Manhattanboy, I will say the F-Type definitely gave me pause when deciding to buy another Vantage. I've driven a few F-Types including both the S/C V6 and the R and both were a great driving experience, comfortable, and both made their own fantastic noise. And man, the prices after a year or two make them a really tempting buy. But after talking my wife's ear off about buying another Aston for who knows how long, I think she'd have made me return the thing if I didn't come home with the one I said I was going to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by you&me
I'm sure I've said this before, but IMO, the majority of negative remarks made online with regard to how bad the early single clutch transmission are is WAY overblown and perpetuated mostly by people with limited or even no experience at all with them.
I've owned or at least had significant seat time (friends cars, etc) in a good chunk of these cars... SMG, early F1, E-gear, RTronic and Sportshift... the gears can be a little slow to engage when shifting from R to D, etc, but I've found that the gear changes when you're actually on the move to be fine. I mean, they're obviously not imperceptible like a full auto or the latest dual-clutch boxes, but in some ways I actually prefer the kick-in-the-pants feel
I'm glad TorqueDog got the car he wanted and it's nice that he knew better than to listen the general negativity online regarding these cars & transmissions... He might have ended up with a worse car for it. |
Thanks man.
I've been living and breathing these cars for a while even after I sold my first one, so I'm well versed in the cars, differences in equipment and changes across model years and submodels, performance, how to drive them properly, doing one's own maintenance, etc. Similar to you, it doesn't bug me if someone has driven both and prefers one over the other, but when someone's coming from a place of ignorance, I haven't much time for it.
A big part of the hate-on people have for the SportShift is actually because of AM's first attempt using a completely unrelated Tremec ASM gearbox in the original Vanquish. It had its quirks as all single-clutch ASMs do, but unfortunately Clarkson got a hold of it, and proceeded to complain to no end how the 'stupid flappy paddles' wouldn't allow him to drop two gears while he was damn near redlining the thing, thus preventing him from grenading the bloody engine. He also was forgetting that these single clutch units work best when you drive them
like a manual; slightly let off the throttle as you change gears. The SS trans
axle is an unrelated gearbox to the unit in the Vanquish, and receives most of its critiques courtesy of that damn Top Gear Vanquish episode. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Top Gear, but the show for better or worse has resulted in a lot of people having very strong opinions of cars which they've never had a sniff of the interior hides, much less some quality time behind the wheel.
Where V8 Vantage is concerned, both manual and SS/SS2 cars have a heavy flywheel and single-plate clutch, and it negatively impacts both cars in being slow to rev (especially in the early 4.3L) and how the clutch engages and disengages. AM has a pretty well-documented history of financial woes, so some components like manifolds, TPMS, flywheels, and clutches are all built to a price. The twin-plate clutch found in the V12 Vantage is a common upgrade along with a lightweight flywheel for V8 owners and transforms the car and -- especially in the case of the SportShift -- alleviates pretty much every complaint one may have with the thing.