My First Drive
Obviously as soon as I turned 17, I was keen to start taking driving lessons and pass my test as soon as I possibly could. This was especially true for me, given the added incentive that my dad was happy, (or at the very least willing), to let me drive the Aston. Needless to say, I grasped this golden opportunity as soon as I could. However I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was somewhat apprehensive the first time that I got behind the steering wheel with the very real intent of actually driving. Nevertheless the overwhelming feeling was one of elation as I was finally able to drive the very car that had introduced me to the world of Aston Martin so many years beforehand.
AMV at home on the Driveway – Early 1990s
The view down the seemingly endless expanse of white bonnet, the distinctive roar and accompanying vibrations from the beating heart of the straight 6 engine, the oh so familiar aroma of old leather and petrol, all of these assaulted my young senses as I guided the car along the familiar roads of Rutland. Predictably from this point on, I was sure to embrace every opportunity to drive the car that was offered to me. I soon found that the creases along the flanks enabled the car to be placed with relative ease on the road, which was just as well as the lack of a nearside wing mirror would prove to be even more of a challenge otherwise. Judicious application of throttle was also a lesson that I quickly learned. No driver aids, relatively skinny tyres and a sufficient supply of power and torque were a surefire recipe for quickly learning the handling characteristics of rear wheel drive when my youthful exuberance shone through!
Chassis Restoration (take one)
Come the mid-90s, the car was suffering from the all too common issue of corrosion in the sills, floor and chassis, and so my dad had to find a local restoration specialist to do the necessary work. The work was undertaken by Spring Grange Restoration Ltd., who primarily specialised in restoring classics such as Triumphs and MGs, and hence were no strangers to the ravages of rust. The restoration work was completed to a good overall standard, when considering that the financial value of the car could not justify a complete ground-up restoration at the time. However as time would ultimately tell, the work had not quite gone far enough, but more on this later.
The 1st Restoration, following the Replacement of the Inner Sills – Mid 1990s
Unfortunately, my dad was not one for keeping a hold of receipts, (or really any form of documentation), so there is nothing in the way of service history for the period of time that he owned the car. Still as my dad buying this car started my lifelong love of all things Aston Martin, and the memories that were made with him and the car remaining amongst my fondest, I consider the gap in the car’s provenance to be a small price to pay indeed. In fact I subsequently learned that my dad kept the car for as long as he did largely because of my love of it, and with hindsight I believe that he may well have actually preferred his Stag, particularly from the way that he used to reminisce so fondly about it.
3rd Owner (2001 to 2005): Mr. Peter Everington (my brother)
Unfortunately, the sudden and untimely circumstances of my dad’s passing, coupled with his inherent tendency to put such things off, meant that he had not gotten around to changing his will as he had apparently intended to, meaning that the car passed to my eldest brother instead of me. I only found this information out thanks to my mum, who was never happy that dad’s wishes regarding the car had not been fulfilled.
Consequently I do not have any information or history for this period of time. I do however recall receiving a phone call from my mum at one point, when my brother had visited her house, (where the car was still garaged), to try and start the engine. My mum asked me what the correct procedure was for starting it, as my brother had thus far been unable to do so successfully. I informed her of the correct method as I had been taught, however apparently by that point he had already flooded the engine via using the manual choke, (which is pointless with this engine), and flattened the battery in the process of trying.
My abiding memory of the legacy from this period is twofold. Firstly the gearstick gator gained a cigar burn sized hole in it at some point, (sufficed to say that this particular part of history had since been erased!) Secondly my mum lived in a rural area at the time, which coupled with the lack of use meant that some mice took up residency in the boot at one point, which predictably resulted in the normal associated unpleasant aftermath of rodent habitation.
Sat in the Garage in Rutland (complete with hole in the gearstick gator) – February 2006
At one stage my brother was looking into selling the car, as he was not using it enough to warrant keeping it, (in fact I have record of the fact that it was declared SORN for 2004), causing me to have to face the possibility that I may never get to see or drive the car again. Fortunately, (for me), AM Vantages were not as highly regarded or sought after at the time as they are today, and hence he struggled to find a serious buyer for her. My brother did succeed in selling the MVC 5 registration in his time as the keeper however, and hence the car was issued with its 4th registration number, WEU 453L, an age appropriate plate issued by the DVLA that she still carries today.
My mum however had never been happy that what she knew to have been my father’s final wishes regarding the car had not been fulfilled and wanted the car to go to me. In order to ensure that this happened, my mum ultimately took direct action, purchased the car from my brother and had him sign the V5 over to me. This activity was completely unbeknownst to me at the time, as I was living down in Somerset, nearly 200 miles away from both my mum and the car. Consequently the arrival through the post of the V5 in my name came as something of a very pleasant, but somewhat overwhelming surprise.
