i have recently installed a sprint booster on my porsche cayman and i find it very effective in increasing throttle response; something i find very much lacking in my 4.3L vantage. unfortunately sprint booster doesn't make one for the vantage. but while on their website the other day, i noticed a section where one can make request that they make one for any car that they currently do not, so i did. and today i received an email saying that they will definitely look into it and asked for a picture of the accelerator connector. i sent a couple back and will wait for a response.
i told them, not i don't think it's an exaggeration, that many owners of the early vantage's would love to have one. i know i would.

...we'll see what they do.

BTW, such devices, and there are other companies that make them, plug into your accelerator pedal sitting, electronically speaking, between the electrical connector on your pedal and your ECU (i.e. unplug your pedal's electrical connector, plug in the sprint booster and then plug in the connector you unplugged and plug it back into the sprint booster) and send the ECU an inflated value for how far the accelerator pedal has been pressed (i.e. you push the pedal, let's say, half an inch and the ECU will get a signal indicating that you pushed it one inch, simple). this results in a quicker response time. there is no claim as to increased torque or HP. no, but it makes the accelerator pedal much more sensitive.

 

the lackluster throttle response on the stock v8 vantage is mainly due to the heavy clutch/flywheel combo. I'm afraid you will be sorely disappointed with that product (if any is developed at all).

Spend the money instead on a tune which also remaps the throttle response instead of snake oil device such as sprint booster.

 

it would be interesting to hear opinions, though i have an idea, on why aston designed the engine on the early vantages with a heavy flywheel. not sure why a heavy clutch would have a detrimental effect on responsiveness though.

 

If you have driven a car with a regular flywheel then tried the same car with a lightweight one, it can take some getting used to. I don't think Aston's original target audience was the lightweight flywheel crowd.

 

I have a pedal box on my mercedes gle amg, along with a tune, and also a BMW with a JB4 tune.

It's not snake oil... it doesn't add HP but does help with throttle response...

That being said, vantage has slow throttle response, OEM clutch/ flywheel is heavy...

For under $300 it can be a cheap help if they get it right.

 

The Vantage flywheel isn't light, but it's not that heavy either. The throttle response is only truly poor just off idle -- there's an obvious delay. As I understand it, that's the way the electronic throttle is programmed. If the cause was just flywheel weight, throttle response would be poor in every situation and at any rpm.

 

ill bite- what’s your idea?

or for 100x more money you could just supercharge it!

 

aston has a history of offering a "gentleman's sports car". and a gentlemen doesn't appreciate having his head nor his passenger head fly forward every time he takes his foot off the accelerator. and it can be avoided with the use of a heavy flywheel. that's pretty much it.

i suspect its use is a tradition at aston, and whomever's job it was to design the flywheel didn't get the memo that the v8 vantage was supposed to be an all-out sports car. it's even possible that they were aware of the consequences and made an informed choice. a bad one, IMO, but a deliberate one.

 

According to Mike at Bamfordrose, the V8 Vantage was design with a twin plate clutch and light flywheel in mind but in the end the bean counter wanted to save money and put in a single plate clutch and flywheel. He also mention that is the reason why the earlier car can fit a twin plate clutch without having to replace the torque tub. It was mentioned in one of his video... 2yrs ago I had my original clutch replace with a twin plate from VAP and yes it is much lighter and you have to get use to it but throttle response is much improved, I also have their tune and 200 cats installed

 

Handyman, any idea how much of the throttle response change is due to the tune vs the flywheel?

 

I installed a Sprint Booster on a Mini Countryman I used to own. There was a definite slow curve to the throttle response in the original mapping, and it was made worse by the turbo lag. There is no question that I felt a snappier response to my pedal input with the Sprint Booster, and even though I had a switch to choose between 'Booster on or off, I ended up never turning it off. That said, I have no idea how much of the V8V's issue is due to a slow curve.

 

I first got the 200 cats and tune done on the car and it was a good improvement on the throttle response but when the twin plate clutch was installed the engine revs so much faster that it is harder to tell if it is throttle response that improved or lack of mass on the flywheel and clutch that makes the car revs so much faster. Either way, after getting used to the lighter peddle and clutch bit point I wouldn't go back to a single plate clutch.

 

because many of the electronic parts on my 2007 manual aston 8v8 are also jag and ford parts, i think i'll take another look at the accelerator sensor's connector, and compare it to one from ford or jaguar. if it looks like a fit, i may invest in one of the boosters for a jag or ford and see how well it works. it wouldn't surprise me if the same sensor is used in a ford/jag and aston and if so, it's not a stretch to think that the ECU's expectations WRT input values are also shared.

if it fits, i'll connect it up and test it....in neutral.

 

I've had mixed results with the Sprint Booster on cars. The 4.3 Vantage is best driven at the upper RPM range lacking the torque of the 4.7. I have a 2001 SLK32 with a boat load of mods estimated at 420HP. I did a V-Tech tune which programmed much better throttle response in the tune making a world of difference (almost too much response) - cars pretty much leaps with little throttle. I wonder if the various Aston Martin tunes do similar throttle sensitivity.

 

i contacted Sprint Booster Usa today. after a brief discussion we decided that i should send them a picture of the connectors on the throttle pedal of my car. here it is:



i'm surprised that there are TWO connectors. my porsche (my only car with a sprint booster) has only one. *headscratch* part of a fail-safe system, maybe?

BTW, i should mention that in a previous post, some time ago, i used a heavy flywheel as a possible means by which aston prevented an "ungentlemanly" head-snapping response. i should have used the fly-by-wire accelerator pedal software.