On the road again - Robb's Aston Martin Adventures | FerrariChat

On the road again - Robb's Aston Martin Adventures

Discussion in 'British' started by Robb, Apr 28, 2018.

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  1. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    So I started searching for the right car in the last few months and pulled the trigger on a beautiful one-owner from Long Island.

    Car had 6k miles and looked brand new.

    We are excited to add it to our garage.

    2009 V8 Vantage Sportshift with sport pack in Meteorite Silver (metallic gray) over Obsidian Black.

    White contrast stitching. Black calipers. Has the 700watt audio system and bright grill along with most options except the umbrella...

    Wanted the vantage to be a good complement to our F355’s and be a more fun car for me to drive as an alternate on the weekends to my 4x4 tundra crew cab.

    I probably won’t use the Aston as a daily because it feels a bit more special than that. Also because it is a bit more of a thinking man’s (or lady’s) car with the Sportshift only drving with paddles (as a manual) to save clutchlife, the sport pack tighter suspension, and the ergonomics / visibility. I think it’s meant to be more of an event to drive, like the Ferrari’s. It’s not really comparable to a German sedan or even Maserati with an auto box...

    I will update the group on my ownership experience similarly to my Ferrari adventure thread in the 355 section. I will drop into dealers on my travels and show what I am adding to the Aston as far as upgrades, changes, etc.

    Driven it about 200 miles since it was delivered and I am very, very pleased with the car. I took it to get new tires last week and went with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. Night and day difference over the originals that came with the car (obviously.)

    I ordered a fabspeed x-pipe and the 200 cell cats to add hp and tq. They show Dyno results of +40 in each with their setup... will share the install with the group using my lift in the new garage. Big thanks to Mike at Yellow Compass for excellent pricing. :)

    Also big thanks to Rick in SoCal for his assistance during this search and start of ownership. He has an ‘08 vantage in Tungsten Silver. He is moving to AZ soon so he and I will likely be taking some drives and working on the cars regularly.

    I ordered clear tail lights and a few odds and ends. Might opt to add yellow calipers as one project...

    Pulled the yellow fuse 22. Already has issues with the gas door sticking - so I have gone for the rear bypass cable releas I n the hatch area to open it at the gas station.

    The redpants.lol videos on YouTube and on his site have been super helpful on do it yourself fixes and maintenance for the vantage.

    Attached one of the first photos. I need to get the car washed as it was raining at pickup. Doesn’t show a lot of dirt though with the metallic paint even in this darker color.

    Thanks for checking in with my progress. Looking forward to the adventures.

    Robb

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  2. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  3. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Ordered this book when I found the car. Great resource for modern Aston’s with tons of facts and figures. Very thorough. Definitely should be purchased if you own a 2003 or later Aston from Gaydon.

    Robb

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  4. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  5. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    The car also came with one spare plastic key. I should probably add one or two more as extras. Not sure on their costs yet and if you can buy a used one and just reprogram it at the dealer or if you have to start with a fresh wiped key.

    I liked the smaller and simpler leather case that was included. Not sure if it is oem or aftermarket but I really like it and should add another one of those also.

    Robb

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  6. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    I love Ferrari accessories like the Schedoni luggage and other odds and ends. So for Aston it should be no different...

    I found a smokin deal on a pair of Luggage bags with dust covers to fit in the cabin behind the seats. Pretty much brand new. They match my interior. Still looking for a full set of 4 bags to go in the rear hatch area.

    Robb

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  7. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Ordered a few other books off of Amazon to dive a bit more into the marque’s history.

    All of these are fantastic!

    I met the advertising car photographer René Staud in NYC last year during an expo. He does great work and owns an Aston Vanquish(the latest model.) He also shoots with a Leica Camera so we have a few things in common to always be able to enjoy discussions about.

    Robb

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  8. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  9. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    It’s been a busy couple of weeks waiting on the car to arrive...

    I have been on assignment in multiple states during this purchase so I had to time the car’s delivery with the enclosed transporter so I would be back in AZ at the right time to meet it.

    With several of my other Ferrari purchases, I had flown out and driven the cars back home but:

    A. my schedule this year didn’t leave time and
    B. Being such a low mile car, I didn’t want to put boring straight line highway miles on it going east to west coast...

