A Reward for Patience & Research

You may recall back in April I had a mechanical misadventure with a beautiful Aston Martin car (see the post, The Best Laid Plans), causing me to seek help while on vacation in Cave Creek, AZ with the Phoenix Aston dealer. I had resigned myself to losing at least half or maybe all of the summer to repairs. I hadn’t counted on them insisting I needed a new engine and ancillaries that totaled $49,000. Fortunately, I did a bunch of research and consulted with a lot of people before deciding on my current savior, Greg Nels at British Automotive Repair in Phoenix.

Now many of you may know Phoenix has a lot of money rolling around in the form of expensive collector and exotic cars. So, Greg’s operation by necessity is a top-notch enterprise that works on some very rare cars with very particular clients. To survive he and his people have to be better than good. After being less than impressed with the Aston dealer’s solution I contacted Greg, who enthusiastically took up the challenge. After transferring my car to British Auto he spent a few days doing research. When they finally started in on the actual work it took them less than a day to get it running. Yes, excitement! This after spending several weeks at the dealer with nothing accomplished or determined except a drop kick recommendation to the safest and most expensive option.

Now Greg, the salesman and enthusiast that he is, began talking about upgrades and maintenance I should do while the car was there. He was right it needed a clutch – that was an easy one to give into. Because it’s an Aston that meant about $4,500 installed. Then we started talking about performance upgrades. Here I am already conditioned to maybe having to spend close to $50 grand, and now for about $20,000 I can pay for all the work the dealer didn’t do plus get some more fun out of this car? I’m good with that. Let’s do it!

We agree to several new components for a high-flow exhaust, including 200-cell catalytic converters, an x-pipe and stainless exhaust; ceramic coated headers and high-flow air filters, all to increase free flow. Then, add a twin-plate clutch, an ECU reprogram and new O2 sensors to complete what becomes in increase of about 55 hp and 45 ft-lb of torque. The parts arrive three weeks after I give him the go ahead and pay for the parts up front. No going back now.

A couple weeks later I get this telling email: “Well…………I am absolutely in shock at how much I love this car now. It is absolutely indescribable how awesome the tune up has made this car.” Hmm, now I’m excited. A brief conversation follows, whereupon I book a one-way flight to Phoenix on the Friday after next. I can’t wait to hear and drive this thing.

All this is stuff you can’t see. You can feel it, but you can’t see it. So this upgrade has got me to thinking again about a visual upgrade – substituting dark red carbon fiber for all the exterior black carbon fiber that comes stock on this car. Hood vents, side mirror caps, front splitter and rear diffuser. I renew my online search for these do-dads and find a company in Poland that does them for about a third of the price Aston Martin charges. Yeowzaa! Now we’re talkin’! Problem is I get cold feet sending them money after I email them twice with no response. I finally get hold of Michal Pastryk at ECPS and after a few tries we work out a successful payment transfer method. Yes! Red carbon on its way.

The day comes to take delivery of my car. I get to British Auto about 9:30. It’s in a business park dominated by car specialty and enthusiast businesses. While they’re surprised to see me that early, everyone takes it in stride. Greg introduces me to his lovely wife, Debbie. We chit chat a bit, and it becomes obvious everyone in the place knows about my car, its story and the outcome. I think they’re as excited about it as I am. Greg can barely contain himself, and Kristen and Mel are listening and nodding with smiles. Greg takes me out to see Danny, his Aston guru. He’s got a bit of the look of an old soul with these cars, along with some of the crustiness one ultimately picks up along the way. I gratefully thank Danny and Greg hauls me across the building to the restoration part of the garage. He shows me a Jaguar XK120 that’s being re-built to make it rally proof. Among other things that includes a back up oil system, all new suspension geometry and a larger capacity racing fuel cell. Also on lifts around this bay include a ’59 Corvette, a Lotus racer, a Sunbeam Tiger and a Jaguar XKE. Then there are the dozens of other exotic cars in the back lot and air conditioned storage. It’s quite an operation, and I love the fact everything is spotless.

