Collected the car today from Derby Motor Services, it is a thing of wonder! Quicksilver SuperSports and 200cell cats make the car deafeningly loud but in a race car kind of way, I feel like I'm at Le Mans all the time! I love it!! At idle it has a wonderful burble and as long as I keep it below 2500rpm it's fine to drive through town without attracting the wrong kind of attention. The bark at 3500-4000rpm makes me laugh out loud every time!
I had 20mm rear and 15mm front spacers fitted to go with the sports pack wheels, Ti nuts and H&R springs (lowered 25mm all round) and Rick at DMS applied his fast road geo settings. All together everything is vastly more positive, ride comfort is still amazingly good but the Volante floatiness has disappeared to be replaced by an extremey planted car. Bombing around the back roads of Derbyshire today revealed a great ride, better steering feel and zero body roll, plus the ability to put the power on the road. The widening of the track seems to have made the feel of the steering less assisted (increase in scrub ratio) which is a very welcome change when pressing on. In short, I had a sports car on the back roads and a GT on the motorway with cruise set, iPod connection working well, air con on and roof up.
The noise of the exhaust in my car isn't a placebo effect, my car is much faster throughout the rev range after J1 filters, re-map at TDI, race cats and the lightweight sipsersports backbox. I didn't take it past 6k rpm so that's without even reaching peak power. Torque is more than adequate from 1500rpm and from 3-4krpm is amazing. I think this is now the fastest car I own, if it started at 450bhp it will now be making 480bhp or slightly more. It's a lot when coupled with the torque of 6 litres, we all know it's not just about power!
Next move... Having the Sarah Maynard machined control set fitted in a couple of weeks, steering wheel side parts trimmed in Parliament leather (dark green, same as dash top and door cappings) and I have now agreed a price on the DBS bonnet (£1k from the magical eBay)) which I am having fitted at Nicholas Mee, who I have discovered are 4miles from my house! A mod that the beards of AMOC will not agree with but it will differentiate my car from the pack as I like. The two extra nostrils are about it, perhaps a slightly more angular hump, I don't think it's a DBS wannabee thing like fitting bumpers and sills, it will be quite subtle and not noticeable until parked next to another DB9!
I will take a few shots tomorrow of the new wheels with spacers, the clear rear lights and so on, the rest will have to wait until Le Mans. I lose the car for servicing Monday to Thursday next week, then again for the next batch of work the following Monday to Friday! Not much chance to enjoy it, have a Kent Pistonheads/Astomn thing tomrrow though.
Totally different car to when I bought it. How very me.