How's this for a result ? !!
Discussion
I have been thinking lately about changing my Porsche 996 4S for a second hand V8 Vantage, so last Saturday took a trip to my nearest dealer (Chichester) to arrange a test drive for this week.
Duly sorted for Thursday, then got a phone call this morning to call off BUT instead offered a cancellation place on Wednesday for an Aston Martin V8 afternoon at Millbrook, to include a high speed lap in the DBS !
Absolute result - haven't left the village for months so have been busy checking oil and tyres and plumbing directions into the satnav !
(As an aside, my Porsche is black so never again - have always thought the V8 looks particulary good in meteorite silver and love the anthracite wheels with that, but it seems they are few and far between - the salesman tells me they can be easily powder coated to that colour - anyone on here had that done ?)
Duly sorted for Thursday, then got a phone call this morning to call off BUT instead offered a cancellation place on Wednesday for an Aston Martin V8 afternoon at Millbrook, to include a high speed lap in the DBS !
Absolute result - haven't left the village for months so have been busy checking oil and tyres and plumbing directions into the satnav !
(As an aside, my Porsche is black so never again - have always thought the V8 looks particulary good in meteorite silver and love the anthracite wheels with that, but it seems they are few and far between - the salesman tells me they can be easily powder coated to that colour - anyone on here had that done ?)
hussar10a said:
Duly sorted for Thursday, then got a phone call this morning to call off BUT instead offered a cancellation place on Wednesday for an Aston Martin V8 afternoon at Millbrook, to include a high speed lap in the DBS !
A result on two fronts actually, the weather for Thursday is predicted to be awful.Have fun!
hussar10a said:
Just leaving now Russ ! Consider your best wishes well and truly passed on too. Thank god for your work ethic !!!!
How did you enjoy the morning then hussar10a?I managed to get a late space courtesey of Broughtons. Thought the DBS was very impressive performance-wise, but I still think it's a big ugly in the flesh. Didn't get on with the Sportshift cars and felt the city circuit was a bit of a waste of time. My last session was in a manual coupe on the hill circuit which was brilliant fun - just wish I could have gone around a few more times...
blade runner said:
hussar10a said:
Just leaving now Russ ! Consider your best wishes well and truly passed on too. Thank god for your work ethic !!!!
How did you enjoy the morning then hussar10a?I managed to get a late space courtesey of Broughtons. Thought the DBS was very impressive performance-wise, but I still think it's a big ugly in the flesh. Didn't get on with the Sportshift cars and felt the city circuit was a bit of a waste of time. My last session was in a manual coupe on the hill circuit which was brilliant fun - just wish I could have gone around a few more times...
Absolutely agree about the DBS, my neck is stiff as a board this morning from getting chucked about in it !! Doesn't look special enough for the money for me.
Sportshift was for me also a definate no-no, although I appreciate that it takes longer than we had to get used to, I couldn't get a smooth upshift and attempting to blip on the downshift was a disaster (I can do it on my tiptronic) ! Also having the paddles fixed to the wheel housing rather than the wheel itself means that if it all goes a bit wrong with crossed hands you can't downshift other than let the gearbox do it itself just short of the stall point. (I know that you should always be set up prior to a corner - but in the real world on a twisty B road it doesn't always happen that way - for me at least!)
The alpine course was a hoot - could have done that all day in order to increase my rather pathetic times!
For some reason I expected mock houses and pedestrian crossings on the City Course!
The bowl at 130 with your hands on your lap was fun too.
So - all in all a great day out on someone else's petrol. Very slick and professionally organised, although I paid for it after all that water/tea/coffee/juice in the 2 hour jam on the M25 - thank god for an untidy car with empty mineral water bottles rolling round on the floor!
On a serious note, and no doubt I will burn in hell for this - the urge I had to absolutely buy one before I got there was gone by the mid point of the day.I still can't quite put my finger on it but I was disappointed by the slow power delivery (I think), and today I am really depressed that I was disappointed ( because I so wanted one for so long) if that makes sense.
