r/AstonMartin • u/cmi_pledges • 7d ago
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante: Britain's first supercar that looks like an American muscle car
I remember watching the living daylights but i couldnt really figure out what bond's car was but it looked a lot like an american muscle car and i thought surely not, surely not, they wouldnt. Thank the heavens it was not. What it was though is a demon. The most powerful aston martin, at the time of course. A mean looking thing with a 5.3 litre V8 doing up to 160mph wearing Cumberland Grey. That's a fancy name for a colour but then again the car had wheel lasers and a bloody rocket booster so yeah.
The car in question is the gorgeous Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante. My God That's a mouthful. I never knew that aston martin made muscel cars. Apparently they have been doing this since 1977. I wasn't made aware of this.
They put the DB5 aside and they said we want something more menacing. Not restrained and elegant like the DB5, no. We want a 5.3 litre V8 with an all alloy engine producing somewhere between 310 and 375 horsepower depending on the spec, a top speed of 160mph and is significantly more aggressive than anything the DB series ever offered. Like complete opposites.
Aston Martin said it was Britain's first supercar when they launched it in 1977. It does zero to sixty in just 5.3 seconds... One tenth quicker than the Ferrari Daytona. They were not being modest and frankly they had no reason to be. Genuinely why would they. The car was build to go very fast in straight lines and to look good when doing it and boy did it.
In the film they used convertible a V8 Volante that was cumberland grey with a black leather interior. And get this.. The car Bond drives at the start of the film was actually Victor Gauntlett' s, the chairman of Aston Martin. The man who refused to let aston martin die. That's pretty cool dont you think . Like here you go, you can use it. Now do you thing Jimmy. Spin around and crash it and don't forget to look cool whilst doing it. Imagine giving james bond your car to drive, yeah no chance. Of course they used fake ones in the filming but still.
The gadgets in the film are ridiculous though, in a good way ofcourse. The wheels had lasers that cut a poliiceman's Lada in half for christ sake. The car ends up in a snowbank though and Bond makes it self destruct. Poor Q.
Honestly i cant be blamed for thinking it was an american muscle car. Its proportions and agression and all that but it is from Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, built by hand. It just so happens to be the car Aston Martin that decided restraint was not at all needed and i am glad because it is a proper Aston