Now it’s time to go for a short demo drive. I also take him up on his offer to drive me over to Butter’s Cafe for breakfast while they wash my car. With that it’s a couple of high speed passes back and forth down the street (OH, MY, GAWD!!!) before dropping me a mile or two down the road for breakfast. It sounds like the old Formula 1 V10s from a bygone era (1996-2005 actually – Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher days). It produces a higher pitched, smoother exhaust note that grows to a high intensity howl. The more you squeeze the accelerator the nastier it screams while leaping forward with an almost uncontrollable urgency. With the lightweight flywheel it spins to red line almost as quickly as the old RX-7 rotary engines, rolling up the tachometer like a clock on fast forward; as soon as you shift you have to ready yourself for the next one. All the while velocity climbs with obscene rapidity, but there’s no time to look! This is what they mean by a screamer!

At Butter’s I experience a continuation of great service and good food. Blueberry compote pancakes together with eggs and hash browns, excellent, perfectly done thick bacon and a fruit bowl complete with strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and melon. Worth going back for.

Back at British Auto, about 1:30 pm I say my good-byes to everyone and get some last minute instruction from Greg. With a handshake he runs off to discuss a project with another customer. I strike up a conversation with Mel, who turns out to be a long-time friend and former racing buddy of Greg’s. Some twenty-five years ago or so Greg and Debbie started this business. One winter day about 17 years ago Greg called Mel, who was in Pittsburg. Greg says, “I’m sitting by the pool in the sun with a drink in my hand. You need to come down here.” And so, Mel did. He’s been here ever since and loves it. He says, “Look around this place! What’s not to like?” Great cars, fun projects, good, smart people. What’s not to like, indeed.

I get in the car and my first impression is the clutch pedal feels a bit lighter. There’s every bit the same level of touch and ease of deployment as before. Pulling out onto the street, I progressively run it up through 1st and 2nd. I take in that wonderful howl that begins as a highly tuned whine and grows from the bowels of this machine into a full-on scream. There’s a mid-range series of spits and barks as it climbs in intensity, but it never runs out of breath or asks for a shift. Once the shift is made it slips smoothly, swiftly into gear and that flywheel immediately spools up, letting the engine pull with much more urgency than the OEM version. While there’s noticeably more torque, the considerably lighter flywheel gives it even more freedom to do its work. The result is a feeling of much more than just a few dozen more foot-pounds of torque.

At Mel and Debbie’s recommendation, I gas up at Tom Thumb’s, a local gas station chain that sells racing fuel. I find a 95 octane pump, look around a bit more and find the 100 octane pump. It’s $9.75 a gallon. I choke a bit at the price. Even though Mel says they have 109 octane, I figure for this price a 100 is good.

Finally, I’m off to Las Vegas with a first day destination of Susanville, CA some 830 miles away. Highway US93 out of Scottsdale is where I start. The first 60 miles or so are arduous, as the expansion joints endlessly, annoyingly bump you along in this tightly sprung car. Finally things smooth out. I’m cruising about 90-95 most of the way, giving traffic a chance to thin out and utilizing the passing lanes when they appear. The acceleration from 30 to 100 is effortless and epic, and it’s much easier to just keep going. In Las Vegas I switch to US95 on my way to Reno. Somewhere outside of Indian Springs north of Las Vegas I find a lonely, deserted stretch and think, what the hell, let’s give it a go. I downshift to 5th, give it a brief shot and then shift back up to 6th. The digits come and go as the whine intensifies to that Formula 1 scream. I touch 180 mph and am still easily climbing, but there’s a rise up ahead and, not knowing what’s on the other side, I don’t want to hit the crest still accelerating. So, I back off. I come over the top and there’s nothing but straight, open road. Oh well – I decide it might be better to conserve gas out here in the middle of no-freaking-where, so I back off to 110 and hold it there.

Between stretches of 100+ degree heat two thunderstorm cells poor inches of water on the road. I have to slow to 45 because I can barely see and there’s at least two inches of standing water on the pavement. I don’t have the tires for this. I take my due caution pill and survive, reaching Reno after dark. Now its on to US395 for the last 86 mile leg to Susanville to spend the night in a newish, clean, well-maintained Super 8. Yeah, there are some out there.

