Not a good brand steer and makes the Aero derivs sound much less well resolved than they are. Totally fail to understand why JP was given a car that was unrepresentative, so perhaps it was fettled and as good as the Plus 8 gets??

A few things surprised me - the understeer (not something I find on my Aero S3) and the buffeting (again - pretty calm inside Aero 8s with windows up). I find the pedal layout great on my S3 too, but perhaps for full-on track driving he's right.

I enjoyed driving the new Plus 8 last year but found the doors / locks / side screens / stereo / rather plain fascia / upright screen / lack of boot all a bit of a step backwards from the Aero, and totally disagree with JP about the Aero's looks. But I do sort of agree that the Plus 8 is a rather odd marriage of old and new.

The steering has often been criticised on Aero derivatives since the electric power steering option, but has just been changed. Has anyone any experience of the new set-up and does anybody know if it would be possible to retro-fit it to an Aero 8 S3 (assuming it's a lot better). Having said that I'm used to the steering on the S3 and find it acceptable now I know how it's going to behave. I don't find it weights up but the power steering pump is slow to respond which gives a feeling of stiction and some inconsistency, and I have to agree it's not something that gives confidence on first familiarisation.

I'd still prefer an Aero 8 S5 to the Plus 8 but there's clearly a reason the factory has gone down this route...

JP surprised me a bit - he was not really trying to find the best parts of the Plus 8 - although having done a Robb Gravett track day in a Jag XK R-S last week that car was actually pretty good and felt a lot lighter on its feet than I expected.

It feels like the factory is desperately trying to find a model that makes sense and they can make money from - for me the Plus 8 is not really this car, but then I don't think the Aero Coupe is ideal either without a removable roof, and the SS is simply much too costly. I'd like an Aero S5 GT3 - simple equipment, side double exhausts, lightweight but adjustable seats, not too low-profile tyres, and it needs to be £70 - £80K. I would try to bring back the boot lid look of the S1 and the small rear glass window which looked so much better than the later treatments. I doubt they can make money on this car though at this price...

Perhaps the bespoke one-off specials for the uber-rich is the right way to go?