Steven’s newly-acquired V8 Vantage had already been slightly modified. The grille had been modified to 4-bar version, it had an N400-style rear diffuser, and its set of aftermarket carbon fiber fender vent strakes were losing their clear coat. His first move was to fix the cosmetic issues to get the car up to his standards. The front grille and vent strakes were both replaced and they, along with the rear diffuser, were also refinished to get a closer match for their differing carbon fiber weaves.

Divinatech supplied the carbon fiber front valance but Steven isn’t sure where the N400 style rear diffuser was made, as it was already on the car when he bought it. The tail lights and carbon fiber fender strakes also came from Divinatech. A carbon fiber trunk lid spoiler made by ACR in Japan was supplied by Redpants to help with the quietly-aggressive styling.

That done, he went on to wrap the window trim in black vinyl and replaced the multicolored OEM corner markers and side repeaters with dark smoked ones from Redpants.

Then came the paint, now darker than before. In general, I'm not a fan of murdered out cars - those were every detail is made as black as possible. I can only think of one off the top of my head that I liked - a Ferrari F430 that a buddy of mine used to have. I personally think black takes away from the details of a thing, and the details are what I appreciate. I even babbled about this in a video on YouTube. But Steven’s car isn’t murdered out. In fact, it isn’t even black. It’s a custom blend of Meteorite Silver that adds Bronze Pearl into a clear mid-coat. The result is darker than the factory Meteorite Silver with a hint of bronze in certain lighting.

Breaking the murdered-out theme less subtly are the tail lights and brake calipers. The tail lights still have their original red hue, but that’s not what makes them interesting. That’s done with Divinatech’s modifications - they changed the internals to their own so the LED lighting within would behave in sequential patterns with unique startup patterns and turn signal movements, plus (and maybe more importantly) being more reliable.

The brake calipers are powder-coated an interesting green called Chartreuse Sherbert. I asked Steven why he chose this particular green and he explained that he wanted to go with some sort of red but his best friend (a Porsche Master Technician who’s been a big part of what he’s done with his car) and his detailer didn’t agree.

I’m glad he went with such an interesting color, too. Red is [obviously] my favorite color, but it is admittedly an incredibly over-used color for brake calipers.

The not-murdered-out-but-so-very-dark look is probably why I like this car so much. My appreciation for details is tickled having to explore the car with all of its subtle contrast from one spot to another.

Eliminating the brightwork on the car involved wrapping the window trim with black vinyl, replacing the corner markers with a set of dark-smoked Redpants corner markers, and a V12 Vantage S style front grille. These are a big part of the overall look, but what makes the biggest visual difference to Steven are the wheels and coilovers.

The wheels are BC Forged HCA210 in 20-inch Widepants fitment with matte black spokes and gloss black barrels and exposed black fasteners. These are a far departure from a factory wheel that’d be expected, but the black finishing tones down the styling while the wheel design character still suits the car. I think some people may think it’s a stretch to say these wheels are OEM-ish, but to me they do remind me of a set of 2011 V8 Vantage S wheels after getting a gnarly titty-twister, so I’m going to go with it.

The BC Forged wheels are held on by black Redpants lightweight lug nuts, the black-on-black hiding the fact that they aren’t factory - as plenty of aftermarket black wheels are held on by factory chrome lug nuts that quickly give them away. The wheels are wrapped by a fat set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires sized 255/35R20 in the front and 305/30R20 in the rear. The sidewalls are thick enough to be OEM-like in proportion as opposed to rubber-band thickness as is often seen with aftermarket setups.

There are details easily missed that contribute to the dark look as well, like the black mesh from Aston Martin’s in-house performance brand, AMR, sitting inside the vents of the hood and front fenders where silver mesh had originally been.

Overall, the car isn’t so much murdered-out as it is manslaughtered-around.

Adding to the menacing demeanor of the car is its lowered stance. It sits on a set of BC Racing coilovers with Swift springs, set low so the wheels and tires completely fill in the fender gaps. His own research led him to the same conclusion I had, which led me to approach BC Racing to develop these coilovers from the beginning.

Stopping duty is handled by those beautiful aforementioned Chartreuse Sherbert brake calipers, which clamp a set of Porterfield R4-S brake pads down on two-piece lightweight Wilwood brake rotors.

Getting Steven to and from local and regional events that much quicker are combination of usual suspects… and a Keyser Söze.

