Hey folks,

After seeing a bunch of threads on the Vantage. I thought I'd chime in with my comments on the car after spending almost two weeks in one for the Gumball. So consider it a 2 week test drive prospective.

I'm NOT the owner of the car I'm commenting on. My co-pilot and friend
is the owner. I think he was one of the first North American deliveries.

Performance and Looks:

I think we can all agree that the Vantage is just simply
a beautiful car. I think its lines flow much better than its bigger
brothers.

Having a 6 speed manual is great! The clutch pedal feel
is harder than my Murcielago. I've never driven a 997, but I have been in
MANY other high performance sports cars. In my opinion this car is a bit
underpowered. In Germany (well in all the countries that we were in) we got it up to about 160 or so, but it took FOREVER to get there. There were times on the Autobahn when cruising at about 140 or so when 996TTs, SLRs, etc... came flying by and we wished we had brought our first choice car. (CLK DTM)

The exhaust note is absolutely wonderful when you get on the gas. As
commented to us by many whom experienced it around us. The cabin is pretty sound dampened.

While on the journey we made some friends. A team in a Ferrari 612, and another in a 430 Spider. During the Thailand part of the Rally we set out together. Reasoning being that it would be better in case any of us ran into problems. Maybe we jinxed ourselves, but the boys in the 430 had a tire blow out. It was quite a challenge keeping up with the Ferraris on all aspects (curvies, straight line).

While we had problems keeping up. Our confort was never sacrificed.
The car was solid, but not hard. I think our ride was much more pleasureable than the guys in the 430 when the roads were sub optimal.

The Interior is small. Might be hard getting clubs into the trunk.
The dash is absolutely beautiful in my opinion. They may have modeled it after a nice chronograph watch.

Looks, Bling, Ego Factor:

A very common question during the rally by fans is:
"What car is that?"

Being that the Gumball is full of Exotic car owners, buffs, etc...
The Vantage was quite popular among the other teams.

After getting back into the States a couple of our buddies in a GREEN Gallardo SE joined us for the Salt Lake to Los Angeles segment of the Gumball.

For ****s and giggles we switched cars, and the attention received in the
Gallardo is absolutely night and day from attention received in the Vantage.

Hell if it wasn't for our car being completely stickered up , I honestly think
we might have been mistaken for a "regular" car in some places.

I almost forgot to mention that the doors open up at a slight angle.
I thought that was kind of neat.

I think this would be an excellent daily driver. The car you take out when the girlfriend/wife/whatever wants to wear a skirt and the Murcielago is a PITA, when you need more flash than your 99x and still want to be confortable, when the 430 is too loud, you get my point.

This is the girl you bring home to mom, not the **** you bang on the side.



Cheers,

-p


Some pictures from our journey:

(the reception we got from the People in Serbia when we arrived, believe it or not , or cars are on display where all the people are! - Also the place where our rear Aston Marin badge got stolen.)




(getting busted from Salt Lake to Vegas)





(the green lambo is my friend whom we were chasing just before the cop got us)

 

Paul,
Thanks for the write up and pics. I enjoyed your write up on what you think of the AM. I think the ending line said it the best.
I am from Serbia and apologize for the p**k that stole the AM badge, if you want I will look into it.

Bajo

 

nice write up paul.

 

Awesome write up. THat must have been an amazing experience participating in the gumball

 

Sorry for my noobishness what is the Gumball?

Nice review Im really considering buying one of those, hows the quality?

You say its underpowered but your comment doesnt count cause you own a murci :P Do you think its underpowered for the price your paying for?

 

Dude, you seriously don't know what the Gumball is? No more 6speed for you sir until you read up.



www.gumball3000.com
http://www.gumball-3000.com/rally/

 

Wow seems like fun.

How do you sign up? lol

 

If you're willing to spend 70k ...

 

I forgot to mention that power steering broke on at the end of our Asia leg.
(we might have caused this tho )

Whats the price on these things?

-p

 

They are 130 out the door fully loaded. I think it is about 100k base.

 

Great write up! I enjoyed reading it! And thank you aswell for the pictures. If you have some more feel free to post them

 

Wonderful write up...and the pics at the end are a nice touch.