Three Must-Have Upgrades for a Manual Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Here are the three best upgrades I made to my Vantage in increasing order of cost and effort:
#1: Exhaust by-pass. Cost: $0. The easiest and most famous upgrade is to remove Fuse 22 which controls an exhaust baffle bypass valve. The valve is controlled to not disturb the neighbors as you roll around town, but opens up after (I think) 4,000 RPM. The exhaust note of each Aston is universally praised, so some of us like it loud all the time. Search for “Aston fuse 22” and you will find several easy how-to videos on finding and removing the fuse. (Note that it is actually Fuse 15 after 2012, but everyone refers to it as the “Fuse 22 upgrade”.)
The owner before me went a little further and installed a simple electrical upgrade that allows you to enable or disable the fuse 22 circuit with a Bluetooth remote. I did an upgrade to the upgrade that remembers the last setting after the car is turned off. The installation was as simple as replacing a fuse. I love it. When I want to be quiet leaving my building’s garage, I press one button. When the top is down and I want to enjoy the sound at any speed, I press the other. The gizmo costs £72 at CC Charger in the UK.
#2: Michelin Sport 4S tires. Cost: $1,228 for the four. Alignment and installation … $588*. You needed new tires eventually anyway. Again, when absolutely everybody you read or watch says these are the tires to have it might just be true. Some even say to upgrade before the old Bridgestones want replacing. The advice I got was to have a first-rate alignment done at the same time. Total cost with labor and tax was $1939.59; call it two grand every 10,000 miles. After 3000 miles I’ll say the results were worth it. With a positive attitude you can characterize it as getting a noticeably better driving car for a relatively small bit of incremental money.
#3: Dual-plate clutch and lightweight flywheel. Cost: $8,389.70 with labor and tax. And, like tires, you will need one eventually anyway. In my case, sooner than later. As I’ve written elsewhere the factory clutch seems to be made of Jell-o. For the cost of a replacement single plate you can get a dual plate clutch that will last much longer, with a lighter weight flywheel the makes the engine rev up and down a little more freely. The clutch pedal feel is somehow more controlled. There is still a very high bite point for fast shifting, though the transfer of torque to motion is more confident. Hard to put into words, but it is pleasing. I haven’t yet heard of when one of the dual plates wore out so an eventual replacement is still in my budget. The lack of news on this popular topic is encouraging. I went with the Aston Martin Racing branded kit from the dealer, and there are a couple of aftermarket alternatives. The AMR kit won’t fit the automated manual, which gives longer clutch life anyway, but I’ve heard that the aftermarket ones do.
Another lesson learned …
Be Careful Parking
* To be fair this included $79 to make the car drivable again after a bizarre mishap on the car lift. After my bad incident going down the car lift and into the wall, I traded places for the upper deck which slopes upwards. This started well. Just get up a good head of steam, roar up the incline and drop a front wheel into a cradle to prevent rolling. Very nice. Until I discovered, at speed, that when the car next to mine is not there the missing couple of tons makes the lift floor pan straighter. This increases the angle upwards and eliminates the 1/4” by which my front end was clearing. This tore through the bottom of the leading air dam and peeled back the aluminum sheet covering the underbody like a sardine can. Imagine my surprise. The fine people at the alignment shop straightened it enough while on the lift to allow the car to be driven to the body shop.
** Note that the V12 Vantage hood / bonnet in the thumbnail photo is NOT a recommended upgrade. Do not drive down a car lift into the garage wall. For another post.