Anyone do a tune on a V8 Vantage?
 

Check VelocityAP they have lots of good stuff for your 4.3 (headers, 200cells Cats, tunes, exhaust, etc) with those you can get your 4.3L closer to 430hp or so.... Give them a call you won't regret it

What can I say it is on par with all other exotic non turbo cars which are a lot harder to get power out of... For me the car is a 10/10 I know other cars are quicker and faster but when I drive my Vantage it is exclusivity that wins ;)

I was pretty picky about that fact too but went for it at a discount on Black Friday anyway.

Now that it's installed and I've experienced driving it after the tune, I love it and feel it was totally worth the money!

It totally transformed the responsiveness of the engine and this is the way it should have come from the factory.

Tbh I dont think its worth it on a 4.3l especially if your ownership period is a small timeframe

Even though its light so to speak it only has 380hp. So it wont be as fast or feel as powerful as a 600hp car. My DB9 and my Range Rover Sport (610hp) feel totally different, but the tune woke my DB9 up for sure. The tune greatly increased my throttle responsiveness and was noticeable immediately even when pulling out of the driveway.

Like Mercedes 6.3 AMG motors, unless you have turbos or superchargers getting HP out of the motors is really expensive. Tune on my DB9 got maybe 35hp. Tune on my RRS got me 100HP. Example..... a 6.3 AMG motor with tune and all exhaust mods will run you about 15k and get you only 80hp or so. The new AMG, I think 5.5 turbos or 4.5 turboed motors start you at 550hp and a simple tune will take it to around 700hp. A naturally aspirated car just cannot compete with HP gains of a forced induction tune.

The 200 cell cats and the tune will wake the car up, and make it very much enjoyable vehicle to drive. Not going to beat a 911 turbo, but will hang with most other cars just fine. Small investment for a enjoyable time.

Why mod any of your cars if you only keep them a short time. Doesn't seem economical. But if you do mod them a bit, and then sell them after a bit, whats 2k in enjoyable mods to have fun?

I did the VelocityAP tune on my 4.3 and as others have said it does wake up the motor. Throttle response is vastly improved and it definitely pulls harder to redline. I plan on keeping mine for a while so the modest investment is totally worth it.

I have the tune and 200 cell cats. Huge improvement over stock! For me, it was worth the money as it is much more enjoyable to drive.

Dropped in VAP 200 cell cats, exhaust manifold, Redpants Dry Hi-Flow air filters and ECU remap. Oh yea, how could I forget, dual plate clutch kit, which included the single piece lightweight flywheel.
4.7L Vantage V8S.

I'll put it like this, there are few cars out here that will simply run away from my car.

This was some of the best money spent on this car.

Tuning makes these cars much more enjoyable by adjusting the character of the engine, but tuning is never going to make the car feel fast compared to a lighter car with 600 horsepower. There are so many dimensions to this car, it's a mistake to concentrate on acceleration.

I'm with Blue2000s the tune really adjusts the way the engine responds and improves the driving experience. Nobody knows what your hp really is and it really doesn't matter when you get right down to it its just a number. What matters is how much the car excites you while driving.
I did the velocity tune with fabspeed xpipe and mansory exhaust, my 4.7 is a totally different beast and I love it.Peak hp is up but when you look at the dyno graphs the best change is along the rpm range that you really use which changes the driving experience. Yes I can still have buddies with 150hp miata''s turn better lap times than I can but I have a hell of a lot more fun doing it in my car.

I don't know, I also have a 130hp Miata and on the street, it's alot more fun than the Aston :)

True probably mostly because on the street you can go to wot on the miata and not be doing over 100 in a very short period of time. I have several other track cars but the Vantage is still the most fun to drive at it's limits. Not the fastest just the most fun and I'm just getting too conservative to test its limits on the street.

Yup, low weight and low limits.

Installed tune today
 

So, you just installed the ECU tune from VP? I've thought about doing that only, but have been concerned that by itself I wouldn't notice a difference....

I noted previously, even starting from the power pack, the VAP tune is noticeable. It's not going to add much power (but some), but it changes the character of the engine's response to throttle inputs, which is dramatic.

i know you cant compare apples and oranges, but did the same mods to my mustang gt (cold air intake.exhaust.tune)
totally different car,$600 cost. i know aston is an exclusive car and prices are higher,but $2000cdn for a tune is really
pricey , when you think about it the v8v ecu is a ford product,its just price gouging to me,

well there are waaaay less cars to sell it to especially compared to a mustang LOL, and the cost of development remains the same so they kind of have to charge more if you want them to stay in business and continue to provide stuff in the future...

