CarBrandLogos archive · Aston Martin · 1969

Aston MartinV8

Britain's answer to the supercar, hand-beaten in a Buckinghamshire village.

The story

A defining chapter in Aston Martin history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Aston Martin V8, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

William Towns drew the shape in the late 1960s, and it lasted two decades: slab sides, a deep grille, a flat bonnet that would soon acquire a bulge. It appeared first on the six-cylinder DBS, then in 1969 took the engine it had been designed around, Tadek Marek's 5.3-litre V8, in the DBS V8. From 1972 the car dropped the DB initials along with its founder-era ownership and became simply the Aston Martin V8.

Aston Martin V8 Saloon · No machine-readable author provided. Hannibal assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain

Design and engineering

Early cars used Bosch mechanical fuel injection, which proved troublesome; a switch to Weber carburettors in 1973 brought the power bulge that defined the look, later smoothed over again on the 1978 Oscar India specification. The 1977 Vantage, with hotter cams, bigger valves and a blanked grille, was quick enough that British magazines started calling it a supercar and meant it. The Volante convertible followed for the American market, and in 1986 Zagato built a short, sharp-edged coupé on the platform.

1973 Aston Martin V8 fl · Herranderssvensson · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

What makes the run remarkable is the state of the company that produced it. Aston Martin went into receivership in 1975, changed hands repeatedly, and at times built cars in single figures per week. The V8 was hammered out by hand at Newport Pagnell throughout, 4,021 of them including Vantages and Volantes, and it kept the name alive until Ford's money arrived. Bond drove a Vantage Volante and then a hard-topped Vantage in The Living Daylights, a reminder that the association had never entirely lapsed. The Virage replaced it in 1989.

1970 Aston Martin DBS V8 fr · Herranderssvensson · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1969–1989

Units built

4,021

Engine

5.3&nbsp

Designer

William Towns

Technical specification

The V8, in detail.

Production: 1969–1989 ; 4,021 built ; (incl. Vantage & Volante)
Class: Grand tourer
Body style: 2-door coupe ; 2-door convertible
Layout: FR layout
Engine: 5.3 L V8
Transmission: ZF Friedrichshafen; ZF 5-speed Manual transmission; manual all-synchromesh ; 3-speed List of Chrysler transmissions; Chrysler Automatic transmission; automatic
Designer: William Towns
Assembly: United Kingdom: Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England
Manufacturer: Aston Martin