upgrade imo - only noticeable at high revs, but takes the power up to 4.7 levels. The manifolds are expensive - so if you don’t rev the engine out, probably not the upgrade for you. If you do use the full rev range, they are an excellent upgrade.

[NickXX]

Dewi 2 said:

Hello Jon,

My understanding is that the 4.7 started having primary cats incorporated in the manifold in (about) 2010. Presumably, there must have been a tightening of the emmisions rules at that time, requiring the cats to become hot quicker from cold start, because cats do not work when cold. Until that change, the 4.7 only had two sets of cats under the car, like yours. As I mentioned, I thought the exhaust systems were the same for 4.3 and early 4.7, but it now seems not so.
Each of my cats contain two separate 'bricks', first 900 cell then 400 cell.
Perhaps that more than doubling the number of total cells, is why the 4.7 is slightly quieter than the 4.3. Removing fuse 22 made no
discernible difference from inside the car.

I believe this is correct. The early 4.7s just had the mid section cats- as per the 4.3. The post 2010 ones had 4 separate cat boxes- 2 in the exhaust manifolds up by the engine, then the 2 mid section ones. Done for emissions reasons (the up-stream ones heat up quicker).

A couple of points on fuse 22- for later cars (I can’t remember the cutover), the exhaust valve fuse became fuse 15. On all cars, however, the exhaust valve/flap can seize- so even if you do pull the correct fuse, the flap might not move.

[Boshey]

NickXX said:

I had a similar ‘problem’ to you with my 2007 v8v. At the start of last year I had the basic Bamford Rose mods done for about £2k. These consist of 200 cell cats, remap and exhaust switch. The airbox can be modified as part of this. Headline figures are +20hp, but it makes a big difference to drive-ability low down the revs (and importantly for me, throttle response). The exhaust switch is excellent too - stealth/loud and changeover at 5k(?) revs.

I went back at the start of this year to get the twin-plate clutch and manifolds done. There is a labour saving if you get these 2 done at the same time. The clutch, again, makes a big difference to low revs/low speeds around town. The manifolds are the ‘rocketship’ upgrade imo - only noticeable at high revs, but takes the power up to 4.7 levels. The manifolds are expensive - so if you don’t rev the engine out, probably not the upgrade for you. If you do use the full rev range, they are an excellent upgrade.

Thanks Nick, really helpful - as has everyone been so far. I think ill do something similar by having the Phase 1 mods done. I understand from Bamford Rose that the Twin Plate clutch on its own makes a decent difference to responsiveness but I think Ill leave the clutch until it needs replacing and hopefully by then will know if the manifold upgrade is worth it for me and my driving style.

Ill let you know how it goes

[Parvenu]

Wow, you guys across the pond seem to have great deals on the AMR V8V twin plate clutch replacement. There are no indy shops near me that are qualified to do the replacement on my MY 2007 manual V8V, so I'm stuck with having it done by the local AM dealer. Their original estimate was $11,000 for the OEM single plate clutch and flywheel or $12,000 (8,714 GBP equivalent) for the AMR twin plate kit. After much negotiating I got them down to $7,100 (5,156 GDP) for the AMR twin plate replacement and dropped the car off six weeks ago. And after all that time they're still waiting for the parts to arrive. I'd probably be better off shipping my car to England and having Bamford Rose do the work!!

[Jon39]

Years ago we looked at the USA price of the Vantage GT, compared to the more expensive (same) N430 in the UK.

$12,000 appears to be pure greed by someone. Admittedly more labour because of the rear transaxle, but I expect a clutch change in the USA for some everyday vehicles, might be less than $1,000.

Think an AM PHer did ship their car to BR, from Australia !

[Boshey]

Firstly thanks to all the advice and input on here.

just wanted to close the loop so to speak as my car returned from DAE today with a new twin plate clutch and the Cat 200 and ECU tune upgrades.. absolutely astonishing.
I mean really ludicrous difference. So much more responsive, gear change is a dream and the extra growl from the engine is wonderful.
Feels and sounds like a different car.

Forums like this make such a difference to keen but inexpert and uninitiated like myself, really appreciate all the help. Also cannot praise enough the expertise and advice from James and David at DAE.

Ok I'm off again to go for a proper drive!