SportShift 2 road rage
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With only a few days of SS2 ownership and 1,400 miles of freeway driving, my opinion hardly carries any weight at all, but... I also am loving the SportShift 2 trans.
Manual mode is tremendous fun, the throttle blip on downshift is incredibly precise, etc, etc. The surprise for me was how good it shifts in D mode. My expectation was that I would hate D and never, ever choose to use it. I've read the reviews on dual plate clutches and how they "transform" the car and make D mode shifts smoother, but at this point my honest opinion is that there isn't enough room for improvement for any clutch mod to be transformative.
I noticed on the Aston Martin build sheet that my 2012 got a post-production clutch change to LUK 8080S friction material, so perhaps the longevity (just over half used-up on the clutch bit read scale at 26,000 miles) and shift quality is better than with previous clutch disks. Has anyone else noticed a reference to 8080S on their cars? (And if you haven't looked at the build sheet for your car, you should go to the Aston Martin Tech Hub with your VIN and do so.)
Maybe the warts will reveal themselves with more experience? Or maybe years of shifting the Hewland dog engagement, no synchro race transaxle in my Royale Sports 2000 without using the clutch has prepared me in some unique way.
Manual mode is tremendous fun, the throttle blip on downshift is incredibly precise, etc, etc. The surprise for me was how good it shifts in D mode. My expectation was that I would hate D and never, ever choose to use it. I've read the reviews on dual plate clutches and how they "transform" the car and make D mode shifts smoother, but at this point my honest opinion is that there isn't enough room for improvement for any clutch mod to be transformative.
I noticed on the Aston Martin build sheet that my 2012 got a post-production clutch change to LUK 8080S friction material, so perhaps the longevity (just over half used-up on the clutch bit read scale at 26,000 miles) and shift quality is better than with previous clutch disks. Has anyone else noticed a reference to 8080S on their cars? (And if you haven't looked at the build sheet for your car, you should go to the Aston Martin Tech Hub with your VIN and do so.)
Maybe the warts will reveal themselves with more experience? Or maybe years of shifting the Hewland dog engagement, no synchro race transaxle in my Royale Sports 2000 without using the clutch has prepared me in some unique way.
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With only a few days of SS2 ownership and 1,400 miles of freeway driving, my opinion hardly carries any weight at all, but... I also am loving the SportShift 2 trans.
Manual mode is tremendous fun, the throttle blip on downshift is incredibly precise, etc, etc. The surprise for me was how good it shifts in D mode. My expectation was that I would hate D and never, ever choose to use it. I've read the reviews on dual plate clutches and how they "transform" the car and make D mode shifts smoother, but at this point my honest opinion is that there isn't enough room for improvement for any clutch mod to be transformative.
I noticed on the Aston Martin build sheet that my 2012 got a post-production clutch change to LUK 8080S friction material, so perhaps the longevity (just over half used-up on the clutch bit read scale at 26,000 miles) and shift quality is better than with previous clutch disks. Has anyone else noticed a reference to 8080S on their cars? (And if you haven't looked at the build sheet for your car, you should go to the Aston Martin Tech Hub with your VIN and do so.)
Maybe the warts will reveal themselves with more experience? Or maybe years of shifting the Hewland dog engagement, no synchro race transaxle in my Royale Sports 2000 without using the clutch has prepared me in some unique way.
Manual mode is tremendous fun, the throttle blip on downshift is incredibly precise, etc, etc. The surprise for me was how good it shifts in D mode. My expectation was that I would hate D and never, ever choose to use it. I've read the reviews on dual plate clutches and how they "transform" the car and make D mode shifts smoother, but at this point my honest opinion is that there isn't enough room for improvement for any clutch mod to be transformative.
I noticed on the Aston Martin build sheet that my 2012 got a post-production clutch change to LUK 8080S friction material, so perhaps the longevity (just over half used-up on the clutch bit read scale at 26,000 miles) and shift quality is better than with previous clutch disks. Has anyone else noticed a reference to 8080S on their cars? (And if you haven't looked at the build sheet for your car, you should go to the Aston Martin Tech Hub with your VIN and do so.)
Maybe the warts will reveal themselves with more experience? Or maybe years of shifting the Hewland dog engagement, no synchro race transaxle in my Royale Sports 2000 without using the clutch has prepared me in some unique way.
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Fuse15, I was in D and Sport quite a lot the first day of driving and didn't notice any overly aggressive responses. The day the car went a little crazy I was definitely not in Sport. It was a pretty relaxed day, cruising at 75 instead of 80ish.
EDVTEC, that is exactly what my build sheet says.
I just checked a BUNCH of V8Vs. The 8080S comment first shows up on 2012 S models. If the Aston book and my memory of it is correct, the non-S 2012s got the 6 speed version of SportShift, and their build sheets do not have the 8080S entry. S models got SS2, then SS2 was the trans on all automatics starting in 2013. I checked a few '13 thru '16 SS2 cars and all of them have the same 8080S entry that our cars have. The single 2016 manual trans that I checked did not have the entry. Seems safe to say 8080S was used on all SS2 cars.
