Sportshift owners...

[ajk9]

Afternoon all,

I have a V8 Vantage with the Sportshift gearbox and I have owned the car for 2 months now. I can't however seem to get the gearbox to sing properly all of the time and I don't know if it's my working of it, or just that the gearbox is a bit clumsy.

In full manual mode when approaching redline (predominantly) I lift my foot ever so slightly, change gear and then sometimes it can lose as much as 1500 RPM whilst it decides to change gear. Then every now and again it will do a fast gear change when to me I have done nothing different to the time before.

I have tried doing multiple clutch learn procedures which doesn't appear to make any difference at all.

How do you guys change up with this gear box, do you lift off or keep your foot down, and how do you find it behaves?

Cheers!

[jonby]

ajk9 said:

Afternoon all,

I have a V8 Vantage with the Sportshift gearbox and I have owned the car for 2 months now. I can't however seem to get the gearbox to sing properly all of the time and I don't know if it's my working of it, or just that the gearbox is a bit clumsy.

In full manual mode when approaching redline (predominantly) I lift my foot ever so slightly, change gear and then sometimes it can lose as much as 1500 RPM whilst it decides to change gear. Then every now and again it will do a fast gear change when to me I have done nothing different to the time before.

I have tried doing multiple clutch learn procedures which doesn't appear to make any difference at all.

How do you guys change up with this gear box, do you lift off or keep your foot down, and how do you find it behaves?

Cheers!

I had a V8 sportshift - I can't remember the exact name (it's something corny like 'hyperdrive') but they do have a feature when you change gear in the top couple of thousand revs, which means you can keep your foot flat to the floor

It's only when changing in the 'middle rev range', i.e. not at very low or at very high revs, when you have to lift your foot off the accelerator to change gear

However of course you should always see the revs drop to an extent when you change gear !

[hashluck]

jonby said:

I had a V8 sportshift - I can't remember the exact name (it's something corny like 'hyperdrive') but they do have a feature when you change gear in the top couple of thousand revs, which means you can keep your foot flat to the floor

It's only when changing in the 'middle rev range', i.e. not at very low or at very high revs, when you have to lift your foot off the accelerator to change gear

However of course you should always see the revs drop to an extent when you change gear !

This. And even when lifting it really is only a feathering of the foot. So it does depend on speed/revs etc but it does sound to me like you are lifting more than you need (but this is definitely required to an extend to avoid nodding dog syndrome).

[marknash99]

Sell it and buy a manual?

[Phil74891]

marknash99 said:

Sell it and buy a manual?

Sportshift is a manual - the paddles just work better than a stick and clutch!

I'm fortunate enough to have version 3, but have also owned version 2. (Not sure which yours is?).

In any case, to make the shifts as smoothe as possible, I find I lift off the accelerator less the further up the rev range I am.

There's a section in the owners manual that covers hypershift.

Many people on here don't like sportshift, or even the concept of it. I'm one of the few that thinks it's great. Complete convert here. Have fun finding the sweet spots.

[ajk9]

Cheers guys, I didn't even know the 'hypershift' feature existed and I profess to have read the manual!

As for the gearbox, I use this car as a daily commute and for 3 days a week I have a 85 mile round trip on one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the country so I need a sport auto of sorts.

I understand the revs drop but sometimes the lag is crazy. In terms of gearboxes I seem to be going backward with responsiveness. I had an E90 M3 with DCT, then a C63 AMG with their wet clutch and now this, which seems to be very hit and miss.

I will go away and read the manual again, properly this time!

One other quick question for anyone reading this, does the passenger wing mirror fold in further than the drive wing mirror on purpose?

Cheers!

[ajk9]

Oh and It's a 58 plate so I am guessing version 1?

[mikey k]

ajk9 said:

Oh and It's a 58 plate so I am guessing version 1?

Do lots of clutch learns

[moveover]

I have the SS1, and actually like it a lot. I have the BR lightweight clutch kit fitted, which does make a huge difference. Even so, I rarely use it in auto mode. It's not that much of a hardship to use the paddles and with a little practice with balancing the throttle the upshifts can be made very smooth. It is, after all, a manual gearbox and one wouldn't try to change gear in a stick shift without coming off the revs a little.

[ajk9]

So with the clutch learns is it just a whole bunch of them in one go or just every time you get in the car? Is there any documentation on how often this should be done? I do a clutch learn every time I drive it, but I did try doing 3 over the weekend in one go, restarting the engine in between and although it made a difference, I didn't feel it was enough to warrant doing it.

