I have to admit that I am guilty. I spent my summer playing with my Aston Martin rather than working on it. I have neglected this blog and the YouTube channel. My apologies.
Earlier in the year my Sweetie suggested that we do a getaway drive for fun (did I mention I love my wife). Coincidentally – two of the regional clubs reached out to me to join their gatherings, and just like that we had the makings of two road trips.
The Aston Martin Owners Club (AMOC) Americas South West invited us to go along on the 3-day Colorado Rockies driving tour from July 1 through 4th. The Canada West AMOC group asked me to join their meeting July 27/28 in Victoria, BC, Canada.
You’ve seen me post a couple of articles relating to the trips. A few were calls to arms for other owners to join in on the two events. I’m not sure if it helped, but the AMOC SW trip was sold out with 20+ cars, and the Canada West group had over 30 cars. It was terrific.
I created a silly YouTube video on how to pack your DB9 for a 3,400 mile 10-day road trip. We really had to figure this out as we were going to be in a variety of climates from 40°F and cool at 11,000 feet elevation in Colorado to 101°F in the deserts of Utah. Check out the video for a silly giggle.
After the first event in Colorado I put together a quick collection of some video clips I shot. I had intended to do more official GoPro filming of the event, but I found myself relaxing and enjoying myself more and just going with the flow.
The Canada West group put together a professionally shot video of the event, and they allowed me to post it up to the YouTube Channel. Some great footage of all the colorful Canadian Cars [Is it just me, or do the Canadians all buy Aston’s in colors, and the US owners are mostly Black, Grey, Silver and White?]
In total we put on almost exactly 5,200 miles in July 2019. The car ran perfectly. Not a single hiccup. We found the car comfortable even with driving 9+ hours a few days. 
Getting out of any car after 9 hours at my age will not be pretty, so I think the DB9 did well. I’m not sure what fuel mileage we managed, but I think it was around 20 mpg, so that would be 260 gallons for the trips. I wonder how that would compare to my portion of Jet Fuel flying to the NYC and back for a vacation? Sorry environment.
We met many new friends, like minded Aston owners out having fun with their cars. I hope to continue those relationships moving forward.
Would we do it again? Sure, but not both trips in the same month. That was a bit of a fluke. I think getting out to at least one event like this every year should be a must do if you own a car like this. Go Play!
OK, I’ll get back to work now. Articles on the Transmission Fluid Change, Secondary DeCat pipes and much more coming….. Oh yeah, and a big surprise!
Aston 1936 
Hi, do you have a link for the BC area of Canada…I am in Vancouver area…07 Vantage V8,
THX, Art.
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Hi Art. If you are interested in joining, reach out to Area Assistant Rep Wyman Lee wymanlee@telus.net and let him know I pointed you his way. He’s super helpful.
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Steve looks like you had a ball and also put on some serious miles, “good on ja” as they say.
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Steve,
You are preparing for transmission fluid change as I understand. I did a complete flush/fill of my ZF 5HP24 5 speed transmission in my 1997 BMW 1997 840Ci this past winter. It specifies the same ZF fluid as these Aston 6 speeds specify. IF you would like a copy of my write-up, please send me a direct email. Unfortunately, I am in Hawaii for another 3 weeks and won’t have access to my files until 9/23.
Alternatively, there are a lot of BMW models that use the same model 6 speed ZF automatic trans as the Aston does. And, on several BMW Forums there are discussions of the procedures those owners have used, and the fluids they find are equivalent to the AF spec. The Mercon SP seems to be the one most commonly used there, and no issues have developed. A full flush of the trans, torque converter and cooling radiator would probably take about 12 qts (that’s what I used o my 840Ci). At a cost of a little less than $10 per quart, that’s a significant saving. Of course all Ford products with this ZF 6 speed use that fluid.
THANKS FOR ALL YOU’VE DONE ON THIS SITE AND BLOG.
Gary Knox
new owner of a ’09 Volante for all of 2 weeks – only saw it for 2 days before we left on vacation.
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Hi Gary. Thanks for that. You can email anything to Steve@Aston1936.com. I am almost about ready to do my Transmission flush/fill. I’ve bough the ZF 6 fluid to be sure. I was a little leary about the $10 Ford stuff. One side of brain says it will be fine. Other side saying ‘not worth the risk to find out’.
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