As you know I drive a Porsche 996 C4S which is acknowledged to be the bluntest of all of them but even so against the AM it really feels like a precision scalpel with head-snapping acceleration and brilliant pointability and brakes and usability - I went to the day with a completely open mind (flat 6 v V8 etc etc) and was truly hoping that I would get back in my Porsche and totally detest it (to the point of taking it straight to Chichester to trade it in)- but I didn't, and there's the rub.
Have been awake since 4 this morning struggling with the question whether one of the world's most attractive cars (inside and out) (IMHO), and one I have lusted after since the launch, is worth the additional higher running costs (fuel/tax/servicing/extended warranty etc) over my present marque if I'm not 100% taken with the "mechanicals".
Pretty sad that that's the biggest thing in my life I have to worry about I guess !
Oh Russ - passed your best wishes onto Andy (who I assume is one of the test drivers ?)Sad to report - but he had no idea who I was talking about!
I so wish that I had been able to conclude my Milbrook report with the news that I brought one this morning - but I fear many, many more sleepless nights will pass before I am able to update you all on the final outcome !!
Hussar.....
Don't write off the AMV8 its a slow burner & its hard to adapt to its differnt style in one afternoon, but it will definitely get under your skin if you own one.
As said B4, I came out of 996TT (which rather out thrills a C4S!) & still obsolutely loved the Aston. Ok truth be known it isn't quite as good as a drivers car but, it makes up in other ways!!
I'm back into Pork now (997GT3!) but I whole-heartedly recommend running an AMV8 for a while, there are a good few used ones on the market now & Aston dealers will (unlike Porsche!) negotiate a bit, so you could get into a great value lightly used car, worth considering?
Don't write off the AMV8 its a slow burner & its hard to adapt to its differnt style in one afternoon, but it will definitely get under your skin if you own one.
As said B4, I came out of 996TT (which rather out thrills a C4S!) & still obsolutely loved the Aston. Ok truth be known it isn't quite as good as a drivers car but, it makes up in other ways!!
I'm back into Pork now (997GT3!) but I whole-heartedly recommend running an AMV8 for a while, there are a good few used ones on the market now & Aston dealers will (unlike Porsche!) negotiate a bit, so you could get into a great value lightly used car, worth considering?
Edited by Grant3 on Thursday 20th March 14:35
Sorry your day wasn't conclusive for you. I hugely enjoyed my V8 coming as I did from a 997S. No it wasn't quite as 'wieldy' as the Porsche and the power delivery meant it didn't seem as 'sharp' or quick off the line as the 997 but in reality the performance figs are pretty much identical and indeed I'd expect the V8 to be a tad quicker than your 996C4S. There is actually more easily accessable tail out fun to be had in the AM too. It IS a different animal no doubt but life's short and if you buy wisely there's no reason why you can't enjoy a year in the gentlemans club (youths section) that is an AMV8 before returning (if you still want to) to Porsche. As Grant has already said it's a slow burner the V8 but have a trawl round here and see if you can find anyone who actually regrets owning one - I doubt you will - despite most having owned the odd Porsche or two as well, and in some cases returned to the 997 fold like Grant and myself.
Edited by Pugsey on Thursday 20th March 16:12
hussar10a said:
Yes Grant, it was always to be a " nearly new" - I just don't do brand new.
I haven't totally discounted the Vantage yet by any means - the tale of woe was merely to illustrate my dilemma, and hopefully get some feedback (good and bad) from actual owners rather than dealers.
Still, not a bad dilemma to have...I haven't totally discounted the Vantage yet by any means - the tale of woe was merely to illustrate my dilemma, and hopefully get some feedback (good and bad) from actual owners rather than dealers.
It depends what you want from your car I guess. If it's outright performance and handling, then I don't think anyone is going to say the AM is close to the Porsche. If that's what's really important to you, then I wouldn't bother changing.
For me though it's the looks of the AM (by far the prettiest car on the road today) and the fact that it's an AM rather than yet another Porsche, that make it a more desirable car for me to own. The opportunities to drive at the stupid speeds we did yesterday on public roads are just so non-existent that I don't see the point in having anything much quicker (0 to 60 in under 5secs is still pretty swift). Handling-wise I think it's beautifully balanced and very confidence inspiring to drive at speed, and that was something that was re-inforced for me yesterday on the mountain circuit where I never felt like I stood a chance of getting it out of shape.
