My £30k Aston Martin finally got the tyres it deserved, then it stopped working

I always had it in mind to replace the Aston’s Bridgestone Potenzas. The RE050A was OE when the car was new, but it’s some way off the pace in terms of both ride and handling compared with today’s frontrunners. What’s more, the ones fitted to R100 AMV were well past their best-before dates: the fronts were six years old, the rears nine years old, so despite having a decent amount of tread left (a sign of how few miles cars like this tend to do annually) it was pretty obvious the Aston would benefit from some fresh rubber. It wasn’t that it was awful on the Bridgestones, but there was something of a dead, glassy feel through the steering and chassis, a slight lack of bite on turn-in, and quite a thrummy, brittle feel to the ride, like the tread-blocks had lost some of their elasticity over time – which, to be fair, they probably had.

Everything I read, and everyone I spoke to, suggested that Michelin’s Pilot Sport 4 S was the tyre to have. Unfortunately, when I inquired back in March I was told there was a ten-week-plus delay for the Aston’s sizes. The good news was that Michelin could supply the brand new Pilot Sport 5 immediately, so in mid-March a set was delivered and fitted. And, I have to say, all the early impressions are very positive indeed.

> The £1.5m Aston Martin Valen is an 838bhp V12 special with a hidden purpose

The improvement in ride quality is immediately obvious. Not night-and-day different, but significantly improved. Where there was that harsh, thrummy brittleness, the ride now feels more robust, with a welcome layer of pliancy. The V8V is not suddenly transformed into a smooth-riding GT, it’s still definitely on the sporting side, but now the sharp edges of ridges and potholes are rounded off and the car thumps rather than crashes over all but the worst of them. There’s also a slight reduction in tyre roar over coarse surfaces, which is very welcome. And though it’s still early days and I’m still scrubbing them in, there seems to be more turn-in bite and more resistance to understeer too.

Alas, any further investigation has been temporarily curtailed. As I mentioned last month, a warning light appeared on the dash soon after the Aston came out of winter storage, together with a message that read ‘Emission System Service Required’. An inspection at specialists Nicholas Mee & Co suggested that, while in store, some manner of rodent had nibbled a section of wiring to the air mass sensors. The V8V would have to be booked in again for further investigation but the earliest slot they had was in late April.

21

As long as the car seemed to be running perfectly, which it was, this wasn’t a problem. But then last week I set off on my regular local loop and as I accelerated out of the next village the power suddenly reduced and another message flashed up: ‘Engine System Service Urgent’. The engine then went into some sort of ‘limp home’ mode, so limp home is what we did.

Since then I’ve driven it again, very cautiously, and that particular warning hasn’t reappeared, but clearly there’s something amiss here. It’s booked into Mee & Co for a couple of weeks’ time as I write. Meanwhile my credit card is on high alert and preparing to go into limp-home mode.

This story was first featured in evo issue 298.

Share this on TwitterShare this on FacebookEmailAdd as a preferred source on Google