For the track use part..V12V has a great solid stiff suspension, but sometimes this can be ur reason to fail in a race...Adaptive suspension has been added to V12VS..this is great to help with unwanted rebounding..say u take a left turn and ride off the curb on the left, adaptive suspension sees the steering request and softens up the inside wheel and this stiffends the outsides, so inside wheels soften up and take the load of the curb avoiding rebounding and keeps all 4 wheels planted with traction..on a V12V with regular hard suspension, this can obviously cause unwanted rebounding and loss of traction as the inside wheel comes off the ground..

Another cool feature is with ASM3 and downshifting before a corner..we normally double clutch not to drag the rear wheels on a stuck shift..this plus braking can get us tired mentally and cause mis-shifts or even worse a spin out..with ASM3 just hold the downshift paddle and the trans will double clutch and shift to the correct gear on ur braking decent..so it looks at brake pressure, throttle angle, speed, rpm, steering input, all for selecting the downshifted gearing when u pull and hold the downshift paddle..it doesn't just go from say 7th to 2nd..it will cycle though all gears just like u would at the correct speed and rpms

These might be little things to some..but to a track drivers..u guys know this is big, the less things u need to monitor mentally means better concentration on ur goal which is lap speeds..

I see all kinds of video's during training..mile straight run V12V gets set back a couple car length to a V12VS...on the testing Millbrook track V12VS destroys the V12V..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sell the car cause I work for dealership..tech's don't get any sort of commission even on referrals..but just letting u guys know, this is one of the sickest Aston's that I've ever driven to date!!

 

Yes, no question a paddle shift trans and no clutch pedal makes a difference if you are trying to set lap times. But for road driving, which, let's face it, is what the car will be doing most of the time, I'm not sold on it.

The adaptive damping sounds like a good idea. What I don't get is that some reviewers are dissing the car for this, saying the improved ride quality takes the aggressive edge off from the original V12V. Not sure why you wouldn't want the best of both worlds. Just switch to sport or track mode if you want that more aggressive feel, surely.

The original V12V IMO was a perfect niche for Aston: an exotic but a true drivers' car with a compact chassis, manual trans and big, naturally aspirated engine; a holdout in a world moving towards more electronic tech, automation and smaller, turbocharged engines. Now they have refined and improved some parts of the car but have gotten all confused by trying to go techy on the transmission. Except it isn't very high tech compared to the new industry standard (DCT) and shows up the company's tech/financial shortcomings, while simultaneously removing a big part of the niche appeal.

 

That's the problem. Automated manual is fine, as long as it's executed well.

 

Can't argue with that..its all true. For a road car it's just plain fun to have a stick shift..

Kind of reminds me of the DB7, Vanquish era..the manuals will come back but just need the demand and funding..didn't really have the funding then and Aston only brought it back for VH platform..I'm sure most of u know the 2015 for 2016 year is supposed to be completely redone, so maybe....never know..stick might come back

 

Plenty of DB7s came through with manuals, not just VH platform cars.

 

Maybe in ur area, but not mine..to date I've seen 2 V12's and no I6...and we get a large amount that have been brought up from down south..and obviously no Vanquish had a stick unless from factory

 

I've also seen a fair number of DB7s with manual boxes, both sixes and twelves.