I mostly agree but I suspect there's always going to be some tax on an exotic car as well. Either way, oh well, buy the car, pay the costs. But that's not to say that one shouldn't look for ways to reduce paying alot for a part that can be found cheaper somewhere else.

How easy/simple/straight forward is the process of reading and then flashing the ECU? I am familiar with POWER Commander etc... on bikes, just not on a car. Pretty straight forward process?

We installed the stage 1 tune a year ago. Only additional mods were Redpants dry hi-flow air filters. As others have said it livened up the engine response and perhaps modest overall power bump. We had Velocity AP change the curve slightly when the exhaust opens up, so we get to enjoy the enhanced sound a little earlier without need to pull fuse 22.

We don't have 200 cell cats yet, thinking of buying, installing sometime this year.

As for how easy, it was simple. VAP ships their tuner tool, you down load some software on your computer to update firmware, plug it into your car to download the base tune, email that file to them, they update based on your needs and car hardware and email back. You then copy it back to the tuner tool and upload back into the car.

Kevin

We have a 2007 V8V 4.3l coupe, 6 speed
Kevin

Simple
 

When we talk about better throttle response, is that reducing the delay when you punch the pedal?
I have a standard 4.7L and I would love to 'delete' the delay.
I just gave the car a few revs and tried to time how long the delay is, I reckon its about 0.25-0.30 of a second.
For those of you who have done the tune (and other mods), but not the lightened flywheel, how long is that lag now? Thanks :)

On my 4.3, I did the mods in this order and each one had a clear impact.

• Tune made a big difference the response is much better.
• 200cell cats and VAP back box helped a good bit, for sure more power and the sound is crazy nice!
• The flywheel had an impact too, but it was more in the snappy-ness up and down.

Cheers,
Daryl

A couple of things about the tuning....

Yes, it's a normally aspirated engine so NOBODY will ever tweak 60,70,80 BHP out of it with just a tune, unlike some of the turbo/SC cars we deal with.

That being said, I do feel that, at least with our VelocityAP tuning it is more than just the number. There are a number of areas in the timing maps where performance is artificially restricted, in order to lower emissions measured during the prescribed testing cycles. Basically timing pulls and so on.

There are also some additional maps - vestigial stuff from the Ford based architecture which are restricting performance. Then, on the 4.3L cars specifically there are cam adjustments which we can carry over from the later 4.7L cars. All of those things don't add up to a bigger 'Headline' peak number, but make a big, big difference in the mid-range RPM where you spend most of your time.

The net result is that the cars just feel more Urgent as you pull through the RPM band, less sluggish and much more alive. There's a lot to be gained in terms of the driving experience that doesn't show up with the simple math. Not all the cars we see and work with are like that. Aston V8 is one of the NA platforms that does really benefit from the additional work. And with Chris (irish007) doing the coding and his in depth knowledge of the engines after 10 years as a factory trained tech I think there's a lot to like there.

Can’t endorse the VAP tune more highly
 

Ford probably sold more Mustangs in a Week, than Aston sold V8 Vantages during the entire development cycle. With that kind of volume it's not possible to develop our own tools that might auto-match your file and allow map switching and so on. What we sell is a bespoke service, meaning each file we write is written individually for that car, based on that owner's mods and requests. Written by the number 1 Aston Martin technician in North America.

I've been a member of this board for 10 years, we've built a great reputation delivering solid products that do what we say they do. Over that 10 years, you would not believe the number of times I've sold maybe a set of cat deletes to someone who's said "Oh, my local guy is going to do the tune, he said it's just Ford stuff...." only to have them come back and purchase the product because.... It's not just Ford stuff. We have so much time & experience invested into tuning these cars at this point, I couldn't even begin to quantify it.

Our company is made up of real people who work hard and earn an honest living. It's a profitable company but we are not making out like bandits. I'm sorry you feel that it's price gouging.

I personally put a VAP tune and 200 cell cats last yeat and i am very please with the results. Thank you so much guys awesome job.

Coming from air-cooled 911s I feel like the v8v mod cost are similar. I should have mentioned that my tune is VAP, and it is great. Every time I call VAP both pre and post sale, Stuart is there and happy to talk and give advice.

Cheers,
Daryl