How the first Aston Martin V8 Vantage came about with artifice

Because of the highly expensive and desirable cars it makes, with a brand like Aston Martin everything seems to shine and shine, but behind the scenes the picture was often the opposite. After it was placed under receivership in 1974 and 1975, Aston Martin tried to get some fresh pounds into cash by selling a warehouse with discarded, sometimes experimental parts. Then the factory could at least get going again. Meanwhile, a handful of engineers had gone to work out of sight of management to improve the V8, the brand’s only model. That led to the realization that they might as well make a new Vantage version of it; with a handful of relatively easy adjustments, that faster version would bring in comparatively more money.

And so it happened. The 5.3-liter V8 got larger intake valves, different camshafts and a modified exhaust system, which increased the power from 320 to 375 hp. Also important were the aerodynamic changes. The guys even devised a hefty front spoiler to deal with the heavy lift that the front end of the standard V8 struggled with, while a closed grille and a larger rear spoiler were supposed to improve aerodynamics. The standard car was first measured in the wind tunnel, after which a test followed with the same model to which all new appendages were mounted. The result was very satisfactory, because all the ‘lift’ was gone and the air resistance was found to be ten percent lower. The man who had driven the stock car to the wind tunnel and returned with the spoilers still installed, was delighted to report back to the factory that the top speed had increased by ten miles per hour and that the stability of the car had also been greatly improved. Not bad for a model born out of necessity, who qualified right away as the fastest in the world. “Aston Martin simply wanted to build the fastest production car”, we read in a report from 1978. But not really. The public relations department had also done an excellent job.