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[2boxerdogs]

Watched Top Gear last night, pleased to see how highly they rate MB V8 engines didn't realise that Aston Martin are now using them in their latest model.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

No disrespect to MB engines, but its a sad day when Aston Martin are using them rather than their own hand built engines with a plate on the rocker cover with the builders name inscribed on it.
I think they are heading for trouble tbh. They floated on the stock market not long ago and the share price tanked and afaik, has never recovered.

[2boxerdogs]

No disrespect to MB engines, but its a sad day when Aston Martin are using them rather than their own hand built engines with a plate on the rocker cover with the builders name inscribed on it.
I think they are heading for trouble tbh. They floated on the stock market not long ago and the share price tanked and afaik, has never recovered.

.

My sentiments exactly that craftsmanship has now probably gone forever.

[2boxerdogs]

When we moved house a few months back we came across all my late father in law's apprenticeship papers & various certificates he had gained whilst working at Aston Martin from leaving school, he was an absolutely brilliant engineer taught me a lot.

[STEMO]

I thought Matt LeBlanc was right when he said the new Aston looked like a Mazda. The Merc looked far better and is ten grand cheaper.

[Doctor Gollum]

And faster...

[Sir Tigger KC]

No disrespect to MB engines, but its a sad day when Aston Martin are using them rather than their own hand built engines with a plate on the rocker cover with the builders name inscribed on it.
I think they are heading for trouble tbh. They floated on the stock market not long ago and the share price tanked and afaik, has never recovered.

I read a while ago that they are opening a new factory at St Athan in South Wales which will create a few hundred jobs. 

I expect though, that they will be going down the mass produced road rather than the traditional hand built approach. 

Still if it means the company survives!   

[Nick W]

Nobody is going to manufacture a new engine that requires the hand fitting that the original 60s V8 did. Even a man in a shed will design out most of the requirements. Modern casting and machining eliminates the need for it, even for such small production quantities. And the handbuilt V8 is already at least one generation in the past.


Also, the V12 architecture was two Mondeo V6s cast together and the recent V8s have a lot in common with Jaguar's.

[Marks DTM Calib]

The recent V8s were JLR designs built under license with a few tweeks and the JLR V8 is dying when the Ford plant that makes it closes

Nobody is going to design new specials for small runs anymore, the cost of approvals and tooling is staggeringly high.

I do know that Aston have a new engine enroute which seriously screams (I have heard it a few times....yet to see it though and it sounds amazing)

[TheBoy]

No disrespect to MB engines, but its a sad day when Aston Martin are using them rather than their own hand built engines with a plate on the rocker cover with the builders name inscribed on it.
I think they are heading for trouble tbh. They floated on the stock market not long ago and the share price tanked and afaik, has never recovered.

The Merc V8, when properly tuned (which MB can't (nor can AMG - they use another company)) can produce decent power (but with a fairly aggressive delivery).  Its the rest of the car that's absolute shite.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Not so very long back I had a test drive in a C63S which uses the same MB 4 litre V8.......503 BHP in this case.

Didn't buy it because it was finished in wedding car/ taxi white which I don't like.

Quite nippy and sounded like the end of the world when booted.

[Viral_Jim]

My sentiments exactly that craftsmanship has now probably gone forever.

Yup, I mean, there's every chance the new one will start most days you want to use it.

Truly the halcyon days of hand built British cars has ended!

[Nick W]

My sentiments exactly that craftsmanship has now probably gone forever.

Yup, I mean, there's every chance the new one will start most days you want to use it.

and not need a £20k refresh every few years.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

My sentiments exactly that craftsmanship has now probably gone forever.

Yup, I mean, there's every chance the new one will start most days you want to use it.

and not need a £20k refresh every few years.

Correct......but you won't see a white Aston parked out front of an airport with the word 'Taxi' on the roof....

[Viral_Jim]

On the subject of Astons. The earlier 4.3 V8 vantages are now comfortably under £25k - hugely tempting at that kind of money.

People bemoan the presence of ford/volvo bits in them, but to my way of thinking, at least they'll work and won't cost a bazillion pounds to replace.

That said, the DB9 is arguably a better looker  .