In Minnesota, we have Polaris Industries the maker of the Slingshot. What do you think the V8 Vantage and the Slingshot have in common? I'll answer this after I see some guesses.

The Slingshot and the V8 Aston Vantage have what in common?

 

Parts are very expensive.

 

Tail light condensation.

 

It’s a predator !!!!

seriously though I see some familiar driver controls & buttons

 

Headlight projectors?

 

British racing green color?

 

Ugly front and small headlights (2019>)
No spare tire
No Apple CarPlay

 

In 2015 I traded my 2009 V8 Vantage in on a 2015 V8GT at Morries Aston Martin in Minneapolis. Both cars were Sportshifts, my 2009 at 43,000 miles was close to a clutch change. The only thing I knew at the time was that the new owner installed a new clutch. Two years ago at a car event I noticed my 2009 Vantage and spoke to the new owner, a young man that did auto repair work. The car was in bad shape. The front hit a wall with minor damage to the front bumper and hood, and the custom diamond pattern interior I had done was filthy, and was most of the car. It had been sitting in a barn with animals and smelled awful. This young man said he was going to fix it up and resell it. I asked how did it get forgotten in a barn? He said that he bought the car from Polaris (maker of the Slingshot) who is based here. They bought the car to be the benchmark for the transaxle in the Slingshot that has the identical transaxle setup as the 2009 Vantage I owned. Apparently when they were done they threw it in a barn and there it sat (where it hit the wall). This past weekend I arraigned a local Aston ride (5 Vantages) to a lunch. One owned a 2007 black Vantage said he worked for Polaris. He was the engineer on that project and said they sought out Aston Martin for advice on how to market and explain to the customers that this was not an automatic transmission, and how to explain the benefits to the customers of being interactive with the shifting. I found that ironic because if Aston Martin had actually done the same there would be far fewer past owners on the typical used sportshift Vantages. Even Bamford Rose seems to favor the Sportshift in their videos, but I don't see a single Bamford Rose video on how to properly drive a Sportshift car - so even they fail to pass on the secret sauce. So there you have it, and that's what's in common. I think next time I'm near a Slingshot dealer, I'll get the sales pitch and see how they explain the Sportshift.

 

Thanks for posting such an intriguing story. Looks like Polaris has gone down many noteworthy paths over its life.

 

Shares an engineer, that was part of the team involved in development of the 4.3 engine performance testing.