ME73 Comparison: 2007 V8 Vantage and 2005 Federal Elise
Discussion
Over the years I've written a few comparisons of cars that I've owned. I thought I'd share some of them here. This was written shortly after I bought my 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage in December 2015.
I’m a happy new owner of a 2007 V8 Vantage with the sport and power packages. It's joining my WRX, G37x, Rx-7 and Elise in the herd. I’ve made a routine of starting off ownership of a new vehicle with a description of my driving impressions, so here we go.
Let me get the obvious thing out of the way first. This car is on the short list of the all time best looking vehicles ever to sit on rubber donuts. If I’m not driving, I just want to stare at it and take in all the perfect proportions and shapes. Like the e-type, the Miura, the 250 GTO, this car’s shape will never grow old.
The interior just feels very special. The leather over everything, alcantara headliner, the stylized gauges, metal center stack knobs, ring lit pushbuttons, the the smell and feel of everything make you feel coddled. The seats have a lot of adjustment and are very comfortable. I think they hold me in better than any other leather seats I’ve had. At 6’2”, I’m used to being short on headroom in sports cars, but there’s plenty of headroom here. I like to sit low in cars to maximize the sensation of speed and you feel very enclosed in this car. The dashboard is really tall, the windows are high up and short. It’s not as severe as a modern Camaro, but a similar sensation. For me, I would like more outward visibility. The Lotus Elise gives a great sense of the car’s corners, for example, with low cowl, raised fenders at the front and a visible rear deck. It doesn’t hurt that the Elise is a very small car, but even a Boxster does a more satisfying job of telling you where the corners are. The exterior of the Vantage drops away out of sight immediately. Space is good with the parcel shelf but hidden storage space is minimal. There’s not much extra space in the glove box when the owner’s manual is in it.
I have the “premium” sound system and it sounds great. It’s loud, clear, and adjustable enough so if base is wanted, it can be provided. The controls and interface, however, suck. The buttons are small, it’s hard to do anything without staring at the console, and it won’t play my ipod. Even the bluetooth won’t pair with an ipod touch for playing music. Luckily, as we know, there’s a remedy for this.
Modern cars are easy to drive, they have highly boosted brakes, the clutch pedal is light, the steering is easy, and the shifter (when there is one) slides into it’s gates with a flick of the wrist… The Vantage is the opposite of all this. Every control that the driver uses to motivate the car has significant heft and feel. And it’s refreshing. The feeling of actually being in control of a significant amount of weight and power allows for a connection to the mechanical device that isn’t possible in most other modern cars. The clutch is very stiff and the brakes take a good shove to bite hard. The shifter is very notchy and takes a lot of effort to get into the gate. Especially 1st gear. It’s not going to make it the fastest car around a track or the most pleasant car for stop-and-go commuting, but it does make for a very engaging experience. There’s a lot of “personality” here.
I’m actually very impressed with the feedback through the steering of the car. For a vehicle with so much mass over some very large front tires, there is some very real feedback of road texture and available grip level. It’s not going to match the Elise, but it’s at least on par with the modern hydraulic Porsches but with more weight.
My car has the sport pack suspension. Its ride is very stiff but impressively not harsh. This is clearly not going to be the best suspension set up for GT to do long cruises but it does give the car some very serious responsiveness. Not to say that the sport suspension isn’t good for highway driving, because it’s perfectly acceptable, but you do feel the road so bad pavement does make a muted impact. The chassis is extremely solid so the car feels very planted and confident on both curvy roads and on straight stretches. The stiff suspension and chassis combine to provide immediate turn-in responsiveness, there’s no suspension settling to wait for after a directional change. Turn-in feels good and it’s easy to balance the car through a turn with the throttle. There is alot of grip on dry roads but the rear can be coaxed loose pretty easily if desired. It's impressive how such a wide car can be hustled down a twisty road without much worry of placement. It does feel like it shrinks a bit when driven hard and the sight lines are adequate. It's really quite fun. Still, on a stretch of twisty road, I can't help but feel that the Elise, with half the power, but also significantly less length and width, is more entertaining, rewarding and ultimately faster through.
There’s also clearly a lot of sound insulation. The cabin is relatively quiet, road noise is minimal for a car with tires like these and a suspension so stiff. There aren’t any rattles or squeaks to speak of.
The 4.3 engine got a good deal of criticism for not being as powerful as it should be. Power is one of those things that you get used to, so maybe it’s my lack of familiarity or it’s the extra 20hp from the power pack, but the car feels very powerful to me. I have no problem breaking traction at the rear of the car from a start or while taking a tight turn. The engine is happily willing to spin up to redline, where ever that is (there’s no redline on the tach), which makes it pretty fun to rev.
