1980 Aston Martin V8 Volante

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

This highly original V8 Volante is a rare example of Aston Martin’s fast and luxurious soft-top. Only 157 right-hand-drive examples were built using Weber carburettors before the model switched to fuel injection.

The Heritage Certificate for chassis number V8/COR/15133 states that it was built on 19 October 1979 and despatched on 11 January 1980. An original UK home-market car, it was finished in Tourmaline Blue with Magnolia leather and an Off White hood, and was fitted with the three-speed automatic gearbox that perfectly complements the 5.3-litre V8 engine.

The service book shows that, in November 1981, the Aston Martin was bought from Victor Wilson Ltd of Edinburgh by James McNeil. It was initially registered in the name of McNeil’s Glasgow-based business – Apollo Window Blinds Ltd – but in 1989 he registered the Aston in his own name, and held on to it until 2010. 

It then passed to a new owner who used it for travelling between an underground garage in Scotland and his summer home in Ascona, Switzerland. In 2018, the underside of the V8 Volante was treated to an extensive refresh, with work being carried out on the suspension and brakes. The history file includes photographs of that process, plus two service books featuring stamps going back to 1980, the period sales brochure, leather tool roll and the original Owner’s Manual.

The diamond-cut wheels have been refurbished and the Aston is still presented in its original colour combination. It was featured in issue 228 of Octane magazine, with an impressed Robert Coucher writing that ‘its engine is the heart of the beast. Once fired, it is loud and proud and the whole car throbs with soulful verve… depress the throttle pedal to the stop [and] the big V8 wakes up and bellows, the Aston squats on its rear de Dion axle and takes off.’

This Aston Martin V8 Volante is a car that we know well and is being offered for sale in beautifully original condition. Recent work during the current ownership has included both front seats being stripped down and re-foamed, the carpets and underfelt being replaced throughout, and the door cards being refurbished. A new fuel pump has also been fitted, plus new power-steering hoses. 

The end result is a superb example of this muscular British grand tourer that’s ready to be used and enjoyed throughout the summer.

MODEL HISTORY

Introduced in 1978, the convertible Volante was intended to broaden the appeal of Aston Martin’s V8 range, which had started with the William Towns-designed DBS V8. Introduced in 1969, that car subsequently morphed into the V8 and was updated throughout the 1970s and ’80s. 

The styling was subtly tweaked and mechanical changes included a switch from fuel injection to less-troublesome Weber carburettors – then back again for the Series 5 of 1986. There was also a Vantage model, which was launched a year before the Volante and offered supercar performance. 

Aston Martins were still very much hand-built during this period, the brochure for the V8 stating that the Newport Pagnell factory was a place where ‘only the best is good enough, and where skill, dedication and loyalty are by-words of a world-famous product.’

It’s said that 1200 hours went into making each V8 Volante, which featured an aluminium body and a 5340cc quad-cam V8 producing 300bhp. There was a choice of five-speed manual or three-speed automatic gearboxes, and this luxuriously finished Aston could sprint to 60mph in only seven seconds and carry on to a top speed of more than 140mph. 

Detail differences between coupé and Volante included the latter’s closed bonnet bulge – a feature that was also adopted on the Series 4 ‘Oscar India’ coupé shortly afterwards – plus a burr walnut dashboard. The Volante chassis was also strengthened along the sills and around the windscreen pillars.

The Series 1 Volante lasted until 1986, when it adopted the same upgrades that were applied to the incoming Series 5 coupé. Production of the V8 – which had done so much to keep Aston Martin going through troubled financial times – came to an end in 1989.