All Aston Martin cars are close to perfection the way they roll off the production line.
But still, I can’t resist customizing them. Either to add factory options that were not available at the time of purchase, to make changes that Gaydon doesn’t offer, or just to give the car a completely new look after owning it for a while.
After I purchased my V12 Vantage, now over 3 years ago, I left it “as-is” for 2 years.
But then, the customizing began. In this “Customizing my V12 Vantage” series, I will show and tell you about all changes I made to the red monster since then.
The above two photos show my “blank canvas”, the way the car looked when it was still at the dealership, at the time of my test drive. Nothing wrong with that right?
Now let’s make it even better. Step 1: Carbon fibre mirror caps.
Carbon Fibre mirror cap replacements
Mirrors. They are a necessity, but not my favorite part of the Vantage design. Especially the big ones that are fitted on the later Vantage models (of which I own two). We jokingly refer to them as “mickey mouse ears” sometimes. In any case, I wouldn’t want to draw attention to the ears by painting them in color different from the rest of the car’s body.
But when the V12 Vantage Carbon Black Edition was introduced, I liked what I saw. Carbon Fibre mirror caps. Looking cool and making the ears fade to the background a bit more. Then later, the CF mirrors were fitted as standard on the V12 Vantage Roadster, so my blue baby had them right out-of-the-box.
Naturally, I wanted them on the red monster too. I checked with my dealer if they could order them as parts from AML. Yes, they could… for 3,000 euro. Ehm… say what?
The V-Collection to the rescue
Then one of the guys at the dealership pointed me to The V-Collection, a company that produces high-quality aftermarket parts for Aston Martin’s, and at reasonable prices.
A pair of Carbon Fibre Mirror Caps for the Vantage at V-Collection: USD $849.99.
Okay, that’s a much better price! So we ended up ordering the CF mirrors at vcollection.com and they turned out great. Perfect fit and beautiful carbon fibre.
Check it out:
BTW: the above pictures already show a glimpse of two other customizations I have done to The Red One (three if you look really hard). Can you guess what they are?
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