Air is brought in to feed the engine through a set of Redpants intake filters, held bare by Redpants air box deletes. These aren’t uncommon to see on a V8 Vantage, but what comes next is quite the twist… a rather rare Gruppe-M carbon fiber ram air intake system. This intake system replaces the rubber factory intake ducting with a carbon fiber manifold that holds a larger air volume and creates a ram air effect, increasing the amount of air ready to pass through the throttle body and into the engine.

An interesting note about the Gruppe-M intake system is that it makes oil changes, and even routine checking of the engine oil, quite the hassle because it covers the top of the oil reservoir and its cap.

The picture below shows what he means by this - the oil reservoir, usually out in the open and easily accessible, is completely covered and barely even visible under the carbon fiber structure. With the solid dipstick fixed to the underside of the oil reservoir cap, it’s impossible to check the oil or complete an oil change with the Gruppe-M intake system in place.

It’s definitely a rare and unique piece, but practical it is not. Regardless, it’s yet another distinction that sets Steven’s V8 Vantage apart from any other.

Once that inducted air is chewed up with a mixture of fuel as prescribed by a VelocityAP engine tune, it’s passed out as exhaust through a set of Harrison test pipes before crossing through a VelocityAP X-pipe and vented to the Florida sky from a Tubi “race” muffler. The X-pipe is another somewhat rare item to see given it’s a replacement for the factory mid-pipes. On the later cars with two sets of catalytic converters, the secondary cats (which are not monitored by o2 sensors) are easily replaced by an X-pipe. On a V8 Vantage with a single pair of cats, like this one, an X-pipe to replace of mid-pipes is less common as the results are less substantial - it’s something done by people wanting the most from these early cars.

The power coming out of the back end of the car is transmitted to the wheels through a VelocityAP twin-plate clutch and lightweight flywheel.

The Sportshift transmission is further improved by a set of ASM hoses from David Appleby Engineering. These hoses are made from reinforced silicone and hold up far better than the factory leak-prone rubber hoses that often lead to owners being stranded and their Sportshift transmissions unable to change gears.

Steven went a step further still and installed a Smart eMT F1 Relay ECU from Scud Ing Swiss. Aston Martin’s Sportshift transmission is essentially, mechanically, the same as Ferrari’s F1 transmission. The Smart eMT F1 Relay ECU was developed to improve the operation (and therefore the reliability) of the relays used in the operation of those transmissions, and they’re offered for the Sportshift as well.

Open a door and look into the cabin and you’ll see another of Steven’s unique touches to this car: The waterfall dash panel, main radio control panel, lower console panel, and door sill scuff plates are all wrapped in STEK’s Damascus PPF.

The intricate pattern on the film contrasts against the traditional, smooth Phantom Black leather and fine red stitching to give a wildly interesting style to the interior. It’s both completely different than anything I’ve seen in an Aston Martin up to this point, and somehow entirely suitable… like a bold accent on a high-end watch, there to draw in attention and make a statement. It’s unconventional and unorthodox, but oddly fits the character of the car.

I think part of the reason the Damascus patter works so well in Steven’s V8 Vantage is that his car doesn’t have a navigation screen. The early Volvo-sourced navigation systems were much maligned but optional equipment. Even though many people didn’t like them, it was still common for them to be installed in cars since it was expected for a car of this caliber to have a navigation system. In the first year or two, a V8 Vantage without navigation is uncommon but not surprising. Seeing a 2008 like this one without it is somewhat more rare.

Not having a navigation system means the car doesn’t have the screen for it, so the waterfall panel is completely smooth without the cutout for the flip-up nav screen. The unbroken surface lets the Damascas pattern flow better over the panel, and I think that helps quite a bit with the overall look of the design being used in this car.

More on the traditional size of things are the seats. The originals were swapped out for a set of seats from a limited edition V8 Vantage N400. The custom spin on these is the diamond stitching added to the inner panels, pulling them away from factory trim and making them that much more special.

The last thing of note is also a fun one - the Eject button tucked away in the lower console. Alas, the button isn’t actually a button and it’s functional - it’s just a cover for the accessory socket. Probably for the better, though, since replacing seats can get really expensive really quickly and the car is a coupe so an ejector seat departing the cabin would be very complicated or very painful - both for the occupant and the solid roof.

Steven’s car is one of the most impressively contrarian V8 Vantages I’ve seen. It has unique features inside and out and he’s done things that most of us wouldn’t dare to do to an Aston Martin. From the rare, interesting, and inconvenient carbon fiber intake system to the bold, one-of-a-kind Damascus interior trim panels, there are a few reasons why I shouldn’t like this car. But, I do, and all together it works so damn well.

And it’s not done yet… he plans to supercharge it.

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