M2 little

As an M2 owner, I read with interest the launch information on the new M2 Competition [above] ( evo 248). M4 seats, mirrors and engine all sound good, but a 7 per cent gain in bhp per ton doesn’t really set my heart racing. The biggest surprise is that there are no changes to the springs and dampers – this is where I will be spending my money. Siôn Price Vantage lament

Though I’m pleased for Aston Martin that its new Vantage [above right] seems to have been well received by the press, I am disappointed that it doesn’t appear to be a replacement for my much-loved N430 Vantage manual.

Firstly, it’s now priced in a completely new segment. At £120,900 it’s no longer a rival for the £87k 911 Carrera S. In fact it’s priced beyond the £112k 911 GT3, for which it clearly isn’t a competitor. And no Vantage will leave the factory at the list price, either. It’s a £135k purchase, minimum.

But what really disappoints me is that no manual gearbox is being offered currently. So I have a deposit on the upcoming TVR, which I sadly now see as a closer replacement for the old Vantage.

I’m probably wrong and the new Vantage will sell like hot cakes, so I wish you luck, Aston. I love the brand, but please don’t alienate your old customer base like Land Rover is now doing. But that’s another story… Jonny Horsfield Grinded by gears Why is it that car manufacturers feel the need to include ever more gears in every iteration of their gearboxes? There are seven-speed, eight-speed, ninespeed and now, in the updated V8 Mustang (Driven, evo 248), tenspeed gearboxes.

Modern turbocharged engines (OK, the Mustang’s V8 isn’t turbocharged, but it hardly lacks twist) are now giving fantastic spreads of torque – flat plateaus of 3000rpm or more, or in the case of Ferraris and others a slightly increasing uplift in torque as the revs increase. For me, one of the joys of driving is to enjoy a modern engine’s flexibility by staying in one gear and enjoying the torque and increasing power rather than having a ’box constantly trying to shift through multiple gears for optimum acceleration.

Well-spaced ratios and flat torque curves do not require multiple gears. Why with 450-plus lb ft of torque do AMG models, for instance, need nine-speed gearboxes? They don’t is the answer. Rather there is a pressure to further trim 0-62 times and also reduce emissions on some test rig that does not reflect realworld driving.

Personally I would rather just have a maximum of six gears, so that you know which one you are in at any given time and can enjoy the engine’s performance more thoroughly. But would that be enough in a world seemingly obsessed with statistics? Douglas Henderson, Aberdeen