by Nigel Evans
In 1990s England, you were particularly brave if you wanted to unleash Aston Martin’s Virage-based V8 Vantage 600 on a particularly twisty, backwoods B-road. Here was a car that was already an anachronism as soon as it came out, as it was a heavy, old-platform GT with a brutally boosted 600-horsepower twin-supercharged V8 in an era where competitors were turning out smoother, lighter and more controlled rivals.
The V600 had very limited electronic safety nets, so its performance could outstrip its chassis with a lapse in concentration. This certainly made it a car for the (very) adventurous who’d like to add more than a little spice to their lives.
How The V600 Became Aston Martin’s Most Notorious Modern Car
| 1998 Aston Martin V8 Vantage V600 | |
|---|---|
| Engine | 5.3-liter supercharged DOHC V8 |
| Transmission | Five-speed manual (mainly) |
| Drivetrain | Rear-wheel drive |
| Power | 603 hp |
| Torque | 605 lb-ft |
The V600 package came out of the Aston Martin Works department and turned what was already a formidable, supercharged Vantage into one of the more extreme road-going Astons ever. In addition to that 603 hp, you’d get roughly 600 lb-ft of torque in a relatively old chassis design. You could spool the car up to 186 mph, or even 200 with sufficient gearing, and the 0–60 mph times of around 4.1 seconds put this into more of a supercar category than a GT. All of this meant that the car was incredibly fast but very demanding, and especially in the type of bad weather that typically plagues the UK.
Aston Martin introduced the V600 as an upgrade rather than a stand-alone model. Modifications involved wider bodywork, larger intakes, some aero tweaks, and significantly upgraded running gear, so the rest of the car could cope with that beastly engine. Remember that the Vantage in its standard form was already one of the most powerful production cars of its time, so the Works V600 option pushed everything to their limits.
Some of the V600's upgrades included a revised charge-cooling system, sharper throttle calibration, more Eaton supercharger boost pressure, and a big-bore SuperSport exhaust. However, even with enormous brake upgrades and suspension re-engineering, this was still a two-ton front-engine GT that relied very heavily on mechanical grip rather than any modern-day tricks. Simply put, a great deal relied on the driver’s judgement when attacking that twisty back road.
The Twin-Supercharged V8 Overwhelmed Its Own Chassis
Historians can trace the 5.3-liter V8 which was at the heart of the V600 all the way back to Tadek Marek and his original late-1960s design. Of course, progress since that time included an upgrade to four-valve heads and forced induction, but for the supercharged Vantage program, engineers were being very creative. They dropped the compression, redesigned the internal components, and introduced twin Eaton superchargers with charge-cooling, so everything could cope with the V550’s huge output. Then, the V600 evolution went even further with more efficient intercooling, extra boost, and less restriction on the exhaust system, so the company could boast that headline 600 hp without increasing engine displacement.
The torque figures were perhaps more important than those horsepower numbers, as the torque curve was broad and brutal from low RPMs and with virtually no delay. This meant that the V600 would simply surge forward at almost any engine speed with the blowers working overtime, so even a part-throttle input could produce some startling forward momentum before many drivers were aware of what was happening.
To cope with some of this drama, Aston Martin Works added a big suite of hardware upgrades with massive AP Racing brakes featuring six-piston front calipers and four-piston rear units, with large ventilated and grooved discs. The suspension had Eibach springs, adjustable Koni dampers, and stiffer anti-roll bars, while there were lightweight, DyMag, hollow-spoke magnesium wheels to cut down on unsprung mass.
Even though some had a six-speed, the most popular gearbox of choice was a close-ratio ZF five-speed manual. The Works department felt that the five-slot produced sharper responses when paired with revised final-drive gearing. Certainly, all these changes made the car more capable with better braking, high-speed composure, and body control – but it still certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
Even Experienced Drivers Feared The V600’s Violent Torque Delivery
In many respects, the V600 setup was far too efficient for its own good. Those Eaton superchargers were always ready, and drivers wouldn’t get a turbo-lag-style warning of an impending surge. Even worse, the V600 would produce significant weight transfer under hard acceleration and braking, and much of that had to do with its curb weight of around 4,400 lbs and its traditional front-engine layout.
All this could quickly unsettle the rear in dodgy conditions, and then there was the manual transmission with its substantial clutch mechanism and heavyweight controls. This transmission setup demanded deliberate and physical input, leading to many mistimed shifts and poorly matched throttle-to-clutch co-ordination, no doubt accompanied by plenty of on-board blue air.
Supercar drivers today often rely implicitly on stability control, but back then it simply wasn’t as understood as it is now. You could get traction control on some late-run cars as an optional Works add-on, but it was quite rudimentary. And in any case, once the rear axle started to slide under power, recovery was mostly down to the abilities of the driver.
The V600 was also a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde character. At moderate speeds, it would seem to be surprisingly tractable or even gentle, but this behavior would change violently at a certain threshold. Essentially, this was a cliff-edge dynamic, and everything was perfectly fine – until suddenly it wasn’t.
Sources: Aston Martin, Aston Martin club, Aston Martins, Secret Classics
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
