I’m the proud new owner of a lightning silver with red interior 2007 Vantage (6 speed). I’ve been updating various parts of the car to get her in shape (struts, mass air flow, battery, etc..) and along the way discovering more items needing attention.

The most unusual to me is an issue I discovered today with the unlocking the door using the ignition key. My fob stopped working (now fixed, that was its own story) and that’s how I realized that my key does not unlock either door.

The strange thing is that it locks both doors just fine, and the fob unlocks both doors just fine, but with both doors there is no reaction whatsoever to the unlock direction (turning towards the rear). The key does turn, and further in that direction than in the lock direction. It seems unlikely both doors would suffer the same random issue like a disconnected linkage so I’m wondering if there is any insight into what could impact both. If my fob ever goes out I want to be sure I can get in my car.

I only have the one key set for this car.

That is my main concern. However, unrelated to that I have a new owner question: the throttle blip when downshifting has a larger delay than I’m used to (feels like .5 second or so). I’ve seen others mention this delay in their review of the car prior to my purchase so I’m not exactly surprised, but in practice it’s more noticeable than I imagined. Curious if the only solution is the clutch/flywheel upgrade or if anyone has any tips on the matter.

 

Are you using the metal key to open the door? If not, maybe you have a battery issue?

I would recommend adapting your driving style to the Vantage than trying to re-engineer it. You can change things with flywheel or twin disk clutch, but why get into all that if it's not in need of service?