Aston-Passion

source: http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/2684/Nerds-Eye-View-2014-Aston-Martin-Vanquish.aspx







Nerd’s Eye View: 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish
By Khiem Dinh
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
On my last foray down to Cars and Coffee in Irive, California, Aston Martin brought out a fleet of cars along with the upcoming 2014 Vanquish. Better yet, Aston brought along a cutaway of the car showing off all the bits and pieces usually hidden by paint and interior panels. Some of the notable features are the aluminum frame, all carbon fiber body, and 6.0L V12 residing under the hood. It's the little details which ring up the price on this beauty to almost $300k. Here is a closer look at the nitty gritty stuff.


Under the bonnet (it is a British car after all) is this massive 6.0L V12 along with a triangulated chassis brace tying in the shock towers to the firewall. Speaking of the shock towers, they look to be stamped aluminum segments mechanically fastened together by riveting.


The intake manifold appears to be cast aluminum. The sensor poking into it should be for measuring air temperature. Want to change the spark plugs? Best take it to the dealer as the coil packs and plugs sit under the intake manifolds.



A view of the oval shaped runners of the intake manifold along with the dual overhead cams. The cam lobes appear to be riding on roller rockers for reduced friction. The relief cuts in the pistons for valve clearance are a good indicator this is a high compression ratio engine. At the top of the picture, you can see the triangulated chassis brace is hollow for reduced weight with a central rib for additional stiffness.


There are four close-coupled catalytic converters on this engine, each at the end of tubular 3-runner exhaust manifolds. The shaft running down the bottom next to the exhaust manifold is the steering shaft going forward to the steering rack.

Want to change the oil? I suggest taking it to the dealer as there's not a lot of space to pull out the oil filter. The exhaust manifold is behind it, steering rack below it, and I think that’s the water pump in front of it. My guess is they snake it out between the pump and the rack. Check out the sweet machined-out pulley; weight reduction!




Another view of the strong extruded box sections connected to the ribbed cast sections with everything being bolted and riveted together. At the end of the cams appear to be cam phasers allowing for variable cam timing. In the middle of the picture, you can see weight reduction from material removed out of the stamped subframe components.

As you've probably noticed already, the chassis is made of a stamped, cast, and extruded aluminum segments which are riveted and bolted together. The frontend of the car looks to be separated into two main sections: the main section that bolts to the central frame holding the engine and suspension pick-up points, and the very front section that I assume is a crumple zone along with holding on the bodywork. In the right side of the lower picture appears to be a cast section bolted to extruded sections; the cast portion has many ribs that add stiffness while minimizing material to reduce weight. In the very left part of the picture, what I think is a part of the bumper meant to be a crumple zone, consists of extruded aluminum with a central rib for more stiffness.



Peeking through the front wheel (with the carbon brakes conveniently cut away), you can see the deep ribs on the cast part containing the upper A-arm mounting points. The steering rack is mounted below the front half of the engine with the tie-rods connected on the front side of the beefy spindle. There appears to be a wheel speed sensor in the spindle.



The front suspension uses a coil over system with upper A-arm and lower L-shaped control arm. The front sway bar goes underneath the control arm and connects with the end-link.

The other side of the front spindle showing more ribbing for stiffness. I'm not a suspension geometry expert, but with the steering tie-rod appearing to be nearly in the same plane as the lower control arm along with being connected low on the spindle, I imagine this reduces bump-steer. All of the main suspension components look to be stout.


Front fender vent which is actually a vent instead of just cosmetic. Hella functional.




Stamped aluminum everywhere and riveted together. The steering column is supported by a cast aluminum piece. Yeah, it's ribbed too.





The back half of the passenger compartment features more stamped and riveted aluminum. The carbon fiber bodywork is really quite amazing with how it is shaped.

Looking at these extruded aluminum frame sections, you can see the internal ribs used for stiffness.





The rear subframe appears to be welded together in some portions and has the mounting points for the suspension components rear sway bar. In the left portion of the picture is the lower pan of the rear differential; it’s finned for increased heat transfer.



The rear end and axle.





This is a closer look at the upper control arm of the rear suspension and its mounting points; I had to sneak a picture between the brake rotor and rim to get a different angle of the upper arm.



Like pretty much every exotic and/or supercar, the parking brake uses a separate caliper. There are only 4 lug nuts on this wheel, but I do not think it was done as an intentional weight saving measure

The rear muffler was cut away. Pneumatic actuators (similar to those used for internal wastegates on turbos) are used to give the exhaust a straight shot out when at wide-open-throttle for maximum power and noise. Otherwise, the exhaust gases are forced through the muffler to quiet things down.





The underside of the carbon fiber hood features vents and a skeleton for rigidity.




A bit of a look at the interior. Um, one thing I noticed is the door swings slightly upward.



Uh.... (hey, I didn't go to school to study interior/artistic/ergonomic/fancy schmancy design, so I'm poking around here)....... this thing only comes in an automatic (I think). The steering wheel has flatish sides instead of the more typical flat bottom; I am kinda digging the suede looking material inserts on the wheel. The throttle pedal looks pretty skinny and the brake looks to be pretty close to the throttle with both pedals biased towards the right. There's an aweful lot of space between the brake pedal and dead pedal. Too bad there's no clutch pedal there. The tach swings up counter clockwise which is a little different. Oh, it has a cup holder!





This is what the fancy interior of an Aston Martin looks like along with the rear 'seats'; I guess a typical Beverly Hills small purse dog could fit back there.











t's an Aston, they are all hand-built.












Personally, I think Aston Martin should offer the car just like this with no paint; it looks good in all carbon fiber. That would save weight and costs too! Maybe if I come across $300k, I'll have Aston Martin do one for me showing off the full carbon fiber body. I can dream can I not?

Merci Franck je sais où est le filtre à huile désormais

Franck_Lyon a écrit : 04/07/2014

Aston a écrit : 04/07/2014

Franck_Lyon a écrit : 04/07/2014




Je ne pense pas qu'on te demande pas de ne plus poster... Mais de poster du contenu

Je poste énormément de contenu... sur Facebook

Et tu n'as pas encore remarqué que Aston Passion c'est ici ?

Je comprends vite mais... faut m'expliquer longtemps !



Et puis, Aston-Passion, c'est aussi la page Facebook mauvaise langue !

C'est bô.... Je me demande en quoi les entrailles internes se distinguent d'une clio par exemple (alu, rivetage, soin des decoupes, double wishbone, etc), car c'est toujours beau quand c'est neuf comme ca.