I’m excited to be starting off my ownership experience with this car. I’m already enjoying it for it’s capabilities and uniqueness.
I’m a happy new owner of a 2007 V8 Vantage with the sport and power packages. It's joining my WRX, G37x, Rx-7 and Elise in the herd. I’ve made a routine of starting off ownership of a new vehicle with a description of my driving impressions, so here we go.
Let me get the obvious thing out of the way first. This car is on the short list of the all time best looking vehicles ever to sit on rubber donuts. If I’m not driving, I just want to stare at it and take in all the perfect proportions and shapes. Like the e-type, the Miura, the 250 GTO, this car’s shape will never grow old.
The interior just feels very special. The leather over everything, alcantara headliner, the stylized gauges, metal center stack knobs, ring lit pushbuttons, the the smell and feel of everything make you feel coddled. The seats have a lot of adjustment and are very comfortable. I think they hold me in better than any other leather seats I’ve had. At 6’2”, I’m used to being short on headroom in sports cars, but there’s plenty of headroom here. I like to sit low in cars to maximize the sensation of speed and you feel very enclosed in this car. The dashboard is really tall, the windows are high up and short. It’s not as severe as a modern Camaro, but a similar sensation. For me, I would like more outward visibility. The Lotus Elise gives a great sense of the car’s corners, for example, with low cowl, raised fenders at the front and a visible rear deck. It doesn’t hurt that the Elise is a very small car, but even a Boxster does a more satisfying job of telling you where the corners are. The exterior of the Vantage drops away out of sight immediately. Space is good with the parcel shelf but hidden storage space is minimal. There’s not much extra space in the glove box when the owner’s manual is in it.
I have the “premium” sound system and it sounds great. It’s loud, clear, and adjustable enough so if base is wanted, it can be provided. The controls and interface, however, suck. The buttons are small, it’s hard to do anything without staring at the console, and it won’t play my ipod. Even the bluetooth won’t pair with an ipod touch for playing music. Luckily, as we know, there’s a remedy for this.
Modern cars are easy to drive, they have highly boosted brakes, the clutch pedal is light, the steering is easy, and the shifter (when there is one) slides into it’s gates with a flick of the wrist… The Vantage is the opposite of all this. Every control that the driver uses to motivate the car has significant heft and feel. And it’s refreshing. The feeling of actually being in control of a significant amount of weight and power allows for a connection to the mechanical device that isn’t possible in most other modern cars. The clutch is very stiff and the brakes take a good shove to bite hard. The shifter is very notchy and takes a lot of effort to get into the gate. Especially 1st gear. It’s not going to make it the fastest car around a track or the most pleasant car for stop-and-go commuting, but it does make for a very engaging experience. There’s a lot of “personality” here.
I’m actually very impressed with the feedback through the steering of the car. For a vehicle with so much mass over some very large front tires, there is some very real feedback of road texture and available grip level. It’s not going to match the Elise, but it’s at least on par with the modern hydraulic Porsches but with more weight.
My car has the sport pack suspension. Its ride is very stiff but impressively not harsh. This is clearly not going to be the best suspension set up for GT to do long cruises but it does give the car some very serious responsiveness. Not to say that the sport suspension isn’t good for highway driving, because it’s perfectly acceptable, but you do feel the road so bad pavement does make a muted impact. The chassis is extremely solid so the car feels very planted and confident on both curvy roads and on straight stretches. The stiff suspension and chassis combine to provide immediate turn-in responsiveness, there’s no suspension settling to wait for after a directional change. Turn-in feels good and it’s easy to balance the car through a turn with the throttle. There is alot of grip on dry roads but the rear can be coaxed loose pretty easily if desired. It's impressive how such a wide car can be hustled down a twisty road without much worry of placement. It does feel like it shrinks a bit when driven hard and the sight lines are adequate. It's really quite fun. Still, on a stretch of twisty road, I can't help but feel that the Elise, with half the power, but also significantly less length and width, is more entertaining, rewarding and ultimately faster through.
There’s also clearly a lot of sound insulation. The cabin is relatively quiet, road noise is minimal for a car with tires like these and a suspension so stiff. There aren’t any rattles or squeaks to speak of.
The 4.3 engine got a good deal of criticism for not being as powerful as it should be. Power is one of those things that you get used to, so maybe it’s my lack of familiarity or it’s the extra 20hp from the power pack, but the car feels very powerful to me. I have no problem breaking traction at the rear of the car from a start or while taking a tight turn. The engine is happily willing to spin up to redline, where ever that is (there’s no redline on the tach), which makes it pretty fun to rev.
I’m excited to be starting off my ownership experience with this car. I’m already enjoying it for it’s capabilities and uniqueness.
Edited by me73 on Thursday 22 December 21:25
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