Day two is a 320 mile stint to Bend, OR. Much nicer than the 800+ I did yesterday. The car is waiting. I go through the starting ritual Greg has told me all Aston Martin owners of Cologne-built engines should employ, whether V8 or V12. If you’re an Aston owner, you may have seen this procedure on Aston1936.com by Steve McEvoy. Insert the key, depress the clutch and fully depress the accelerator. Start the car and keep it cycling until the oil light goes out. Release the accelerator pedal and the car will start normally. The reason for all this? Apparently, there is an AM tech bulletin that recommends this starting procedure for pre-circulating oil to prevent the minute migration of the crankshaft bearings. After several hundred startups this tiny turn of the bearings could eventually cause it to turn enough to at least partially block an oil port, thereby starving the bearing of oil and causing a catastrophic engine failure. Not something we want. Thankfully, this process only needs to be done the first time each day the car is fired up.

Okay, now that the caution is over with, let’s get to Bend, Oregon. Out of Susanville, I want to avoid the same old US395, so I head to Klamath Falls via SR139. This road is a fun surprise – scenic and winding, its a real break from the straight desert monotony of much of US95. I’ll be investigating this one a bit more with my Northern California Destination Highways road book. And, there’s almost no traffic. In one hundred mile stretch I met exactly 3 cars. Nice!

From Klamath Falls it’s a turn onto US97 for Bend. Too, too much traffic on this road. There’s definitely a growing population that wants to run back and forth between Klamath Falls and Bend. I don’t care much for it, but unless I want to do US139 east around Goose Lake and US395 and then back to Bend on SR31, this is pretty much it.

Bend, and the rewards of the Deschutes Brewing Public House as well as the McKay Cottage restaurant, make it worthwhile. It’s just a beautiful part of Oregon with a fun, vibrant downtown. There’s a few really nice golf courses here, too, not to mention the hiking, biking and river rafting. Anyway, a night here and then off to home via US97 and US26. The highlight of this segment comes a couple hours in on 26, where I come upon a red Audi S4 who seems to have the same sporting attitude about go-fast as I do. We hook up and pass groups of cars essentially together without being reckless or stupid. Patience is always smart in these situations. He leads for some time then on a straight seems to be asking me to take my turn. I happily oblige. Soon after that we come upon some high speed (100+) linked sweepers and he hangs right with me. Nice. That was fun. Now we’re getting closer to civilization, so we slow down to about 85 before he turns off to his destination somewhere near Sandy. I go the rest of the way to I-5 alone, knowing all the fun is behind me.

I could have opted for variations of following US97 north to Yakima, but I’m fearful of the backup on a Sunday afternoon over Snoqualmie Pass. Those can be epically bad. Instead, I encounter a back up on I-5 beginning in Chehalis. It runs stop-and-go to all the way to South Tacoma – a good 40 miles. I bail from this non-sense at JBLM military base and head through Steilacoom to hook up with SR509 in North Tacoma the rest of the way home. After 3 days, it’s over.

The car was fantastic and faultless. To think the dealer wanted to scrap my engine and sell me a new one! After talks and emails on Aston forums, discussions with fellow AM enthusiasts and two or three really good exchanges with Mike at Bamford Rose in England and Stuart Dickinson of Velocity AP in British Columbia, I’m very happy I didn’t fall for that one. This has been a great learning experience that’s turned into a great performance upgrade. I won! Now I have some time to make up….

NOTE: One other thing for you Aston Martin owners to be aware of. Although Aston never issued a tech bulletin, they inform all new owners of Cologne-built V12s these engines need to be monitored to maintain full oil levels. The reason: there’s a concern the PCV valve and its hose routing may cause oil starvation in the aft end of the engine. Apparently, some engines also suffer from greater than normal oil consumption as part of this symptom. I found all this out when British Auto was doing their research. My exhaust valve spring failure was cylinder 7 (front), but a failure like that makes one suspect. To be sure, I had British Auto re-route the hoses so this problem is no longer a possibility. A word to the wise.