One of the motoring world’s worst kept secrets was finally released to a slack jawed press at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. That Aston Martin were working on a smaller, more affordable car to slot into their range below the DB9 was well known, but pictures do not do this car justice. Even finished in a rather unflattering shade of bright yellow, the car looked knee-weakeningly stunning.
“The V8 engine is unique to Aston Martin, ” said Jeremy Main, Product Development Director of Aston Martin. “We share expertise within the PAG organisation but this design is totally new and not a shared engine. Every significant part of it is unique, from the specification of the cylinder block to the cylinder heads, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, camshafts, inlet and exhaust manifolds, lubrication system and engine management. “
The yellow was a deliberate choice, emphasising the V8 Vantage’s younger and more extrovert appeal compared to the more restrained and elegant DB9 and Vanquish models. In size, it’s not too far off a Porsche 911 and shares the German car’s pugnacious stance. Porsche and Aston Martin have a bit of history and the development of the V8 Vantage overlapped considerably with that of the 997 series 911. One of the reasons that Aston Martin first showed a prototype version of the V8 so early, at the 2002 Detroit Show in fact, was because sales of the DB9 were dwindling and they needed to grab advance orders that could otherwise have gone to Weissach.
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