It took a bit of sleuthing to figure out what 8080S meant. Earlier (before finding the 8080S comment on all SS2s) I was hoping (dreaming?) it might be shorthand for the V12V dual plate clutch, but it apparently is just a reference to a premium clutch friction material produced by LUK. Still, if the SS2 clutches last longer than SS1, perhaps 8080S is part of the reason.
EDVTEC, that is exactly what my build sheet says.
I just checked a BUNCH of V8Vs. The 8080S comment first shows up on 2012 S models. If the Aston book and my memory of it is correct, the non-S 2012s got the 6 speed version of SportShift, and their build sheets do not have the 8080S entry. S models got SS2, then SS2 was the trans on all automatics starting in 2013. I checked a few '13 thru '16 SS2 cars and all of them have the same 8080S entry that our cars have. The single 2016 manual trans that I checked did not have the entry. Seems safe to say 8080S was used on all SS2 cars.
It took a bit of sleuthing to figure out what 8080S meant. Earlier (before finding the 8080S comment on all SS2s) I was hoping (dreaming?) it might be shorthand for the V12V dual plate clutch, but it apparently is just a reference to a premium clutch friction material produced by LUK. Still, if the SS2 clutches last longer than SS1, perhaps 8080S is part of the reason.
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It took a bit of sleuthing to figure out what 8080S meant. Earlier (before finding the 8080S comment on all SS2s) I was hoping (dreaming?) it might be shorthand for the V12V dual plate clutch, but it apparently is just a reference to a premium clutch friction material produced by LUK. Still, if the SS2 clutches last longer than SS1, perhaps 8080S is part of the reason.
I'll have to go through the trouble of finding somebody willing to install a twin-plate in the AZ area pretty soon here.
Last edited by fuse15missing; Oct 6, 2023 at 11:20 AM.
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Honestly, I've had many V8 and V12 Vantages - never touched the clutch, however, I bought a new 2017 V12S from Beverly Hills AM, and they did a last minute inspection of the car before shipping it to me and found the clutch was bad, and that's new with Sportshift III. Needless to say it was replaced under warranty. It was the only issue I had in the two year ownership. I think the clutch supplier quality sucked, same with those that assembled the leaking rear tail lights. Thankfully with the thousands of other components making up a Vantage, these seem to be the two most common problems and not much else.
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Sorry that not responding to a question about a behavior that cannot happen has bothered any of you. The only time the computer downshifts when in manual mode is when coming to a stop. It NEVER downshifts at speed when in manual mode. It was so obvious, I didn't think I needed to answer that one and draw attention to the person asking it, which of course, you have now done.
Any suggestion, question or comment about manual mode (and there were a LOT of them) cannot possibly help solve a problem that only occurs when in D mode. Manual mode shift decisions are made by the driver. D mode shift decisions are made by the computer. Ergo, 100% not pertinent, 100% of the time.
I got an excellent question from a Facebook group: was I climbing when the car went gonzo? Almost certainly yes. It happened in southern OR, which is almost all ups and downs, and most passing situations occurred when I was ascending hills/mountains. The car already was under more load than on level ground or when descending, so just a bit more throttle could easily trigger a more aggressive downshift and acceleration. That seems to fit. Another great Facebook suggestion: clear all of the "learned" transaxle data.
That was the sort of stuff I expected from a well established forum. The info in the older threads is a gold mine for a new Aston owner, and I was expecting similarly inciteful responses. I hardly ever have gotten better info from Facebook than a dedicated forum, but I guess times, they are a changing.
Batman - thanks for your post. You are the second owner to suggest getting VAP tunes. Maybe next spring (the car will be put in storage by the end of October, if not sooner).
Any suggestion, question or comment about manual mode (and there were a LOT of them) cannot possibly help solve a problem that only occurs when in D mode. Manual mode shift decisions are made by the driver. D mode shift decisions are made by the computer. Ergo, 100% not pertinent, 100% of the time.
I got an excellent question from a Facebook group: was I climbing when the car went gonzo? Almost certainly yes. It happened in southern OR, which is almost all ups and downs, and most passing situations occurred when I was ascending hills/mountains. The car already was under more load than on level ground or when descending, so just a bit more throttle could easily trigger a more aggressive downshift and acceleration. That seems to fit. Another great Facebook suggestion: clear all of the "learned" transaxle data.
That was the sort of stuff I expected from a well established forum. The info in the older threads is a gold mine for a new Aston owner, and I was expecting similarly inciteful responses. I hardly ever have gotten better info from Facebook than a dedicated forum, but I guess times, they are a changing.
Batman - thanks for your post. You are the second owner to suggest getting VAP tunes. Maybe next spring (the car will be put in storage by the end of October, if not sooner).
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