Hey all,

So I had this crazy thought the other day. I love the v10/DCT drivetrain in the 06-10 M5/M6, not such a big fan of the drivetrain in the v8v. The M5 drivetrain, harness, ecu can be had for ~$7k. I love the styling and pricepoint some one can pick up a used V8V for these days.

I'm looking for opinions, obviously Aston faithful will hate this. What do you think the costs, biggest hurdles would be if some one were inclined to consider swapping this drivetrain into an 06-10 V8V?

Nick

 

You want to make sure you love it...because you will likely never get much of a buyer for it afterwards, thats the huge negative. Of course the big issue will be getting all the electrics to play nice with each other. Will likely cost $ 20K to make it happen for the mod and when you're done you'll have a car worth $ 35K.

 

I dunno that it will even fit, Aston uses a rear mounted transaxle unit dunno if BMW does, issues of mounting up, getting everything to fit and work together, electrical systems and operations functionality and s/w, so many headaches! Assuming you had the unlimited budget (this is gonna cost WAY more then 20 grand) it would take a lot of time, and skills, this is not a trivial undertaking. I also agree in the end with the cost of the car, engine & drivetrain and labor (assuming u sold stuff you didn't want to use along the way) .... You'd have well over hundred grand into it, on basically a car worth 35 grand like Duane said. This is not a 2JZ swap into an e36 m3 were talking about. To give you an idea Nissan took a GTR engine & drivetrain and swapped it into a Juke. They made a handful of these cars at a cost of $500k and that's a big car company working with 2 of their own models with a team of engineers and r&d budget!!!

 

I don't hate it, because it is simply impossible. You might as well be telling us you want to put a Merlin V12 in a Vantage. If you spend more than 30 seconds thinking about this, you've wasted 30 seconds.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Responses are all over the place, like I guessed they would be. I agree, this would be expensive and difficult, but whats so terrible about exploring new ideas, right?

 

^^^ It's an Aston, it's an Exotic and should be with the matching engine and chassis. Same with a Ferrari or Lambo. You wouldn't do a swap on those either, not only is it super expensive, deminish all value of the car, and just plain rediculous but also against the whole pricinciple of what these cars stand for.

Save the H22 swaps for the Honda crowd, and the 2JZ swaps for the same sorta thing. Drifting, drag racing imports...and so forth.

You're not exploring a "new idea" ... It's not a new idea or an original thought, engine and drivetrain swaps have been around since they started hot rodding ford coupes in the 1930's ...

 

If its something you have always wanted to do, then go for it. You should weigh the cost against the outcome and see if you are really willing to spend that much time and $$ to get the result. Drcollie is dead on correct about the value of the end results.

I don't think it would be worth it to start with a perfectly good Vantage. Some will (have) argue that its not worth it AT ALL.

In a lot of ways, you would be taking an exotic motor and putting it in an exotic car to make something that will be less than the sum of its parts in the end. People already expect a Vantage to be fast when they see one, and since heritage is so important to Aston Martin in particular, your bound to see many 'upturned noses' from the Aston faithful.

If one has a BMW V10 sitting around, it would make more sense, to me, to shoe horn that into something less exotic, like an S2000 or a 5 series wagon (I'd give my front teeth for a V10 M5 wagon, but BMW never imported them. UGH!!).

 

For the amount you potentially would drop for this idea, I would lean more toward Vince's route

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ite-toy-5.html

 

I had a 2008 M5 and a 2009 V8V before that and I think fitment would be the least of your hurdles. Getting the computers that manage the drivetrain to play nice with the Aston hardware would be monumental, if possible at all. I don't even want to think of what would happen to the beautiful interior to make the electronics accessible.

Stepping away from the original question and into opinion territory....
As impressive as the engine in the M5 is, and it is amazing, it doesn't really suit the Vantage. I would liken it to what Bob Norwood did when he put GM V8's in Ferrari's back in the day.

 

....that makes me want to vomit...the thought of a bubba NASCAR V8 in a prancing horse...just blasphemy! !!!

 

I knew I'd get some heated argument. This is an original idea, as I have searched the **** out the web and not seen a thing about it. I know the idea of a swap isn't original, but candles made light just fine before the light bulb was invented...

This was theoretical at best, if you are offended by this post, get a life. I just wanted to throw it out there and see what the response was. At the very least I got to laugh at some people who get offended by a thought.

I agree it would be a PITA, and I would most likely have to go with a full stand alone ECU (Motec) but there would be nothing like it, and some times people just like to do things because they are different.

Thanks for the constructive input, if you left any.

Nick

 

^^^ you would need standalone for sure (MOTEC or otherwise) plus the financial backing of a corporate sponsor or an Arab Shiek to pull off this project !

Keep us posted though, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

 

Well if you modify your thinking to something along the lines of what Dinan did for the M5 w their bored out 'stroker' engine (and who wouldn't want a 630 hp naturally aspirated monster under the hood of their M5?) then you might start wondering about somehow getting a Bamford Rose modified V8V out of the UK and shipping it over here. Just a thought. And I'm not at all sure if that could be done legally ...

 

you love the engine but your title and drivetrain are both wrong!! The v10 is the S85 and its a smg not a dct, the dct is in the new m5/m6 but thats not a v10

 

I'd guess this approach would be cheaper even if you have to pay customs and everything else.