RE: AMV8 Lacking In The Power Department?
Friday 24th October 2008
London Aston Martin specialist Nicholas Mee & Co. have announced a tie up with Prodrive which will see a range of official performance enhancements for the Aston Martin V8 made more easily available for owners in London and the South East.
To cope with all that extra power a suspension upgrade, with driver switchable damper mode, is said to improve the ride quality of the standard car, particularly when paired with the rather tasty looking 19” forged aluminium wheels and P Zero boots.
The upgrades, available exclusively from Nicholas Mee’s West London premises, start at £910 for the exhaust modification, but with the option to spend up to £19,000 on the full catalogue of parts. Yes, it’s a hefty amount of cash to part with in these straightened times, but we like the look of this stuff; carefully thought through, tastefully done and with a genuine contribution to vehicle performance. Ripspeed this most certainly isn’t, and we approve.
AMV8 Lacking In The Power Department?
London Specialist Nick Mee appointed to handle Prodrive performance enhancements.
The Prodrive developed (and fully guaranteed) upgrades include a revised suspension, exhaust and aero package, as well as the possibility of an engine upgrade taking the power output of the car’s 4.3 litre V8 engine to 425bhp from the standard 380.
Whilst sir is perusing the options list, might we respectfully suggest that ticking the box marked “3 position switchable exhaust button” would remove the need to remove fuse no. 22 yourself and announce your presence rather more forcefully, but that sir makes his own mind up on whether or not to fit the carbon composite splitter and boot spoiler.
link here
Discussion
'to cope with all that extra power...'
What - 45hp extra? That will hardly be noticeable! Now if you had bolted on a supercharger and taken it to 480hp+ then it would need some work!
You don't buy this baby Aston for it's outright performance, it's just a great package as it is. If you want performance then save the money and buy a more powerful car to start with.
What - 45hp extra? That will hardly be noticeable! Now if you had bolted on a supercharger and taken it to 480hp+ then it would need some work!
You don't buy this baby Aston for it's outright performance, it's just a great package as it is. If you want performance then save the money and buy a more powerful car to start with.
...this didnt make an impact when it was launched over 18 months ago, so why do they think that people are going to splash out now? ...especially as the cars are getting down to like £45K ...youre not going to spend nearly £20K on it, just for a mild warm over and some stiffer suspension 
GPSS said:
As these are only making 45K in the classifieds now, I think I may have one (Wish). But at that money surely there is no more desirable car. I'll have mine in White please.
Same thought has passed through my head many times - but i need to be fed and all that stuff so it'll hav to wait a while!
GolfEcosse said:
GPSS said:
As these are only making 45K in the classifieds now, I think I may have one (Wish). But at that money surely there is no more desirable car. I'll have mine in White please.
Same thought has passed through my head many times - but i need to be fed and all that stuff so it'll hav to wait a while!
problem solved.
Gizmo! said:
1st April is it?
Nick Mee?
Does it come a couple of free SP30s?
There are few people better qualified than the former sales director of Aston Martin, Nicholas Mee, to handle performance enhancements for the V8.Nick Mee?
Does it come a couple of free SP30s?
Apart from being the man who sold Victor Gauntlett his first Aston Martin, and in so doing, possibly triggered the survival of the marque, Nick's knowledge of, and commitment to all things Aston makes him the purveyor of choice for those who know.
For numpties with no knowledge of Nick or Victor, there's Google.
Edited by Le Man on Saturday 25th October 00:17
carsnapper said:
'to cope with all that extra power...'
What - 45hp extra? That will hardly be noticeable! Now if you had bolted on a supercharger and taken it to 480hp+ then it would need some work!
Agreed.What - 45hp extra? That will hardly be noticeable! Now if you had bolted on a supercharger and taken it to 480hp+ then it would need some work!
I own a V8 Vantage.
And yes it’s a hugely desirable car, and I love the whole Aston image …
However … driving it is a bit like wearing a Savile Row suit in that you look good to everybody else, feel good about wearing it, but at the end of the day you could also wear a lot of other clothes that do the same thing for 1/10th the amount. And the really sad thing is that the car is virtually impotent in the trouser dept despite the looks and the nice noise out the back, yadda yadda.
Calling up to enquire about pricing was quite an irritating experience. You get some plummey voiced idiot (possibly from a high-end estate agent in a previous life) telling you outrageous prices for what is in fact fairly run of the mill work and is not rocket science. And the conversation went down hill from there.
