Aston Martin day in the sun

[Helmsman]

What a nice day, sun shine and all Aston Martins available for test on a track! (except One77..)

All models in my view crazy beautiful, regardless of angel. Coming inside it gets even better, alu, carbon and leather with mad quality feeling all over. But the best part is when you push to start, whether the V8 or the V12 the exhaust sound is like nothing else - again absolute beauty!

Small track so we couldn't try it all out, and I'm certainly not a pro, but still got a good feeling for the cars. Clearly good power, the "small" Vantage V8 similar to the M3 while the V12's obviously more.
The one thing immediately standing out as less good was the gear box, in all models. Aston is a small company with limited resource and I guess a proper DCT cost to develop. But still, the delay and lack of prompt engagement is simply a bit too much for this level investment.

Coming back to my M3 I'd say the old bugger to me still is doing a quite good job even in comparison with these "super GT's"; Comparable firm/sophisticated chassis stand, equally nice if not better steering (with less under steering than I felt Vanquish and certainly Rapide), but most of all I didn't quite realize how good the M-DCT is, and how much the gearbox do to the overall feeling - Wow!

So if you can stand driving a car that look like a 318D (well in my case, AW Sedan), with too high driving seating, at a third of the cost - I'd say the M3 is worth keeping and maintain. Investing a few hundred $ on a OEM mod and the noise is not too bad neither...

Cheers

[///M Power-Belgium]

Agreed about the exhaust sound of the Aston's,sounds like nothing else and I like it a lot !
Sometimes I cross a black Vantage V8 and need to say it sounds better than our cars with more and deeper growl in it , actualy every Aston sounds just perfect !
And Nik....THX for sharing !

[templarklimek]

Nice write up, spot on. If the Arch Angel Gabriel drove a car a Vantage V12 would be it. Listening to ABBA!

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by templarklimek

Nice write up, spot on. If the Arch Angel Gabriel drove a car a Vantage V12 would be it. Listening to ABBA!

ABBA ? Ohhh no man hope not.. Dancing Queen ?

[templarklimek]

LOL, I'm guilty I love ABBA. I'm into euro and American synth-pop like Saint Etienne, the ting tings, Tracey throne and many others. Old and new.

It's sad here in the U.S. we have only underground enjoyment of that kind of music. When I travel to Prague and go dancing I hear it all night. Getting of a plane in Paris they were playing Tracey Thorne/Everything but the girl and its so wonderful to hear something beside hip hop or country.



My Stable, both manual tyranny's.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Nice!