    So in that time I looked at exhaust options. I liked the Bamford Rose solution with their dyno numbers and their expertise, (their headers looked great in particular) but felt like all of their solutions (with the quicksilver exhaust) were a bit too raw and the wrong kind of loud if you could say such a thing. Most I experienced were as loud as my straight pipe challenge car... and I just did not need that much noise for this very different but performance oriented car. I already have both the challenge car and the F355 F1 scream.

    I saw the video on the fabspeed x-pipe and 200 cell cats on YouTube and thought it was a perfect match for what I was after. Just the right amount of howl accentuating the natural sound of the car. The right amount of great sound.



    Robb
     
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  10. SVCalifornia

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  11. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  12. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Ordered the clear tail lights for the rear that were available on the N400 special edition cars and as options on 2010+.

    Rather than remove my painted center blades from inside the lights, I ordered an extra set that were primed that I can paint myself to match the exterior paint. That way I can swap between red lights or clear without having to redo the double sided tape again and again.

    I’m a fan of both the red and clear tail lights. I think the clear gives it a very modern update.

    Robb

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  13. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Keith,

    Great looking car. Like yours, I much prefer the cars without the side sills. The designer of the Vantage, Henrik Fisker bought his own v12 in CA years later and the first thing he did was to remove the sills.

    I much prefer the shape of the body with the cleanest (simplest lines).

    I also like the red calipers and also yellow...

    I may look into swapping my black ones for a yellow set at some point. Can’t be that difficult.

    Robb

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  14. SVCalifornia

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    Yellow would look terrific!

    SV


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  15. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Looking at the front grille. The 2006-2009 comes with an 8 horizontal bar grille. In gray or bright silver. It seems a little busy to me. In 2010 they modified the grille to have 6 horizontal bars (the db9 has 5 bars.). I think I like the newer 6 bar design so may look into adding a bright silver version of that. I will obviously keep all the original parts to switch the car back if needed or desired.

    Here are comparison photos.

    2006-2009:

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    Here is the 6-bar from 2010-2016:

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    I view this car as a very elegant timeless design with the silver window surrounds, rims, and trim pieces. So a bright silver grille seems very appropriate.

    I like the full mesh front grille on later cars also but think this grill is truly best suited for cars with the extra splitters, sills, blacked out trim, carbon fiber and of course the different lower bumpers with wider openings. I think this grille would look a bit odd with the bright silver trim on my particular car...

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    Robb
     
  16. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  17. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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  18. SVCalifornia

    SVCalifornia Formula 3
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    Looks very nice with the mesh details!

    A friend in my club modified his front from the bars to the mesh which looked very good! More sporty than lux...

    SV


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  19. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Yes, I agree. Changes the feel quite a bit.

    I think that I will likely keep it on the lux side. We have the sports side covered...

    Robb


     
  20. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    Picked up a front grill badge from the Heritage Trust / owners club. I am going to plan a visit to the factory and museum within the year.

    Robb

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  21. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    The original owner left 4 best of buddy holly cd’s loaded in the CD player so I will be reaching out to return those and ask some questions about his ownership...

    Robb

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  22. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    As with my “Ferrari adventures” thread, I’ll regularly be visiting different Aston dealers throughout my busy travel season. In April, I was in Houston and visited Star Motorcars. They are a good outfit. I would have been very comfortable picking up a car from them. But I found my car in the NE.

    They had two DBS for very good prices. One in morning frost white:

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    I wasn’t a fan of the white wheels but the car was in very nice condition. Give them a call for some low eye opening pricing....

    Robb
     
  23. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    And one Black carbon edition with highish miles. It did have all four corners replaced in the suspension... And was very nice.

    Robb

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  24. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    I love the looks of the DBS it the more time I spent in them (and the DB9) the more I felt that they were just a bit too long to me.

    This experience though helped me finalize my search to the Vantage which I felt was the perfect size inside and out.

    Robb
     
  25. Robb

    Robb Moderator
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    They also had an original Vantage S in a stick which was not a very common find.

    I probably would have purchased this car if it was not in “liquid paper” white. It ticked all the right boxes. And a very realistic price.

    Robb

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