European Road Trip May – June 2009

In 2009, we decided to properly test AMV’s grand touring abilities and embark upon a road trip across Europe, taking in a number of classic racing circuits enroute. Our first stop on the tour was the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Sadly we were not able to venture onto the circuit, due to there being a practice for an upcoming historic race event taking place at the time. Our appetite was suitable whetted however, especially after witnessing the spectacle of the circuit’s iconic features such as Eau Rouge in person, (it’s much steeper than it looks on TV), and we pledged to return.

A relatively short trip across the border into Germany took us to our next port of call, the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife, where we were due to meet up with our like-minded friend Marc. After an overnight stop at the superb Motorsport Hotel in Nürburg, Marc joined us in his Lotus Elise and we started to explore the wonderful driving roads around the beautiful Eifel region. During the day, the circuit was in use by a club for a private track event, but the evening public track sessions were still taking place and so we made sure that we made our way to the track entrance to join the day’s ‘touristenfahrten’ session.

We decided that four laps of the legendary 12.9 miles circuit shared between us, and our respective steeds, would be enough for one evening and an appropriate ticket was duly purchased. We figured that it would be best to start with a lap in AMV, followed by a couple in Marc’s Elise in order to give AMV a rest, (after all she was 36 years old even at this time), before completing one last lap in AMV. So the three of us got in and joined the queue to go out and enter ‘the Green Hell’. Now it’s at this point that I think it’s worth reminding you that AMV has never had rear seatbelts fitted, and so the rear seat passenger was effectively acting as active ballast! I will leave you to draw your own conclusion as to whether this was an act of bravery and/or trust in my driving skills, or simply sheer lunacy. Either way we made our way out onto the circuit, the engine providing us with its characteristically glorious soundtrack as we did so. We may not have been the fastest car out on track that evening, (ok so we definitely weren’t), but I maintain that we were the best sounding. I also suspect that our visit to the Ring left an impression with some of the spectators as well. One gentleman in particular seemed to get particularly animated as we were exiting the circuit after our lap, pointing and shouting “Was ist das?” (What is that?) excitedly as we passed by. I suspect that he may have been confused by us driving something other than one of the many, many Porsche 911 variants!

The next day saw us making the long trip down from Nürburg to Marc’s temporary residence in southern Germany. After a fun, but slow, start to the journey taking in some more of the roads around the Eifel region, we took to the autobahn to make some faster progress. Whilst AMV seemed perfectly happy cruising down the autobahns at a suitably brisk pace, the prolonged high speed journey did take its toll on her poor engine, which was to lead to some interesting consequences later on in the trip…

Entering Karussell on the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife

The view from the back seat on the Nürburgring Nordschleife

Early morning start prior to tackling the Stelvio Pass

Resting  part way up the Stelvio Pass

The next part of our journey took us through part of Austria, including driving through a number of tunnels through the mountains, which is where the aforementioned consequences really started to manifest. Not that we knew this was the cause at the time, but the spark plug leads were deteriorating and hence the engine was not properly burning all of the petrol being fed through the Webers. This resulted in unburnt fuel being passed through into the exhaust system when lifting off of the throttle, which was then burnt off in a far more spectacular fashion in the exhaust pipes! As you can no doubt imagine, this led to some quite significant backfires, which reverberated very effectively off the walls of the Austrian tunnels. This did provide a source of some entertainment for us, especially when curious road users crept up close to the back of us to try to determine what it was they were following. Predictably they soon seemed to lose their sense of curiosity and drop back significantly when I lifted and initiated a resounding BOOM! Ultimately we drove into Italy to an overnight stop at a very characterful old coaching house on the road leading to the Stelvio Pass.

