Back from Europe

[yeti]

1600 miles of great food, great roads, great wine and the *perfect* car for the job. Consummate Grand Tourer and far more sporty than its size suggests. My love affair continues

The obligatory circuit visit at Reims. Highly recommend La Garenne at the end of the circuit for lunch as well


Chateau Challenges outside Beaune where we stayed


Pour Monsieur Homme de Jocke - Chateau Pommard just outside Beaune. Have some 2004 and 2007, plus some Chassange 2009 which I am looking forward to.


Up in the Haut Jura heading downwards towards Geneva. Probably the best roads I have ever driven..


No cars in this one, but Luzern a beautiful town. Worth the trip.


Our last morning in Durbach after an incredbile and unexpectedly spectacular drive throught the Black Forest. Setting the satvav to 'sortest route' really paid off with some unlisted and empty roads, sadly no passenger so no-one to take pics

[Molly GT]

Thanks for sharing the pics Yeti - another great trip! Was it with an organized group or just mates?

[Harsh]

Hi Lewis,

Good to see the pics mate, did you manage to get to airports to pick up and drop of the passengers in time?
The Jura's and the Black forest are great unsung drivers roads aren't they?

[yeti]

Molly GT said:

Thanks for sharing the pics Yeti - another great trip! Was it with an organized group or just mates?

Just a few friends from the Maser forum Amanda - we've got a jaunt down to Monte Carlo in planning for spring (Millau Bridge, Route Napoleon, tons of interesting stuff) that I'll keep you and Rob in the loop for if you like? It'd be nice to have another Aston along

[yeti]

Harsh said:

Hi Lewis,

Good to see the pics mate, did you manage to get to airports to pick up and drop of the passengers in time?
The Jura's and the Black forest are great unsung drivers roads aren't they?

We did, dropped off at Geneva on Saturday and she's now a proud godmother! Luzern was a great recommendation Bachi, just a lovely town! And the drive from there to Durbach was 75% motorway, then we set the nav to shortest rather than fastest. The best 40miles I have had, a few wrong turns, dead ends, driveways and sawmills (bizarrely) but we got there and some of the roas were like Scalextric - one lane wide, armco either side, a series of big hairpins with views for miles.

I found myself laughing out loud whilst driving

[Harsh]

yeti said:

We did, dropped off at Geneva on Saturday and she's now a proud godmother! Luzern was a great recommendation Bachi, just a lovely town! And the drive from there to Durbach was 75% motorway, then we set the nav to shortest rather than fastest. The best 40miles I have had, a few wrong turns, dead ends, driveways and sawmills (bizarrely) but we got there and some of the roas were like Scalextric - one lane wide, armco either side, a series of big hairpins with views for miles.

I found myself laughing out loud whilst driving

Great news!
send my congratulations.

Glad you liked Luzern, it seemed the logical choice considering the zig zagging you had to do and your timescales.
hopefully next time there'll be fewer constraints and you can do some of the bits you didn't have time to do.

[Jockman]

yeti said:

...Pour Monsieur Homme de Jocke...

Formidable mon ami.

Looks like you had some fun there Yeti.

To reiterate the official AM line in recent publications I've read, the DB9 is in fact a sports car with GT characteristics. I believe that this is what you have experienced, though your adaptations will have enhanced the 'sportiness'.

Edit - BTW the addition of the letter 'e' has made me feminine, but I'm sure you knew that.

Edited by Jockman on Wednesday 28th September 07:39

[George H]

Looks a great trip Yeti.

How were the uprated brakes? Could you tell much difference with the DBS steering rack too?

[krisdelta]

Sounds like a great time was had - welcome back! At least the weather is nice and you can enjoy a few more days of roof down action, without freezing to death.

[yeti]

George H said:

Could you tell much difference with the DBS steering rack too?

Unbelievable difference! So much faster, smoother and more intuitive, was also able to take hairpins bends with one hand on the gearstick and make the turn comfortably... Just makes the car so much better to drive! I am used to it now, but still haven't got over how good it makes the car - I don't remember the car being bad to start with, but this has moved it on a level!

The brakes came in at well under £4k for 6pot calipers and 380mm discs front and 330mm discs rear utlising the orignial calipers. Saved 1.2kg per wheel with the ally bells, it makes a difference.

[yeti]

Jockman said:

Edit - BTW the addition of the letter 'e' has made me feminine, but I'm sure you knew that.

Je suis desolez mon ami, just tried to make it sound more French. No gender transfer implied

Maybe 'HommeEcossais' might be a better nom de plume for Pistonheads' French wine correspondant?

[Jockman]

yeti said:

Je suis desolez mon ami...

De rien, Monsieur le Yeti. And I do believe we have 3 known wine correspondents with probably a few more staying silent

[George H]

yeti said:

Unbelievable difference! So much faster, smoother and more intuitive, was also able to take hairpins bends with one hand on the gearstick and make the turn comfortably...

Now just think, if you had the TT2, you could take it with 2 hands on the wheel whilst still ready to change gear. Think how much faster you would be!

[DB9VolanteDriver]

yeti said:

George H said:

Could you tell much difference with the DBS steering rack too?

Unbelievable difference! So much faster, smoother and more intuitive, was also able to take hairpins bends with one hand on the gearstick and make the turn comfortably... Just makes the car so much better to drive! I am used to it now, but still haven't got over how good it makes the car - I don't remember the car being bad to start with, but this has moved it on a level!

The brakes came in at well under £4k for 6pot calipers and 380mm discs front and 330mm discs rear utlising the orignial calipers. Saved 1.2kg per wheel with the ally bells, it makes a difference.

When I moved from DB9 to DBS, I could not believe how much better the steering feel and effort were in comparison. Several road tests of the early DB9 complained about artificial 'heaviness' purposely designed in because Bez said he liked that kind of feel. It made cornering with the DB9 more difficult than necessary. I guess someone at the factory listened to owner complaints.

Glad to see that all it takes to fix the issue is to fit a rack from the DBS. I am under the impression that later DB9s also have the improved steering fitted?

[yeti]

I think the DBS and Sports Pack racks are one and the same so I guess still optional to have or not on the DB9? Likely the Virage has the same rack.

I'm glad it wasn't just my imagination anyway, with the rack fitted suddenly all the other mods made perfect sense. A smidge more power to make the autoroutes more fun is all that's needed and to be honest it isn't lacking as standard. I didn't take it over 4-5k rpm on the twisties so wasn't even using the power, just the torque of 3rd and 4th. The manual box is a joy, just pure old-fashioned driving!