It’s odd trying to describe my own car without sounding like I’m tooting my horn, but I really do think that my grey 2007 V8 Vantage is one of the most thoroughly modified V8 Vantages on the planet that still retains a “factory” body. It’s something of a Frankenstein’s car, using parts from a variety of Astons as well as a ton of aftermarket stuff. I originally set out to make it a lightweight and track-focused car, but decided to fold in the plans for my red 2007 V8 Vantage when I sold that car… including supercharging it.

This car is an ongoing project and as much as has already been done, I’ve still got some huge plans in store for it. This Build Page covers the modifications I’ve done to my car. For a list of reliability-related issues, check out my Article about that topic.

Written by Richard Seidlitz

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The Basics

The Big Picture

Key Modifications

About the Owner

The Basics

2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
4.3L V8 engine
6-speed manual transmission
Mercury Silver paint
Phantom Grey leather with silver stitching

Current Modifications

BHP-built N24 engine (1 of 15)
Ported and ceramic coated throttle body
Redpants oil catch can
Redpants air box deletes
Redpants intake filters
Redpants lightweight lug nuts
Powerflex control arm bushings
Powerflex sway bar bushings
BC Racing coilovers w/ Swift springs
BC Forged KL11 19” Widepants fitment wheels
Micheiln Pilot Sport 4S tires (265/305)
Wilwood 2-piece brake rotors
Hawk HPS 5.0 front and rear brake pads
Porterfield R4-S handbrake pads
Motul RBF 660 brake fluid
Motul Gear 300 75w90 gear oil
Motul X-Power 8100 10w60 engine oil
GMR carbon fiber slam panel
VelocityAP Engine tune
VelocityAP twin-plate clutch and lightweight flywheel
VelocityAP equal-length headers, ceramic coated
VelocityAP high-flow cats
VelocityAP Touring muffler
Deadweight Industries Touge MAX lithium-ion battery
Custom door sill and slam panel plaques
ECPS carbon fiber door sill scuff plates
ECPS carbon fiber door bars
ECPS carbon fiber gear shifter trim
ECPS V-weave carbon fiber front valance
ECPS V-weave carbon fiber ducktail spoiler
AeroCatch hood pins
Aston Martin Racing GT4 front bumper fascia
Aston Martin Racing GT4 lightweight front bumper beam and mesh grille
Aston Martin Racing GT4 carbon fiber side sills
Aston Martin carbon fiber fender vent strakes
Aston Martin V12 Vantage hood with carbon fiber and mesh inserts
Aston Martin black wings badges
Aston Martin black window surround trim
Aston Martin black Zircotech exhaust tips
Aston Martin clear tail lamps with black trim
Aston Martin ROW rear bumper
Aston Martin N420 carbon fiber rear diffuser
Aston Martin Alcantara shift knob
Aston Martin Alcantara steering wheel
Cobra Nogaro seats with OEM leather and OEM paint on shell
Aston Installations Infotainment Upgrade with HD Screen and front and rear cameras
LED map lights
Shorty antenna
Hella Supertone horns

Previous Modifications

Aston Martin Power Pack
Redpants lightweight battery kit
RSC Tuning high-flow cats (prototypes)
RSC Tuning muffler (prototype)
VCollection carbon fiber front valance
Porterfield R4-S front and rear brake pads
Porterfield R4 front and rear brake pads
Custom wheel spacers (used with OEM 7-spoke wheels)
H&R Sport lowering springs
BC Forged RT50 19” Redpants fitment wheels
BC Forged RZ05 19” Widepants fitment wheels
Hankook Ventus V12 Evo tires (235/275)
Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires (245/285)
ACR carbon fiber trunk lid spoiler
GMR supercharger kit
GMR carbon fiber supercharger cover
GMR high-flow cats
Aston Martin carbon fiber gearshift surround

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This car was my first foray into the world of Aston Martin ownership and, frankly, I couldn’t be happier. Highs and lows all taken into account, I wouldn’t do anything differently than what I’ve done with this car.

I didn’t necessarily have a goal in mind for how I would build this car when I first got it. Rather, it was the subject of my usual modus operandi: one foot in front of the other and adapt as the situation changes. When I got my second Aston Martin - the red 2007 V8 Vantage I owned for a couple years - I decided I need to differentiate the two and build them in two different directions. At that point I decided to use my red car as the beefy GT cruiser - it’d have more comfortable suspension and a supercharger - and my grey one would be the more focused on track use. I’d prioritize weight loss, handling, and responsiveness while also maintaining just enough comfort to drive it on the street without beating my kidneys to pulp.