I then went onto to question what you actually get for the being fleeced senseless, and he implied that if I have to ask, then I am obviously not well heeled enough to be an owner in the first place. Which kinda pissed me off … and I more or less told him he really ought to go home right away for a 'jolly good birching' (or words to that effect) before I got round there to shove his phone up his butt. Sideways.
Pity, because the car would seriously benefit much more torque low down, and 450bhp+. I guess AM kept its 4.3lt V8 restrained to avoid ruffling feathers further up the product range.
I am aware the ECU is protected from being conventionally remapped and a myriad of other modifications, but for the prices they charge I might as well investigate alternative boosted solutions, and possibly make it available to the frustrated AMV8 market. Given the way the values have dropped I am no longer bothered about subtle mods to the engine effecting the value of the car.
I want my V8 to provide the performance its looks suggest …
Stealth-wagon said:
...
I want my V8 to provide the performance its looks suggest …
There's already a firm doing a supercharger bolt on. It's been discussed on here and the AMOC forum.I want my V8 to provide the performance its looks suggest …
It's a good point about current values making mods a decent choice now. Still have the warranty issues I guess.
Stealth-wagon said:
I then went onto to question what you actually get for the being fleeced senseless, and he implied that if I have to ask, then I am obviously not well heeled enough to be an owner in the first place. Which kinda pissed me off … and I more or less told him he really ought to go home right away for a 'jolly good birching' (or words to that effect) before I got round there to shove his phone up his butt. Sideways.
That rather tickled me Stealthy 
much as I love my dealership the service contact does seem a tad unhelpful & superior at times!Anyway go test the 4.7, Aston are also very kindly offering existing V8 owners excellent PX terms
the performance (or lack of) with the Vantage seems to crop up every few months on here, some owners are happy, others think they should have more ...its the same with a Lotus Elise ...people buy them, and most are blown away with the performance, others crave more and cant understand why its not as fast as xxxx car even thouhg it looks it.
zero to 100mph in under 12secs (easily), used to be a very fast car...and still is really. People that buy £50K M3s in the day by the dozen would rave about its performance, as would magazine reviewers, and it was no faster.
So nothing has changed with the laws of physics, except our expectations of what you get for your money, and what other £85K cars give you for the money...this will always be the same...someone will *always* make something faster, cheaper.
Most of it is just for playing Top Trumps at the pub, as most of us are not on track at the weekends in our cars (well, occasionally!)
My Vantage is my daily drive, and as such im happy with the performance for luxury daily driver sportscar...it even went pretty well on track ..I managed to see of quite a few mates in their 'track car' Lotus Exiges and such like, even on regular road tyres...so it cant be *that* bad performance wise
another 100bhp would be nice of course, as would another 200bhp to make it *really* lively as 100bhp and 480bhp would only take it to Nissan levels these days ... my old Elise was much faster for half the price...but is that what the car is about ?
everyone is different, and has different wants from their 'sportscar' ...is that extra bhp and 1sec faster to a ton, going to *really* give you what you crave...or would the money be better spent on a dozen trackdays in a Caterham
zero to 100mph in under 12secs (easily), used to be a very fast car...and still is really. People that buy £50K M3s in the day by the dozen would rave about its performance, as would magazine reviewers, and it was no faster.
So nothing has changed with the laws of physics, except our expectations of what you get for your money, and what other £85K cars give you for the money...this will always be the same...someone will *always* make something faster, cheaper.
Most of it is just for playing Top Trumps at the pub, as most of us are not on track at the weekends in our cars (well, occasionally!)
My Vantage is my daily drive, and as such im happy with the performance for luxury daily driver sportscar...it even went pretty well on track ..I managed to see of quite a few mates in their 'track car' Lotus Exiges and such like, even on regular road tyres...so it cant be *that* bad performance wise
another 100bhp would be nice of course, as would another 200bhp to make it *really* lively as 100bhp and 480bhp would only take it to Nissan levels these days ... my old Elise was much faster for half the price...but is that what the car is about ?
everyone is different, and has different wants from their 'sportscar' ...is that extra bhp and 1sec faster to a ton, going to *really* give you what you crave...or would the money be better spent on a dozen trackdays in a Caterham
especially the new V8 one if im correct 
Stealth-wagon said:
I am aware the ECU is protected from being conventionally remapped and a myriad of other modifications, but for the prices they charge I might as well investigate alternative boosted solutions, and possibly make it available to the frustrated AMV8 market. Given the way the values have dropped I am no longer bothered about subtle mods to the engine effecting the value of the car.
I want my V8 to provide the performance its looks suggest …
PM Me.I want my V8 to provide the performance its looks suggest …
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