[Neil1300r]

ajk9 said:

So with the clutch learns is it just a whole bunch of them in one go or just every time you get in the car? Is there any documentation on how often this should be done? I do a clutch learn every time I drive it, but I did try doing 3 over the weekend in one go, restarting the engine in between and although it made a difference, I didn't feel it was enough to warrant doing it.

Instructions in the Frequently Asked Questions Wiki

[ajk9]

Thanks, I'll do it a few more times once a week rather than each day once.

One final question if I may. Does your passenger mirror fold in further than the drivers side? I had someone fall into it knocking it back, and when I tried to realign it, I noticed that the passenger mirror folds in further than the driver's side. Not sure if this is a feature or if it is damaged.

Cheers in advance!

[mikey k]

Do it 3-4 times on the trot then once a week or so
Also try to avoid creep mode and reversing uphill/round corners

[Jon39]

ajk9 said:

Does your passenger mirror fold in further than the drivers side? I had someone fall into it knocking it back, and when I tried to realign it, I noticed that the passenger mirror folds in further than the driver's side. Not sure if this is a feature or if it is damaged.

I am afraid that it might be damaged.
My two fold by exactly the same amount.
Perhaps it has just ‘jumped a cog', if that is possible.

[ajk9]

Cheers Mikey.

Do you think driving in Comfort Mode has any impact at all? I tend to drive in Comfort Mode during the week and manual/sport mode on weekends. I wondered due to the slower changes in Comfort Mode whether or not I was counter acting the benefit of the clutch learn.

[ajk9]

Thanks Jon.

Amazingly a gas engineer from Network Gas did it on Saturday night and despite reporting it straight away to his manager who was on site, has now denied ever doing it. The mirror folds in and out okay but the passenger mirror folds in to the point it is nearly touching the window.

I have tried to manually move it, but as soon as I activate the auto folding either in or out, it resets to one of the two positions.

[mikey k]

ajk9 said:

Cheers Mikey.

Do you think driving in Comfort Mode has any impact at all? I tend to drive in Comfort Mode during the week and manual/sport mode on weekends. I wondered due to the slower changes in Comfort Mode whether or not I was counter acting the benefit of the clutch learn.

I avoided comfort mode it made the throttle response very lazy
It ought not to affect clutch learns
Best I found was leave it in "Normal" do the learns like I suggested and just a slight lift as you change gear
Creep mode was a PITA

[jonby]

ajk9 said:

Cheers Mikey.

Do you think driving in Comfort Mode has any impact at all? I tend to drive in Comfort Mode during the week and manual/sport mode on weekends. I wondered due to the slower changes in Comfort Mode whether or not I was counter acting the benefit of the clutch learn.

Comfort mode !!!!! It's an Aston Martin :-) Next you'll be saying that you drive in auto mode some times ! (I did at least 20k miles in 2 V8 sportshifts and am proud to say I only used auto once)

Even in traffic, this is a car that begs to be driven

My V12 has 'sports mode' - you unfortunately have to turn it on each time you start the engine, otherwise you are just in 'normal' mode

I'm convinced that if it wasn't for regulations, that would be the other way round AND they would be renamed, with what they call 'sport' being renamed 'normal' and what they call 'normal' being renamed 'wet'..................

[ajk9]

In my defence () I don't like how in the standard Sport Mode it is sat in 3rd Gear at 29mph! I know it's an Aston and there are days where I want to smash it around in 3rd (at significantly higher speeds ) but on the motorway, in the wet, in traffic? I prefer being in Comfort Mode.

The M3 allowed any gear selected at any speed, the C63 had a restriction similar to the Vantage where it wouldn't let you change up unless you were doing a specific speed. In Comfort mode it gets into 5th at around 31mph which seems normal to me, especially as in the sport mode you can't shift up to 5th until you are doing around 36mph.

I know I'm going to hell for this, but still

[jonby]

ajk9 said:

In my defence () I don't like how in the standard Sport Mode it is sat in 3rd Gear at 29mph! I know it's an Aston and there are days where I want to smash it around in 3rd (at significantly higher speeds ) but on the motorway, in the wet, in traffic? I prefer being in Comfort Mode.

The M3 allowed any gear selected at any speed, the C63 had a restriction similar to the Vantage where it wouldn't let you change up unless you were doing a specific speed. In Comfort mode it gets into 5th at around 31mph which seems normal to me, especially as in the sport mode you can't shift up to 5th until you are doing around 36mph.

I know I'm going to hell for this, but still

I never found the Vantage not letting me change up as I wasn't going fast enough, but then again I've never wanted to be in 5th gear at 36mph. I'm sorry, you're speaking a different language to me :-)