New Clutch for V8's from Aston Martin
 

This is now available - do not know how it's different from others, but would be factory support....

http://www.astonmartin.com/accessori...ormance-clutch

Ooo, that's promising.

Looks very similar to the VelocityAP kit except the flywheel is differently machined and the slave cylinder might be custom/different. I just received a kit from Stuart so I am going to stick with that option. My only interest is if it is lighter than the other options that exist and the pricing.

manual only or SS as well?

When I had my AP installed he said they were developing a factory option but it wasn't ready yet. Here it is.


This is obviously based on the David Appleby Engineering [AP] setup but as noted the flywheel a little different and probably Aston sourced, but then again it could be sourced from Appleby but just cut a little different to differentiate itself from the "competition".


But now you have a factory option that can be installed at all AM dealers [meaning the ones that will only install factory parts]. More options is always a better thing, and a factory option is a beautiful thing.

Cost?

Cost is going to be different from every different vendor/dealer. The spread of costs quoted by dealers can be staggering. Of course Redpants would be a good source for those doing the DIY on indi route.

So Rich,

Cost? ;)

there does not seem to be a price yet on the AM website - just to inquire about it, not exactly to place an order.

No pricing yet but I'll get it :)

For what it's worth, I've been really happy with my VelocityAP setup. It's a massive improvement and worth the extra money to upgrade if your factory clutch goes out on you. I'm curious how much the AM one will cost and how it'll compare to Stuart's.

Ask them if it chatters ;)

What took them so long?
 

Aston Martin must have known they had a clutch problem before the V8 Vantage was introduced 11 years ago. The vehicle development program would have exposed it.

Further, they would have known they had most of the parts to fix it in their parts bin when the V12 Vantage 6 speed was shown "Production Ready" at the Geneva Auto Show in March, 2008.

By the way, my VelocityAP twin plate clutch/lightweight flywheel was installed by my dealer service department in June,2015, 2 years ago. Now with 5000 miles on this system it continues to perform in an outstanding manner, just as it behaved when I drove it home.

I know everybody is going to continue to call it a VAP setup [I've done it myself] but it's actually a DAE setup, of which VAP has the North American distribution rights. If you're in England you'd buy it from David Appleby Engineering, who is also the distributor on that side of the pond for VAP's products, which are clearly labeled as VAP and use their pictures. The clutch is clearly labeled DAE and was confirmed in conversations with them.

I've put 5000 miles on mine in the last 7 months, performs as it should [except the annoying chatter which I've now been told by several different AM tech, it's just normal for a twin plate V12 clutch], but I had no warranty on it when installed [or none I'm aware of].

A factory setup would come with the factory warranty when installed by an AM dealer.

Looks like my dealer is running $7k installed for the AMR clutch, which apparently is the same price as the stock clutch. I suppose that's a decent price compared to the installed price of the v12v clutch considering the parts alone are $4.5k, but ouch! The pricing on the AMR parts alone aren't available quite yet from what they tell me.

The DAE/VAP cost me $7k installed so I'd figure that's a win, but the flip side is, FC Kerbeck probably wants 9 if yours wants 7 ;/

i'm assuming this is a quote from park place, yes? (i'm a fellow seattle guy)

if so, prob 500-1000 less in other places of the country.