The Stelvio pass delivered yet another unforgettable experience, albeit I couldn’t help but feel that Marc’s choice of car was perhaps better suited to tackling the 48 tight hairpin turns that took us up the northern side of the pass. Unsurprisingly AMV makes for quite hard work when negotiating tight hairpins, as whilst power steering is fitted, it is still very heavy and the near 6 feet wide, 15 feet long body does not make for the most wieldy of machines. A number of the corners also had to be negotiated in 1^st gear and hence the heavy clutch also provided another workout for my left leg. The real issue however occurred part way up the pass, after we had pulled up behind Marc’s Elise where he had stopped to admire the spectacular view. The combination of the altitude, (the Stelvio pass rises to an altitude of 2,757m (9,045ft) above sea level at its highest point), the Weber carbs, deteriorating plug leads and having stopped on an uphill incline, meant that AMV flatly refused to restart. We therefore decided to use gravity to roll back to the preceding hairpin, where the ground levelled out, being careful not to roll too far as there was no barrier and a sharp drop off and I didn’t fancy reenacting the final sequence from the Italian Job! Fully opening the throttle and cranking the engine thankfully eventually proved effective and the engine finally caught and burst back into life. Understandably we didn’t want a repeat performance at the top of the pass and so we elected not to stop again until we had descended down the other side.

The Stelvio had not yet finished challenging us though, as whilst the southern side of the pass features a mix of more open corners instead of just consecutive tight hairpins, which are far better suited for driving AMV more fluidly, we found ourselves stuck behind a very timid Volkswagen Transporter driver, who insisted on riding their brakes most of the way down. That, mixed with the tendency to backfire spectacularly when trying to use engine braking, which made me genuinely wary of dislodging some of the snow that was still on the high ground, meant that I also had to use my brakes much more than I would have liked to. Ultimately, this led to me boiling the brake fluid on the descent, resulting in the brakes needing to be ‘pumped up’ before they would work as we entered into Bormio at the bottom of the pass. Fortunately, having a rest and cooling down did the trick and the brakes were at least working again when we came to leave Bormio for our next overnight stop at Lake Mezzola.

Continuing the theme of visiting legendary racing circuits, the next on our list was the Temple of Speed itself, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, located in a beautiful national park outside of Milan. Whilst we did have the opportunity to take part in a public track session, the fact that the engine was getting worse, coupled with the fact that we still had to complete the return journey back home from what was the furthest point on the trip, meant that we elected not to on this occasion. Despite not going out on track however, AMV still did not emerge unscathed from her trip to Monza. After visiting the magnificent circuit and facilities and returning to the car park, we found that the front left tyre was flat. Later we discovered that the protective strip that was supposed to be affixed to the inner edge of the wheel to protect the inner tube was no longer there, which had led to the tube being punctured. At the time though, all I knew was that I had to change the wheel, in the heat of the mid-afternoon Italian sunshine! As AMV was still fitted with the original ‘euro-spec’ 10-sided centre wheel nuts, this process involved fitting the custom spanner over the nut followed by the liberal application of force from a mallet, whilst trying not hit anything other than the spanner. After a lot of sweating, along with a suitable amount of swearing, I managed to successfully replace the wheel with the spare without inflicting any further damage. Despite this less than auspicious end to our inaugural visit to Monza, we were still suitably taken with what we had experienced and again vowed to return.

Our return leg took us along some more incredible scenic passes through Switzerland, albeit we did fear that we may become wanted by the authorities for ecological crimes driving through Switzerland in a misfiring and backfiring 1970s Aston Martin, before re-entering Germany once again. This time through the country we decided to pay a visit to the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg, which was alternating with the (new) Nürburgring at the time to host the German Formula One Grand Prix. Fortunately this visit was less eventful than the visit to Monza had been, and we were able to pay our respects to the late, great Jim Clark and move on without any further dramas. Ultimately we made our way, (featuring a close encounter with a low flying USAF C-17), to an overnight stop at the superb Hotel Bremerhof at Kaiserslautern, which had an even better beer garden.

Now nearing the end of our European odyssey, we journeyed back up through Belgium, making the mistake of navigating along the notorious E40 around Brussels, (Belgium’s equivalent to the M25). With AMV’s misfiring problem getting progressively worse as we progressed, we did make it to our final overnight stop at another lovely B&B at Ruddervoorde, before making our way to the ferry at Dunkirk the next day.

