Help! Any Early 90's PHers in here??
Discussion
Ok, I need a favour. Years ago when I was a student I worked at Aston Martin, at the time I worked in Vantage develpment and was incredibly proud to be part of the production team (eight of us) who built the first production vantage (the red one, K377 APP that was seen in many magazines at the time)
Here's the thing - at some point during 1993 (I thought it was the August edition) a car magazine borrowed the car for a "photshoot". They were under strict instructions NOT to 'test' the performance of the car as certain bits were not final spec. Nothing dodgy - but due to low volume suppliers didn't exactly bend over themselves to rush bits to us... so the prop shafts were from the Virage and used to a lot less than the 550BHP / 550lb/ft that the Vantage put out.
We got a call, they'd sheared a drive shaft getting 0-60's on the mile straight. They make mention to this in the article - I remember something along the lines of "The first (and probably last) set of performance figures....."
So - what's the point of the post? My best mates girlfriends dad (honest!!!!) threw out my copy of the magazine - and I've never managed to get another copy. I'd love to buy a copy of this mag off ebay - but don't know which issue or magazine it was in! Can anyone help me track this article down??!!!
>>> Edited by fogster on Wednesday 19th May 01:22
Here's the thing - at some point during 1993 (I thought it was the August edition) a car magazine borrowed the car for a "photshoot". They were under strict instructions NOT to 'test' the performance of the car as certain bits were not final spec. Nothing dodgy - but due to low volume suppliers didn't exactly bend over themselves to rush bits to us... so the prop shafts were from the Virage and used to a lot less than the 550BHP / 550lb/ft that the Vantage put out.
We got a call, they'd sheared a drive shaft getting 0-60's on the mile straight. They make mention to this in the article - I remember something along the lines of "The first (and probably last) set of performance figures....."
So - what's the point of the post? My best mates girlfriends dad (honest!!!!) threw out my copy of the magazine - and I've never managed to get another copy. I'd love to buy a copy of this mag off ebay - but don't know which issue or magazine it was in! Can anyone help me track this article down??!!!
>>> Edited by fogster on Wednesday 19th May 01:22
Sorry, meant to add, I've spoken to a a dealer on ebay has stated that the Aug '93 copy of Performance Car DIDN'T contain this review. This is NOT the "Black" Vantage K984 XNK that appears sometime around March 2003 in Performance Car.... The Red car K377 APP wasn't completed until (I think) June 1993, and by April 1994 the same car was used in a roadtest against a Ferrari 456GT in Performance Car. I'm sure the roadtest I'm after occurred between June-August 2003 (I was there March till Sept but had a month off at some point), so that would put it in a magazine review sometime in June, July, August, or September 2003, but not necessarily Performance Car magazine (or so it would appear).
>> Edited by fogster on Wednesday 19th May 01:43
>> Edited by fogster on Wednesday 19th May 01:43
fogster said:
err, are you sure it's April 1994? I thought that was the one with the review of the Aston v Ferrari 456?? The article in question was on the Vantage alone as a "first test", I'm 99.9% sure it was from summer 2003.....
My apologises, you are correct, Performace cars first drive (April '93was in a Green one K984XNK with pictures of a lighter Green one AMV1 (factory cherished number I know), so on that basis I think you need to be looking at CAR magazine maybe
Bit of a game, see how nerdy you guys really are - the gauntlet has been thrown down!!!
Car K377APP (we'll call her "red") had a problem of pulling the rear diff off the mountings as a result of a torque reaction due to the sheer thump the engine put out. The solution was to fit a "torque tube", physically joinging the diff to the gearbox and let the propr shaft take the strain. Bear in mind that "red" is a development car..... so we come up with the solution of rather than tooling, machining and balancing our own prop shaft we'll "borrow" on that's already in production, cut and balance it and use that to see if it solves the problem.
We managed to locate a complete drivetrain assembly at a breakers in London, and I went down to pick up the torque tube in a Sierra Estate.
The question is......
Can anyone guess what the donor car was? Bear in mind the output of the Aston lump - 550BHP, 550 lb/ft of torque........
Car K377APP (we'll call her "red") had a problem of pulling the rear diff off the mountings as a result of a torque reaction due to the sheer thump the engine put out. The solution was to fit a "torque tube", physically joinging the diff to the gearbox and let the propr shaft take the strain. Bear in mind that "red" is a development car..... so we come up with the solution of rather than tooling, machining and balancing our own prop shaft we'll "borrow" on that's already in production, cut and balance it and use that to see if it solves the problem.
We managed to locate a complete drivetrain assembly at a breakers in London, and I went down to pick up the torque tube in a Sierra Estate.
The question is......
Can anyone guess what the donor car was? Bear in mind the output of the Aston lump - 550BHP, 550 lb/ft of torque........
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff