The Secret Entourage Aston Martin is far from over, and this month it is full of carbon fiber love, courtesy of our premiere sponsor, The Vantage Collection. We introduced you to The Vantage Collection last month as our aesthetics experts for this project. During phase 3 this month, we show you details of what the pure carbon fiber sent by Nicholas of The Vantage Collection looks like and give you our impressions on the parts as well as the car so far…
We reached out to The Vantage Collection because we knew that Nicholas had some of the most unique and beautiful exterior and interior parts for the Vantage that we had seen and this month we got to experience these parts first hand…
Having had just completed the D2 Forged VS1 wheels and H&R suspension, we were eager to install all of these carbon fiber parts. We first received our V2 Rear Diffuser, which is essentially a DBS rear diffuser outfitted to the Vantage and it is a stunning piece. Made of pure carbon fiber not overlay, this piece is quite pretty to look at, on or off the car. Being much larger than the factory plastic piece, it creates a very aggressive and rich look to the back of the car. The carbon weave is perfect and showed no defects of any sort. The piece itself even comes with a fur piece at the edge to ensure you don’t scratch your car when it is fully pressed against it. Install is relatively easy and painless as its only 4 bolts to the bottom of the diffuser holding it in place. It is a bit tricky to install in order for it to line up properly on both sides, flush against the body, as you need to apply various pressure to each bolt. All in all a 20 minute install and one fine looking rear end once complete. The V2 Carbon Fiber Rear Diffuser can be found at The Vantage Collection- V2 Rear Diffuser for a cost of $2600.
We also had the chance to install our V1 Front Carbon Fiber Lip. This front lip is also pure carbon fiber, and not carbon overlay. A beautiful piece with perfect carbon weaves. This one is a direct replacement to the factory plastic trim, which get removed in less than 5 minutes, and gets replaced by this much larger and aggressive carbon fiber front lip. A small addition to a perfect car, but a very significant impact to the eye once installed. The only downfall to this part is how fragile it seems, its looks to be less than 2mm thick and therefore creates a fear of cracking it the minute you overlook your ability to negotiate a speed bump, which is a small issue since the piece sells for $1950 and can be found at The Vantage Collection- V1 Front Splitter
With our two Carbon Fiber pieces from The Vantage Collection installed, our Aston has really come to life looking stunning and much more aggressive than we’ve ever seen it before. All in all two stunning additions that we think are a must to bring The Aston Martin Vantage to the DB9 level in terms of exotic presence.
Mileage Log: 4000-8500 miles
We now have roughly 8500 miles on our Aston Martin Vantage and have enjoyed it for about 5000 miles on short city drive and two 400-mile rallies. We have not had any issues with our car in terms of engine or drivetrain. Our car has been quite strong and keeps getting better with miles and time.
We have had a few issues with our brakes squealing more than usual under hot weather, and our Bluetooth system crashing on us over a dozen times. All easy and cheap fixes, with no major inconvenience other than having to pick up the phone and not have to hear the sexy British lady telling you that you have an incoming call…
Other than that, our car has been pretty bullet proof so far, and continues to treat us well. The car’s aggressive stance coupled with the recently added carbon fiber makes our car the favorite and most photographed everywhere we go.
We will keep updating you on various issues or surprises that come up throughout the year with our awesome car. We will cover how RSC Tuning is making sure that our V8 Vantage keeps up with its V12 counterpart… Stay tuned!
