Three-quarter front view of a Gold, 1979 Aston Martin Vantage on display at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
A 1975 Aston Martin Vantage on display at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, as pat of the Aston Martin owners Club Spring Concours. The Aston Martin V8 is a two-door coupé automobile manufactured in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1989. As with all traditional Aston Martins, it was entirely handbuilt - with each car requiring 1,200 manhours to finish. Aston Martin's customers had been clamouring for an eight-cylinder car for years, so Aston Martin designed a larger two-door saloon for V8 applications. The engine was not ready, however, so in 1967 the company released the DBS with the straight-six Vantage engine from the DB6. Two years later, Tadek Marek's V8 was ready, and Aston released the DBS V8. With the demise of the straight-six Vantage in 1973, the DBS V8, now restyled and called simply the Aston Martin V8, became the company's mainstream car for nearly two decades. It was retired in favour of the Virage in 1989. DBS V8 From 1969 through 1972, Aston's flagship model was the DBS V8. Though the body and name was shared with the six-cylinder DBS, the V8 sold for much more. The body was a modern reinterpretation of the traditional Aston Martin look, with a squared-off grille and four headlights (though some consider the styling derivative of the early Ford Mustang). Distinguishing features of the V8 model are the larger front air dam and lack of wire wheels, though some six-cylinder DBS cars also used the V8's alloy wheels. The tail lights were taken from the Hillman Hunter. A road test report of the time noted that the car had gained 250 lb (113 kg) in weight with the fitting of the V8 in place of the previously used six-cylinder unit, despite the manufacturer's assurance that the engine weighed only 30 lb (14 kg) more than the older straight-six. Other contributions to the weight gain included heavier ventilated brake discs, air conditioning, fatter tyres, a new and stronger ZF gear
Size: 4064px × 2704px
Location: Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, UK
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -door, -quarter, 1979, 1985, 5340cc, aston, car, classic, college, coupé, front, gold, greenwich., martin, naval, river, royal, sports, thames, v8, vantage, view
