Big but still elegant, the V-8 Vantage put Aston Martin firmly into the ‘seventies supercar league and gave the company a justifiable claim as producers of the world’s fastest four seater production car. Motor racing in the fifties and James Bond in the sixties had put Aston Martin on the world map as the car you promised yourself one day. The V-8 Vantage made sure that its performance would be in keeping with its reputation when that day arrived.

In the days when most supercars weighed no more than a ton and a half, the 4000lb Vantage needed a pretty impressive power output to keep up. The trusty 5.34 liter four cam V-8 was worked on to produce a reliable and tractable 375bhp thanks to four big downdraught 48 IDF weber carburetters, bigger inlets values and a better exhaust systems; with a drag factor of 0.38, this enable a maximum speed of 170 mph; but, even the standard V8 saloon had 300 bhp which was good for nearly 150 mph.

While James Bond made the DB series famous he used a 147 mph and 1963 DB5 and these continued through to the DB6 MK II, Aston’s then owner David Brown wanted to produce a genuine 4 seater which even the longer wheelbase DB6 didn’t really achieve and it had to be faster than the 4 liter cars. According work started in 1963 on a new all aluminum V-8 engine, While the new car might have been one designed by the Italian coachbuilder touring, who had styled the DB4.

The company switched to one designed in house by William Towns; although the extra width of the V-8 engine demanded a new chassis, this was essentially just a widened DB6 with new bodywork, but there was an important change in the rear suspension which adopted a de Dion axle.

Unfortunately development on the V-8 wasn’t as fast as with the rest of the car, so the new DBS had to start life in 1967 with the 6 cylinder 4 liter engine; it was much more comfortable car than its predecessors, but inevitably it was slower. It was 1969 before the V-8 was finally with 315 bhp using Bosch fuel injection to give a top speed of 160 mph. that the 1977 V-8 produced less horsepower was a function of increasingly restrictive emission laws.

Between the 1969 launch of the DBS V-8 and the 1977 170mph test, Aston Martin went through two changes of ownership and a six month shut down. Sir David Brown had, for a long time, runs Astons at a loss, almost as the promotional arm of the David Brown Corporation; by the end of 1971 this had to come to as end and company development took over the ownership, and successfully continued development of the renamed Aston Martin V-8.

By the end of 1974, they were in trouble and had to put the company into receivership; although the service department continued, production stopped. Now owners, American Peter Sprague and Canadian George Minden, started in July 1975, to be joined six months later by Alan Curtis. Enthusiasts all, they soon had the V-8 back in production and started development of the new razor-edge Lagonda, also styled by William Towns. The intention had been that a new Aston shape would follow as a two-door version, but that never happened.

Everyone was quite happy with the old V-8 style; in 1978 this was further revised with an integrated tail spoiler, a result of the Vantage development which had reduced the drag. With steady refinement, the Vantage was to stay on production for another 12 years form the date of this test; even now it is still a very fast car.