Approaching yet another hairpin on the Stelvio Pass Note the VW Transporter with its brakes on! Enjoying the drive through southern Germany Taking a scenic break in Switzerland on the return leg Overnight stop at Kaiserslautern, Germany AMOC Spring Concours  – May 2010 After the engine issues had been diagnosed as a simple case of deteriorating spark plug leads, (we had feared that it may have been a return of the dreaded valve seat regression), we decided to take things a bit easier with AMV after her European adventures. A visit to the AMOC spring concours event, in the glorious setting of Blenheim Palace, to celebrate the club’s 75th anniversary seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Over 400 Aston Martins spanning the entire history of the company gathered in the grounds of the palace for the event, making for a truly spectacular car park. Despite the impressive variety of the turnout however, AMV was still the only example of the model present, making her just as rare as even the truly unique models, (such as the Atom) that had made an appearance. AMV parked next to her much younger sibling, a 2010 V12 Vantage An early public appearance of the One-77 By this time it had become apparent that the chassis was once again suffering from the dreaded corrosion issue, (I said that the earlier restoration work would crop up again), meaning that another restoration was the next big job to be faced. Naturally this meant more big bills, and so as a result AMV was not used as much during the 2010-2011 period. AMV parked with her contemporary siblings at the AMOC St. John Horsfall event at Silverstone - May 2010 Chassis Restoration (take two) – May 2012 – July 2013 As the corrosion had almost resulted in an MOT fail in 2011, the bullet was finally bitten and in 2012 the decision was made to commence the (2nd) chassis restoration. AMV was once again entrusted to Davron, who were well versed in restoring these cars, and they soon set about the substantial task of removing the old, rusty metalwork. Thanks to the aluminium body effectively hiding all of the rot, in order for them to get access to the rust, first they had to take the rather disturbing measure of using an angle grinder to cut off AMV’s (perfectly fine) aluminium flanks! Front right wing removed revealing the ugly truth Left side sill and rear arch reveal more rust The corroded metal was then systematically removed, including sills, inner wings, and chassis members, until all that remained was solid steel. This enabled new steel to be welded in place, treated, rust proofed and painted. Once this was done it was time for new aluminium to be welded in place at the bottom of the wings, to replace the old metal that had been cut off at the start of the process. Welding aluminium requires a very skilled welder, especially when you need a good job doing, which is why it is always worthwhile engaging with a good specialist. I was certainly very pleased with the results on AMV. Replacement front right wing panel in place Replacement left side wing panels fitted The next stage was to repaint the newly repaired bodywork. As I couldn’t stretch to a full bare metal respray for the whole car, (or decide what colour I would go for anyway), I opted to have the paint matched in to the existing bodywork… After all the car had only been repainted 36 years ago! Yet again the end result was far from a disappointment. Rear wing freshly repainted in Cricket White Front wing looking good as new as well Whilst the restoration work was being done, we also took the opportunity to have some minor damage rectified that had been inflicted on the interior over the years. Firstly Lisa, knowing how much the cigar burn in the original gearstick gaiter annoyed me, kindly got me a custom hand-made replacement. The centre console surround for the gearstick was also getting quite tatty and hence we had a new item made to match at the same time. My dad had also left a less desirable legacy that I was not so keen on preserving, as both front seats had cigarette burn holes in them. Fortunately a local trimming company, (Pipers Specialist Trimmers in Sparkford), were also able to repair the smaller holes in the driver’s seat and replace the outer panel of the passenger seat. The results of their efforts were superb, and really helped to lift the interior, fixing some of the minor things that had been bugging me ever since the car had come into my care. It also served to introduce us to another great specialist in the classic car world that we maintain to this day. Almost finished! AMV returns from the paint shop Collection day! One happy customer The day finally arrived in July 2013 when AMV was finished and ready for collection. Whilst she clearly looked amazing, I was glad that I had taken the opportunity to go and see all of the extensive work as it was being done, as superficially there was very little difference in how the car looked when compared to before the work had been done. 2012 had also seen another addition