You pay your money and you make your choice!
Thanks everyone for your thoughts so far. And to Pugsey - "wieldy" is exacly the word I was searching for, when applied to yesterday's driving conditions.
I received a phone call from my dealer who had read this page, and he will organise a normal test drive on "ordinary" roads for later next week. (We may have just done this Millbrook thrash/road test drive thing the wrong way round perhaps.)
I'm fairly sure that as I don't spend all that much time thrashing around at breakneck speeds in real life that this will be just the job to focus my mind on the fact (which I now have a much better understanding of) that these are just two different views and solutions to sports car design and in the real world, at real world non-licence losing speeds the Aston is a far, far better place to sit (which in truth is exactly the reason I fell for it in the first place!)
[ The dark cloud of despondancy is quickly lifting here Geoff - keep rubbing at that watch strap!! ]
I received a phone call from my dealer who had read this page, and he will organise a normal test drive on "ordinary" roads for later next week. (We may have just done this Millbrook thrash/road test drive thing the wrong way round perhaps.)
I'm fairly sure that as I don't spend all that much time thrashing around at breakneck speeds in real life that this will be just the job to focus my mind on the fact (which I now have a much better understanding of) that these are just two different views and solutions to sports car design and in the real world, at real world non-licence losing speeds the Aston is a far, far better place to sit (which in truth is exactly the reason I fell for it in the first place!)
[ The dark cloud of despondancy is quickly lifting here Geoff - keep rubbing at that watch strap!! ]
Edited by hussar10a on Thursday 20th March 20:43
The Aston's a lovely real world car. Feels special, and whilst not the quickest and most scalpel like car on the market (I think the throttle is to blame here in the main), it can be hustled very briskly.
You could always add something else to the stable if you want something rollercoaster like
You could always add something else to the stable if you want something rollercoaster like
hussar10a said:
Thanks everyone for your thoughts so far. And to Pugsey - "wieldy" is exacly the word I was searching for, when applied to yesterday's driving conditions.
I received a phone call from my dealer who had read this page, and he will organise a normal test drive on "ordinary" roads for later next week. (We may have just done this Millbrook thrash/road test drive thing the wrong way round perhaps.)
I'm fairly sure that as I don't spend all that much time thrashing around at breakneck speeds in real life that this will be just the job to focus my mind on the fact (which I now have a much better understanding of) that these are just two different views and solutions to sports car design and in the real world, at real world non-licence losing speeds the Aston is a far, far better place to sit (which in truth is exactly the reason I fell for it in the first place!)
[ The dark cloud of despondancy is quickly lifting here Geoff - keep rubbing at that watch strap!! ]
Great! I'm sure that's the right thing to do. Enjoy. I do think Millbrook was probably the wrong environment - after all - ALL road cars are crap on track, it's just some are less crap than others and yes I include GT3s and GT3RSs in that!!!! Once I got into driving a Radical and back into racing I completely lost interest in driving any road cars at track days and now look for different pleasures from my road cars. I truly believe the AMV8 will make you smile more often in normal road driving than 997S. Amazingly one of the 'slowest' road cars I've owned was my F430. Why? Because it was so special even at legal speeds - noise, interior, sensations etc - that I didn't feel COMPELLED to cane it all the time. The Aston will even make you smile while you wash it and even vacuming that interior can almost be fun.I received a phone call from my dealer who had read this page, and he will organise a normal test drive on "ordinary" roads for later next week. (We may have just done this Millbrook thrash/road test drive thing the wrong way round perhaps.)
I'm fairly sure that as I don't spend all that much time thrashing around at breakneck speeds in real life that this will be just the job to focus my mind on the fact (which I now have a much better understanding of) that these are just two different views and solutions to sports car design and in the real world, at real world non-licence losing speeds the Aston is a far, far better place to sit (which in truth is exactly the reason I fell for it in the first place!)
[ The dark cloud of despondancy is quickly lifting here Geoff - keep rubbing at that watch strap!! ]
Edited by hussar10a on Thursday 20th March 20:43
PS. Oh and on those 'hooning' days don't worry. On public roads a 997S WILL NOT get away from you.)
Edited by Pugsey on Friday 21st March 09:50
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