4th Owner (2005 to Present): Mr. Stuart Everington (me)
So at the tender age of 27, I found myself in the incredibly fortunate position of being the very proud custodian of not just any Aston Martin, (if there is even such a thing), but the very car that had formed the foundation of my lifelong passion for the marque. To say that I was elated at this development was something of an understatement, as I had after all essentially been dreaming of this moment since I was 4 years old! However once the initial shock factor had subsided somewhat, the reality of the situation I now found myself in started to come into focus. As I mentioned previously, I was living in Somerset and the car was located about 200 miles away in Rutland, hadn’t run for a number of years, wasn’t taxed and didn’t have an MOT, so driving it down was not an option, (or certainly not a good one at least). Furthermore the rented property that I was living in at the time, with my fortunately very understanding and supportive partner Lisa, had a driveway, but did not have a garage that we could use.
I decided to take the approach of tackling one problem at a time, with the first order of business being to find somebody local to me to do some recommissioning work and get the car back where she belonged… on the road. Fortunately when investigations had been made into selling the car, my mum had gotten in touch with Philip Jones of Byron International, the renowned Aston sales specialist, in order to get some expert advice. I therefore decided to follow-up on this and made contact with Philip myself to see if he had any advice for how I should progress with embarking on my own journey of Aston ownership. Philip was gracious enough to share some advice with me, including letting me know about a local Aston Martin specialist called Davron, who he said would be able to work with me with respect to the necessary recommissioning work. Little did I know at the time just how significant this piece of advice was to prove to be.
Relocating and Recommissioning
After making initial contact with Davron to talk about the car and what might need to be done, the next order of business was to arrange for the car to be transported from Rutland down to the garage so that they could make a proper assessment. A suitable transportation service was soon found via the internet, and the necessary arrangements were made.
AMV gets Relocated to the South West from the East Midlands – December 2006
Predictably once the car had arrived at Davron and they had taken a look at what needed to be done, they discovered that there was quite a bit of recommissioning work that was required in order to get her back on the road. They did however get the engine running in short order, after having performed an initial inspection to make sure that there were no significant concerns, which showed me that AMV was keen to get going again. In order to complete the work that needed to be done in a more manageable way, we agreed that the tasks would be split up so that a big job would be done in one month, followed by some of the smaller jobs the following month and so on, until all of the necessary work had been completed.
The main issue that was found was that there was valve seat regression with an associated loss of cylinder compression, primarily due to leaded petrol no longer being available and the engine never having been converted to run on unleaded. A couple of options for dealing with this were discussed. Fortunately there was a less expensive albeit temporary work-around that would gain some time on the engine. This involved stripping the engine down to the point where the valve seat buckets could be removed, thus enabling them to be re-ground to the point where the valve seat clearances were returned to within tolerance. This was the less expensive option, albeit that the amount of time that it would buy could not be predicted, basically I was told that it could last for a matter of months or potentially years. However, the ultimate and inescapable conclusion was that the engine would ultimately require a complete rebuild. Needless to say, my eagerness to get back behind the wheel as soon as possible and limited available funding resulted in the temporary fix being selected, (and fingers being crossed).
Without getting into too much detail, some of the work that was required was as follows;
New HT Leads and HT lead tube, (which was missing)
Re-torque cylinder head
Re-core radiator
New viscous fan coupling
Re-conditioned power steering rack
New boot rigger, (corrosion), and repaired spare wheel well, (which had been damaged)
3 x New Weber Carburettors, (as the bodies of 2 had been cracked by over-tightening the adjustment screws)
Remove and re-grind valve seat buckets to increase clearances as required
Once all this work had been done, (which ended up being the summer of 2007), the car was ready for me to collect and enjoy.
Getting Re-Acquainted with an Old Friend
Predictably, as it had been quite a few years since I had last driven the car, it was with a mixed sense of excitement and trepidation that I finally got back behind the wheel to drive home. Any sense of apprehension was soon dispelled however, as I slipped back into the well-worn Connelly leather driver’s seat, soaked in the familiar aroma of old leather that is synonymous with such cars, (especially Astons), of that era, and cranked the engine into life. Suddenly all of the sensations that had been so familiar to me for such a long time were vividly brought back into focus. Much like reconnecting with an old friend that you haven’t seen for some time, somehow you manage to pick up right where you left off the last time you met, I now found myself reconnected with my oldest friend. I was comfortable. I was happy. I was home.
