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I drove it a lot last night, it’s probably 30% or so louder overall. I hear the idle v8 burble more is most noticeable, a little more pops and bangs. WOT volume was already pretty good so it’s hard to tell much on that. The car is still a quiet cruiser at anything under 3500rpm, with tire/road noise louder than the exhaust on anything but great asphalt roads cruising at 50mph+.
I think one big difference in exhaust volume on NA cars is their relative cruising rpm. My 14 vantage would be at like 3500+ rpm iirc at 80mph, where as this new one is barely at 2000rpm (in auto mode). It gets better mpg for that reason but it also is relatively quieter (in addition to having turbos in the way).
I think it’s a good upgrade and not too expensive. There is a 10% 6speed coupon which should cover half install labor so for under $1k installed it’s worth it, but, it’s not a massive difference from the stock sports exhaust setup.
My biggest style issue is the front end. In photos the headlights look very small/thin and it’s hard to see the beautiful details inside of them. The subtle hood bulge and lines are also more present in person and I do think the giant clamshell hood is cool without the normal panel gap. Overall, the front end reminded me too much of the new Miata was my biggest issue. The Vulcan style grill is still not my favorite. The rest of the car is basically perfect (so long as you have the quad exhaust tips cause the dual is a bit silly small (sorry!))!
I would love to have the DBS front end on the Vantage, that would be my dream design!
I also miss the old gauges. The new digital ones are quite nice, but the old ones were like beautiful watches to look at.
We each have our own dislikes and preferences. I've heard all the comparisons but I've seen both the Miata and the "new" Vantage in person. I don't even see any similarity. I'll admit the Vantage front end doesn't photograph well but in real life it has presence. I sort of like the Vulcan grill but probably more from a pedigree/romantic sort of way than strictly the aesthetic. On the other hand I don't feel the new grill or the v12 grill was an improvement, just different. Love the DBS overall design but just to big for my tastes If it was the size of the Vantage, life would be wonderful, LOL.
Agree the analog watch style gauges were pretty but there were the share of folks who said they were had to read.
I've never had, or even seen the perfect car. I could find fault with all of them if I want. In the end, you need to just decided which compromises you are willing to live with unless you want to set up a skunk works in your garage and build your own . I'm sure that would be a compromise too regardless of money.
Anyway, lovely car and I hope you get lots of driving pleasure and enjoy it. I, personally, love when I park next to seven Porsches and I feel my car is extra special...and I am a bit of a Porsche fanboy.
I picked up this highly optioned Lightning Silver over Chestnut brown interior 2020 Vantage a week or so ago and it's been fantastic. I had a 2014 manual V8 Vantage (AP tune, cat delete, supersport muffler) that I really enjoyed for 5 years, but at 6'6'' I was just too tall for that car and with the sport suspension option, it really rode very rough on MI roads and it was sold last year. Aston really did a fantastic job with the interior room on the new Vantages, and I now fit with ease (no more cranking my neck down to see stop lights so much) and the ride is much better for a road car. It took a few years, but the styling has really grown on me and I prefer it to my last Vantage overall, particularly the rear end. So far the brakes are quiet and don't need quieter Porterfields like my last Vantage, although I'm not so sure about this brake-by-wire setup that can be very grabby at slow speeds and trying to park -- it's like brake pedal pressure does nothing at first and then grab!
Generally speaking, everything about this Vantage is an improvement (sans the braking smoothness). I am not a big fan of turbo engines, nor "diluting" the brand with shared engines, but it's hard to complain about the 4.0L AMG hot V turbo engine. It's a ton of torque and makes a cool sound (although very different than my old vantage which had an X pipe and sounded almost Lamborghini at high revs -- this is muscle car brute with pops and bangs) and most importantly I really don't notice any turbo lag at all for street use. I'm extremely impressed with the smoothness and speed from the ZF transmission. It's a very very good transmission setup and I don't miss the manual experience at all (still have another manual car though). One big problem is the rock chips on the rear wheel arches. My car only had 2700 miles but a big collection of rear wheel arch chips already. However, I found a great/cheap solution to that: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...el-arches.html
I have a set of Velocity AP secondary cat deletes that arrived today to give it a little more volume, hopefully get time to install them soon. I have seen some comments that Sport+ and Track modes have the same volume, but that's not true based on my experience and the manual. Track definitely has the valves open more, but it holds revs too high for driving in traffic (unless you use the paddles). Otherwise, I love track mode auto gearing on the backroads.
I'm also considering the Velocity AP tune. I really don't need 580hp / 700ftlbs for this front engine / RWD road car, but was really hoping it could fix some of the pet peeves I have about this car (mainly I hate it when cars do not retain the settings you had when they are shutoff, and each startup is a pre drive checklist to do). I was hoping the tune could do stuff like (1) start up in Sport+ mode always (2) fully open exhaust valves at all revs/throttle at startup and in Sport+ (3) disable auto start/stop in all modes (4) eliminate the annoying entry/exit BONG "don't forget your key." Sadly, the tune can't do this stuff, so I'm scratching my head if I should want it for the extra performance which is pretty hard to use on the street without jail (I'm a big track guy and have a GT350R for the 140+ mph use). I think my 2014 Vantage benefitted greatly from the increased throttle response and power, but the new Vantage seems adequately powered for (rational) road use already it's just not a big priority.
It's been raining a lot and I don't have many pics outside those in the showroom, but here's a few:
nice! I saw this posted on the CF as well. Congrats ! I just purchased a 2023 F1 edition. Should be taking delivery in the next couple weeks.
Really enjoying this car. It's a much better daily driver than my manual 2014 Vantage was, but still very engaging, fun, and just as beautiful. Very happy owner .
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