When I sold my red car, I adapted once again and decided to fold many of the plans for that car into this one. So, everything is being dialed up to 11.

It’s got parts from a variety of other Astons including road cars, special editions, and race cars. It’s got parts I’ve developed for Redpants and aftermarket parts that bring out the best aspects of this car. And, as much as it’s got on it now, there’s still so much more yet to be done.

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The first thing anyone sees of this car is the body, so let’s start off with the Frankenstein’s assortment of parts from other vehicles.

Alfalfa

My car looked fairly standard for a while. It was lowered on H&R “Sport” lowering springs and had the factory 7-spoke wheels set nicely on spacers. It looked factory, but more somehow more aggressive in a way that many people couldn’t put a finger on. Here’s what it looked like when I first bought it.

OMG so young and innocent. It’s like looking back at a childhood photo knowing what it’ll have gone through over the next decade of growth and development. Anyway, the car was fairly standard aesthetically but it did have a more aggressive stance than a standard one.

When I first bought this car, I had no intention of doing anything to it - it was an Aston Martin and I grew up poor so this was the pinnacle of everything and how dare I do anything to upset it.

But… I couldn’t get over the Alfalfa-inspired antenna. This reference will surely be missed by many, so here’s a picture to burn into your brain.

Of all of the exterior modifications on my car, ditching the OEM antenna for a Shorty Antenna has got to be one of the most subtle unless you’ve got this image in your head. I tried telling others how much the whip-style antenna bothered me and enough people shrugged it off that I made this picture of my car alongside Alfalfa showing just how absurd the antenna is.

Now that I’ve gotten that heavy chip off my shoulder, we can get on to the more interesting things you guys want to know about.

Wheels and Carbon Fiber

The first visual change I made to the car were getting a set of BC Forged RT50 wheels. I chose these because I wanted something similar to the 5-spoke wheels used on the Vantage N24 race car. The RT50 was a very similar design, but the spokes were a little thinner which I think was even better because it made them a bit more elegant rather than just looking like straight-up race wheels slapped onto a road car.

The car stayed mostly the same for a couple more years until I added a carbon fiber front lip, rear diffuser, and side sills, and then sometime after that changed out the wheels (a couple times).

The carbon fiber lip was from VCollection and was super aggressive. I liked it but mainly thought it looked good because it was the perfect balance against the side sills and diffuser. The diffuser was an OEM item from the V8 Vantage N420. It came standard on that car but could be bought separately as part of a package that also included a front lip. Since I got the VCollection front lip, I sold the N420 one to a buddy of mine.

The side sills were actually sourced from Aston Martin Racing and they became my gateway to race car parts.

Race Car Parts

One of my favorite changes to my car was the Aston Martin Racing carbon fiber side sills. These were originally fitted to the Vantage GT4 race cars but were offered a long time later as part of the AMR Aero Package at the end of VH-chassis Vantage production. I don’t think I was the first person to put these side sills on a road car - I think there was another car that had them before me but that might have been an actual GT4 converted to street use.

Even though part of the side sill is painted to match the rest of the body of the car, the entire side sill is actually one piece that’s made fully of carbon fiber. I’d originally thought it was a standard plastic-ish side sill with a carbon fiber section, so this was a pleasant surprise to find out.

As much as I love these side sills (and, I really do love them), they’re actually a bit of a pain to life with because they make lifting the car much more difficult. If it isn’t done just right, the lift can crack the side sills because the rigid carbon fiber doesn’t flex like the usual plastic ones. I have my tricks for dealing with it but it can still be annoying and sometimes a bit scary.

The side sills were the only real race car parts I had on my car, until…

I was minding my own business during a track day when a tire wall jumped out and assaulted me for no reason whatsoever. The unprovoked attack resulted in the whole passenger side of my car needing to be replaced. I just so happened to be recording when the incident took place and I put the video on Youtube. Here’s a picture showing the aftermath.

It just so happened that I had a “dream list” of parts I wanted to get, as many of us do, but couldn’t justify the cost given they were almost purely cosmetic and the original parts were perfectly fine.

And then… they weren’t fine, decreed the Lord Wall of Tires.

I ended up getting the front bumper fascia from a Vantage GT4 along with a Euro-spec rear bumper fascia to match. I also got a V12 hood with mesh inserts to give the car a more aggressive look while improving cooling, and got a set of carbon fiber fender vent strakes to reduce weight and match my carbon fiber Aston Martin Racing side sills.

