telum01

Be sure your fabrication guy keeps the design details for your battery box. If you don't mind.. Based on your success I will desire to duplicate your solution and assume others will as well.

Thanks for blazing the trail with this!

 

Telum, what wheels & offset are you running? Are you still on stock wheels?

 

All the info except weight, which I didn't get when they were installed:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/aston-martin/355149-new-wheel-option.html

 

The rack conversation is not cheap at all, it is very invasive.

If you are changing up the car that much... It may be time to consider just selling it, keeping as many of the mods as you can and swapping up to a newer 12 or 13 V8S now that they have come down in price.

In the long run it just makes a lot more financial sense, and you get the bigger 4.7 and other interior updates as well.

 

I've definitely considered it, and think about it fairly regularly.

I like the styling far more on the earlier vantages, especially the front end. In a way I like the less-blingy interior, too. I do wish I didn't have an antenna on my car (I've got a shorty, but still). Maybe I'll have it shaved and swap in the internal antenna from the newer cars down the road.

I'd love the bigger engine but the 430 hp I'm getting currently from my 4.3L is still nothing to complain about. Long-term goal is to rebuild the original 4.3L into a 4.5L, or drop in a built 4.7L engine if I can find one for a steal when the time comes.

Regardless, weight is still the enemy. If I move into a newer 4.7L car, I'm still going to be going through the same exercises I am now to get the weight down. As it stands, once my battery kit is done, I'll have dropped over 100 lbs from the car with no ill effect on drivability or comfort.

 

I don't want a bother starting a new thread for these, so I'll tie them into this one by asking whether or not these are going to shed a few pounds compared to the OEM headers



Huge thanks to Stuart to getting these to me!

 

Met with the owner of an automotive upholstery shop on Saturday to discuss some projects I've got in the works and he agreed to be a part of it. The big one is re-skinning a bucket seat in OEM leather. They're going to redo the padding to make it a little more comfortable, too. Should drop close to 40 lbs per seat Definitely one of the more hardcore things but there's only one way to see how livable it will be...

 

Are you going with a seat like a Sparco EVO done in some custom leather and AM logos? I saw this done on a Pistonheads thread shown below and it got me thinking

Have you given some thought of removing your speakers and stereo? There is some serious weight there (sorry just saw where you didn't want to go that direction)

 

How much lighter are those headers, and do you anticipate a power increase too?

 

It's my understanding that headers is one of the best bhp upgrades we can do on a Vanatge. I think it is 16 to 20 depending

Can't wait to see if there is any weight difference

 

There's a race shop nearby me that has the Sparco range in their showroom. I did a butt-test a while back but can't remember which I liked best.

The Recaro Pole Position is very similar to that Sparco. I've had the Recaro in another car and it was surprisingly comfortable for daily driving:



Custom padding should be enough to make it even more usable. I'm leaning toward the Recaro because I like the small shoulder belt holes (helps keep the fact that it's a racing bucket a bit more subtle), and I know what I'm getting. AMR used the Pole Position and other Recaros in their race cars, and Stuart can get me the base for it (the most difficult thing about fitting an aftermarket seat is the base that bolts to the floor of the car itself!). I think they used Sparcos at some point, too, but I've had the most experience with Recaro.

As for the style, I'm not going to put a logo on it or anything else I'm making. I'm waiting to hear back from a supplier, trying to get a reliable supply of full hides of OEM leather. If I can get those, I'll be doing a bunch of stuff with it. The big thing is redoing the seat in OEM leather to match my interior. The goal is to make the seat look like it came with the car from the factory. But I'm staying away from logos entirely to make sure I don't get some lawyer's panties in a twist lol.

I'll be weighing both to get a comparison when I do the installation. Right now I have no idea how they'll compare because I've never had the original headers in my hand.

I think that's the case with the later Vantages because they changed the header design to incorporate pre-cats into the headers, so swapping those out frees up a lot of power. With the older ones, the cats are further downstream. I'm sure I'll pick up several HP from them but not sure exactly how much until I dyno them.

 

I'm sure you already know, but the pole positions had a big recall (seat integrity by the anti-sub belt hole). Post recall supply had been limited, and frankly Recaro has not been particularly good with customer support (yes I have unfortunate first hand experience). Please protect yourself, and make sure you're getting one of the new ones. I too find the seats to be comfortable, and really prefer them. They've just shaken my confidence in them as a company lately.

Very interesting idea. Will you be able to retain the airbag functionality?

Having held both headers (from my 08), I would not doubt theyre 15+ lbs lighter. I didn't weigh mine though, as I was just going for the power. The combination of the headers, HFC and tune really wakes the car up.

 

Yep, I've heard about the recall, hoping it's blown over by now and getting updated PPs won't be an issue. Didn't know Recaro's been difficult about it, though... that's not terribly comforting.

The side bolster airbag is being eliminated with the new seat, but I'll have a plug-in module to trick the sensor and prevent a warning light.

If the headers are 15 lbs lighter, I'm sure that's for the newer style headers with the pre-cats in them. Can't imagine it's the case with the older ones like I have.

 

Looks like I'm going with a Recaro Pole Position after all. I wanted a carbon shell, but:
-The extra cost is 3x as much for only ~2 extra pounds of weight savings, and frankly it'd just be for aesthetics anyway.
-The carbon seats available are not as roomy as the PP, so daily driving would be less comfortable.
-The carbon seats have high thigh bolsters making ingress and egress far more difficult. The PP thigh bolsters are tapered, making them much easier to get in and out of.

As for the seat itself, it's used in the Vantage GT4 so it still has pedigree, even if it isn't the carbon Sport Seat offered in the UK. I'm doing one seat for testing to make sure it's exactly right before pumping money into a second.

I did a major revision of the battery mount design and that project is still moving forward.

Between the one seat and mounting hardware, I'll be dropping ~40 lbs from the car (doing both seats would double that). And the battery will drop ~30 lbs. So about 70 lbs total, plus 40 lbs more if I do the second seat.

 

Recaro PP in the GT4's? ..I've only seen the Hans "XL" models, for the added protection above the shoulders..in fact just double checked and our GT4 has Recaro Hans "XL".


The A.M Carbon Sport seats are costly,..but you see the ones in the GT12, they're simply just s.e.x.y!!!


On another note, I just got forced into buying 2 new seats, things should of been designed by NASA for the price...2x Diono's for my Audi..now I'm Rollin' Baller with 3 wide!! :-P LOL