being made to our household and for the 1st time since we moved in, AMV was going to have a roommate. Lisa had always been very fond of classic Minis and the opportunity arose to get a very clean and low mileage example of a 1999 Rover Mini Cooper Sport from the penultimate production year of the original (and best) Mini. Predictably this resulted in a significant rearranging of the garage in order to make the necessary room for the new arrival. Even following this rearrangement, the only way that both cars would fit was with AMV being reversed in and Mini being driven in forwards, thus enabling the drivers’ doors of both cars to be opened enough to enable access… carefully! Still I was thankful that Lisa had wanted a Mini, as very little else would have stood any chance of fitting into the garage at all. Predictably enough over time this arrangement has led to the appearance of two large black soot marks on the back wall of the garage, directly in-line with where AMVs exhausts are aimed at startup. AMV with her new roommate makes for a great two car garage A Century of Aston Martin 1913-2013 2013 also happened to be the year that Aston Martin celebrated their centenary and fortunately, as the restoration work had been completed during the summer months, there was still the opportunity to take part in at least some of the events that were taking place to commemorate this momentous, (and frankly almost unbelievable), anniversary. Classic and Supercars at Wilton House – August 2013 The first such event was at the excellent Classic and Supercars event, held at the beautiful venue of Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The local ‘Area 13’ representative of AMOC was organising a timeline of Astons for the event, and attempting to get examples to represent as many years as possible from the 100 that the company had been in existence. We naturally took full advantage of the opportunity and signed up to represent 1973. After all not only was overall production particularly low during this period, (even by Aston Martin’s standards), but with the AM Vantage being a particularly low volume model, chances were that AMV would likely be the only example of the model on the day. Come the day of the event, there was predictably a superb turnout of Astons from throughout the company’s history adorning the beautifully manicured lawns, not only that but we were also lucky enough that it turned out to be a gloriously sunny summer’s day. Astons as far as the eye can see at Wilton House! (left to right: AM Vantage, DBS V8, 2xDBS, DB6, DB5) Part of the Aston timeline at Wilton House (left to right: AM Vantage, DBS V8, 2xDBS) Some later examples of the AMV8 from the timeline at Wilton House (left to right: 2xV8 Volante, V8 Vantage Zagato, V8 Vantage) More of the Aston timeline at Wilton House (left to right: V8 Volante, 2xAMV8, AM Vantage) The 'general ' Aston parking provided a great line-up of Astons too! (left to right: V8 Vantage, DB7 Vantage, Vanquish S, DB7 Vantage, V8 Vantage V600, V8 Vantage, DB9, DB7 Vantage, V8 Volante) Car Fest South – August 2013 A similar celebration of all things Aston Martin was planned for the Car Fest events of the same year, and owners were invited to bring their cars along to the event(s), the ‘South’ version of which being held at Laverstoke Park Farm near Basingstoke, (which just so happens to belong to F1 World Champion Jody Sheckter). Not only was there set to be another magnificent display of Astons, but on the Sunday, owners were also given the opportunity to take part in a cavalcade up the event’s hill climb, and then out onto the surrounding roads around the farm, complete with police escort. Needless to say this seemed like another opportunity that was too good to pass up, and we opted to take part on both days, including participation in the mass Aston parade on the Sunday, of course. Although AMV was the only example of the model at the event, there were two particularly noteworthy ‘firsts’ that occurred at Car Fest. Firstly on the Saturday, we turned up to park next to a beautiful Suffolk Red example of a V8 Vantage, noting at the time that the combination was looking quite patriotic and that it would be great if a blue DBS or AMV8 was to turn up to park next to us. As luck would have it, a lovely Chichester Blue V8 Saloon soon appeared and completed the red, white and blue line-up. Secondly, on Sunday I was as surprised as the owner of the Crusader White V8 Volante that parked next to us was to see another white Aston from the same era, with both of us being more used to having the only one at an event. Three different models clearly sharing a common lineage (left to right: V8 Saloon  (Oscar India), AM Vantage, V8 Vantage) Is there a more quintessentially British  sight than red, white and blue Astons? If only all traffic jams were like this! Two white Astons at the same event! This was a first for both of us Despite causing quite a lot of disruption, the local residents still seemed to be happy to see us