The GT4 front bumper fascia starts life as a standard Euro-spec item. Prodrive, the builder of the GT4, then cut holes on each side of the lower opening and attached carbon fiber inlets that are used to channel air to cool the front brakes. I don’t have brake cooling ducts on this car (it’s one of many low-priority projects I’ll get to some day) so instead just left the inlets open to the area behind the fascia.

The inlets would not be able to work with the factory air boxes, which is fine because I don’t have them anyway and instead I’m using my Redpants air box deletes, so the inlets effectively just dump a bunch of air into the area alongside the air filters.

Behind the GT4 front bumper fascia is where the front armature is located. The armature acts as both a crash structure and as the mounting point for several things in the nose of the car. Since I also got the Aston Martin Racing lightweight front bumper beam, the armature is no longer on the car and I had to manage losing all those mounting points.

Mounting brackets needed to be fabricated for the oil cooler, but new ones were included for the headlights. I can no longer insert a normal tow hook, so the tow strap is required. As many of you that follow me are aware - yes, that tow strap is very functional.

The Aston Martin Racing mesh grille on my car is different than the AMR grille, which is similar in concept but entirely different in construction. I have to use this grille because the slatted grilles mount to the armature. The Aston Martin Racing grille also has a slot to accommodate the tow strap. This grille may not be the prettiest thing, and the tow strap does look a bit goofy on a street car, but this is an entirely functional setup.

Probably the other most scoffed-at item on my car after the tow strap is the set of Aerocatch hood pins. Again, these are functional and required for safety as I no longer have the secondary latch that is released from under the leading edge of the hood.

New Wheels and Going Dark

Some time after installing all the race car parts and rebuilding my car, I bought a second one - another 2007 V8 Vantage with manual transmission, but this one in Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa red. A previous owner had put some black vinyl on certain parts of it and painted the wheels black and, honestly, I hated it. It was kind of a racy look but the quality of the work was terrible. My original thought was to just fix up what had already been done and keep the red/black theme and, to that end, I ordered a new set of gloss black BC Forged RZ05 wheels. Out of curiosity I put the wheels on my grey V8 Vantage and absolutely loved the way they looked, so I decided they were staying on the car and I think the result speaks for itself.

Given I’d removed almost all of the brightwork on the car, I figured I might as well complete the job. I swapped out the black window trim and black chrome exhaust tips for the ones included as part of the Exterior Black Pack. That package of parts also includes a Carbon Edition 6-Bar grille but, since I can’t use a slatted grille on my car, I sold that off to recuperate some of the cost for the other bits that I did use.

Under the Hood

I’m not one for all show and no go, so of course I needed to match real performance to the heavily styled persona. It did already have some power-adders when I bought it. The original owner had worked with RSC Tuning to develop a few products - among them high-flow cats, a muffler, and brake cooling ducts. It also had the Aston Martin Power Pack, though the air boxes had been modified with extra holes that made the Power Pack itself largely irrelevant.

I used this car to develop my first-ever Redpants product: my famous Oil Catch Can Kit. The original prototype was in place for testing and then swapped out once production began on the final product. The one on my car has been there for several years and I’ve been stress-testing it by having it held in place with just a single bolt - and yes, it’s survived… a couple… accidents without issue.

I had planned for the longest time to keep the car naturally aspirated and build it for more engine response and better track capabilities, so I wanted to get as much as I could out of the engine. The 4.3L V8 has a good amount of potential compared to its factory form so I got a set of VelocityAP exhaust manifolds and engine tune to open it up. After getting some track days under my belt I started coming across a bit of an issue wherein I was hitting the rev limiter once in a while on track. I knew I just needed a couple hundred more RPMs and I’d be fine, so I reached out to VelocityAP and asked them to tweak my tune so I could have a 7700 RPM redline. It’s an admittedly very high redline but I only needed it in specific and rare situations, and after some more track days, it did the trick and I didn’t hit the rev limiter again.

When my original clutch needed to be replaced, I got the VelocityAP Clutch Package for the improved throttle response provided by the more centralized mass of the dual-plate clutch and the lighter weight of the flywheel.

The major worry I had when I first started driving with this clutch was that the clutch pedal was too light. Honestly I didn’t like it much at first - it was so light that it didn’t have the feedback of the original one. Eventually I got used to it and prefer it over the stiff factory clutch by far, and I wrote about this on my Transmission Info Page if you want to read more about it.

All this was well and good and the car performed beautifully in its naturally aspirated state. But then I sold my red V8 Vantage and decided to combine my plans for that car into this one. That meant I’d be supercharging it.