The drive home along the A30 was thoroughly enjoyable and uneventful. It did of course include a customary visit to the petrol station enroute, ensuring to add a bottle of Millers VSP, (lead replacement), additive to the tank, after all the engine had yet to be converted to run on untreated unleaded petrol. On arriving back home, I was then faced with the task of manoeuvring the car onto the driveway in front of the house where we rented our flat. Fortunately there was enough space, however the section of driveway that we had available to use was on an incline and immediately parallel to the road, which effectively required negotiating two 90˚ corners in quick succession, whilst avoiding some brick walls. After achieving this, the lack of garage meant that a good quality outdoor car cover was the only option to provide protection from the elements. Fortunately one of our annual pilgrimages to the Goodwood FoS provided the opportunity to obtain a suitable ‘ex-display’ cover for this purpose. The only slight issue was that they insisted that I take the cover from them at the point of purchase, which then meant lugging it around FoS for the rest of the day. This was fine… for a while, but the cover seemed to get increasingly heavy as the day wore on! Also, whilst it was an excellent cover, (and in fact remains so to this day), it was clear that a better long-term accommodation solution was required.
New Adventures
First things first though, now that AMV was back on fine form once again, it was time to start putting some more miles under her wheels and attending some events.
Goodwood Festival of Speed – June 2007
One of the first such adventures was to make our annual pilgrimage to the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS). My abiding memories from this trip were that despite Goodwood being bathed in sunshine, there was torrential rain whilst driving to and from the event. The Goodwood traffic didn’t do me any favours either, as the clutch was incredibly heavy, to the point where I was surprised not to be walking around in circles due to over developed left leg muscles when we arrived! I also recall that our rear seat passenger, (our friend Marc, with whom we were to have a number of petrolhead adventures with in the years to come), somehow managed to fall fast asleep on the return journey, despite the less than subtle exhaust note, (I did say that the rear seats were surprisingly usable).
Retro Run and Silverstone Classic – July 2007
One of the starting points for the Retro Run drive for classic cars to the Silverstone Classic event happened to be the Aston Martin Works Service department at Newport Pagnell, so it seemed only fitting that we should take part on our way to the event. We found ourselves in some superb automotive company for the run itself, which served to further enhance a very pleasant drive through the East Midlands countryside.
Aston Martin Reserved Parking at Newport Pagnell prior to starting the Retro Run to Silverstone
Finding a New Home for AMV – Winter 2007-2008
As previously mentioned, living in rented accommodation and having to leave AMV parked outside on the driveway during the better weather, and in storage over the winter months, was decidedly sub-optimal. We therefore started house hunting in the winter of 2007, and of course one of our primary criteria was that the house had to have a large garage, (ok so this may have been my one overriding priority). Frustratingly this seemed to be misinterpreted by a number of estate agents, causing them to send us details for a number of properties with single garages. When explaining to them that these were insufficient for our needs, they asked us what we wanted to do with the garage space, then seemed to be quite surprised when we responded “put a car in it!” Fortunately a potential property was found, albeit that the length of garage space available seemed slightly marginal. The owners must have wondered why we spent quite so much time in the garage with a tape measure on our 2nd visit, whilst we checked and re-checked the dimensions. We did successfully manage to satisfy ourselves that the garage would be suitable however, which made our minds up, we had found our new home. Now all that remained was for us to actually purchase it.
Of course, measurements are one thing, but the reality could be quite different. The time of reckoning came when the better weather arrived and we retrieved AMV from winter hibernation and brought her back to her new home. It was with a distinct sense of trepidation that we swung into our new driveway, opened the door and crossed the threshold into the garage. Had our measurements been accurate? Would it be deep enough to enable us to close the door again? In short… Yes… Eureka!
AMV on the driveway at her new home - September 2008
AMOC Area 4 at Barrington Court – July 2008
Staying a little closer to home, we attended our first local area AMOC meet at Barrington Court. We very quickly learned what a thoroughly friendly and gregarious bunch our fellow Aston owners were, and both ourselves and AMV were warmly welcomed into the fold. In fact a number of the people we first met at that event were to become firm friends.
Classics at Sherborne Castle – July 2008
Shortly afterwards, we paid our first visit to the ever popular Classics at Sherborne Castle event, which resulted in a surprise encounter. As we parked up, the AMOC Area 4 rep at the time, Andrew, came up to the door to welcome us and told me that I had a friend at the event, only I hadn’t met him yet! Much to my surprise, Andrew then informed me that a fellow AM Vantage owner, Ian, had brought his Silver Birch example to the event. Specifically, this car turned out to be chassis no. AM/6016/RA. Predictably, we spent quite a bit of time examining and admiring each other’s examples, comparing the multitude of minor differences that existed between them.
Just to put the significance of this into some form of context, in the years that we have been attending events with AMV, this was the first time that we had ever encountered another example at the same event. To this day, this has only ever been repeated twice since. Just as remarkably on this occasion however, it turned out that they lived just a few miles up the road from us!
Two AM Vantages together at Classics at Sherborne Castle - July 2008
AMV making a friend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed - June 2007
Resting on the National Circuit at Silverstone at the Silverstone Classic - July 2007
Lunch at the Royal Oak in the New Forest - June 2008
In some very good company with AMOC at Barrington Court - July 2008
