“The V8 Volante was better than expected – trustworthy and reasonably tolerant ”
ANDREW FRANKEL
One of the more pleasant tasks of the month was to go down to Vantage Engineering near Horsham and drive the ultimate version of the original Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Made in 1989 right at the end of production this was a Volante with the coveted ‘X-Pack’ engine from the ugly but effective Aston Martin Zagato.
So often on these jobs you get excited by the prospect of driving such a car only to find it’s tired or not been prepped and you end up imagining what it would have been like had it been properly looked after. So this time I steeled myself for disappointment: I’d driven a V8 Volante before and knew it would likely have all the structural rigidity of trifle. But for once the car was far better than expected, not exactly a precision instrument, but reasonably accurate, trustworthy and tolerably competent. Which meant I could enjoy all the other stuff – that fabulous V8 and the slow but beautifully mechanical gearbox – all the more.