Supercharging my V8 Vantage

I first reached out to GMR way back in February 2017, saying that I was interested in supercharging my car. Their response was that the kit was only available if fitted by GMR themselves so I’d have to either bring them to the US to do the work or send my car to them so they could do it at their shop in England. Neither of those was too appealing and I put off the whole idea for a couple years. As Redpants continued to grow and I saw more potential for a supercharger kit offering, I approached GMR again. This time I was in England and wanted to stop by their shop and check out their car that they use for development and demonstrations. After a chat, we decided we’d work together to see what we could do to offer a more installation-friendly supercharger kit that could be installed by others.

A couple years later, we released a new supercharger kit, which I was able to install in my own garage. It wasn’t easy, but it was doable and I was able to supercharge my car in a way that hadn’t been possible only a few years prior.

The supercharger kit is supposed to push out about 600 bhp but mine only showed 550 bhp when I did a dyno session in Texas during my road trip across the country. We noticed erratic fueling during the runs and started doing some diagnostics… but then my radiator popped so I couldn’t get a good pull in to see how much power the kit put out without the busted fuel system holding it back.

Running Gear

There isn’t too much done in this area… yet. As of this writing (May 2021) the car has H&R springs, Wilwood 2-piece brake rotors, Hawk HPS 5.0 brake pads, and Motul RBF 660 brake fluid. I’m on my fourth set of wheels - now the BC Forged KL11, again in the 19” Widepants same as the RZ05 set they replaced, and again wrapped in the same Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires from the previous set of wheels. Of all the changes I made to improve the handling of my car, the best so far has been using Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. These things are a world apart from the OEM Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tires and are better in every single way.

The H&R springs aren’t bad but they do make living with the car on a daily basis difficult as there isn’t much ground clearance and speed bumps can be a problem. I’ve also gotten stuck in a parking garage or two. H&R says their Sport springs only offer a moderate amount of lowering but I think, given how low the car already was from the factory, that the moderate lowing is actually a bit aggressive for the V8 Vantage. I was planning to get a set of custom-built Ohlins coilovers but manufacturing constraints kept pushing those back further and further until I gave in and got a set of BC Racing coilovers with the upgraded Swift springs. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the BC Racing coilovers whatsoever - I was behind the development of those, after all. But one of my goals is to test and demonstrate as many things as possible, and I’d already done that with those coilovers on my red V8 Vantage.

To go along with the new coilovers and to freshen up the rest of the car’s neary-100,000-mile suspension, I also installed a complete set of Powerflex control arm bushings and front and rear sway bar bushings.

From the Driver’s Seat

Changing the seats in a car is a huge modification - it’ll have an immediate and constant effect on the driver and can make the car feel completely different as a whole. That’s why I wanted a seat that could hold me better than the factory seats, which didn’t have nearly enough support during track days, and still be livable and comfortable in daily driving.

The Cobra Nogaro fit the bill for this perfectly. I was able to get the seats wrapped in OEM Phantom Grey leather to perfectly match the rest of the interior, and even had the shells painted Mercury Silver to match the paint on the car (not that you can really tell with this color). My main concern was comfort over long drives, but even after my cross-country road trip, I didn’t have any comfort issues at all and they did far better than I expected in that regard.

Getting these seats was an interesting process because we had at test a few things to make sure they’d turn out right. It was so particular that the Managing Director of Cobra personally oversaw the project. I’m incredibly happy with how they turned out and the only thing I’d do differently would be to get them in carbon fiber - but that’s far more expensive and I’ve got a budget to mind.

Finishing up the detail in the interior are carbon fiber door bars and scuff plates from ECPS and shifter surround trim from Aston Martin, all with a matte finish, and a steering wheel and shift knob from Aston Martin wrapped in Alcantara.

All of the Functionality

While unintentional, I’ve saved the best for last - the Infotainment Upgrade Kit from Aston Installations. I am completely addicted to using this kit for Waze and streaming Amazon music through Android Auto, and plugging in my phone to set those up are always the first thing I do when I drive anywhere regardless of where I’m going. Setup is quick - it takes longer to plug my destination into Waze on my phone than anything else.

On that note, I do find it much easier to set my destination in the Waze app prior to plugging my phone into my car so that’s how I do it, but destinations can still be set using the Infotainment Upgrade Kit’s control knob and buttons (shown in the picture above, just rearward of the shifter).

The front and rear cameras added onto the kit making parking incredibly stress-free, especially when pulling forward into a parking spot and not having to worry about the front lip of the car.

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