Aston Martin Vantage

In 2005, Aston Martin was still linked with Jaguar and Ford. But it was still a luxurious GT car that featured a different approach to its customers and a different market.

The 2005 Geneva Motor Show was the place where Aston Martin decided to unveil its latest creation, the V8 Vantage. Even if it shared some components with some vehicles from Ford, its overall look was different and it gathered the attention from the deep-pockets buyers.

The 2005 Aston Martin V8 Vantage was based on its own developed platform, named VH from the second generation. The car featured a twin grille design, with the upper side in the traditional Aston Martin shape and a wide one on the lower part of the bumper. The headlights featured the daytime running lights on the inside, with a twin bulb design for the low and high-beams. Two air-vents were noticeable on the hood, closer to the windshield. The rear design showed the muscular arches of the quarter panels. The two, round exhausts were going through the lower side of the bumper. The horizontal V-shaped taillights were a specific styling element of the car.

Inside, the luxurious GT offered leather-covered sport-bucket seats. The dashboard used the same unusual tachometer that went counter-clockwise. But, with some buttons carried over from some Ford models.

Under the hood, there was a 4.3-liter engine hand-built in Cologne-Germany by Aston Martin engineers. It featured a dry-sump lubrication system so the engine would support hard driving conditions. It was tested for 12.000 miles in Dubai. A 6-speed automatic gearbox was offered from the launch and it was mounted in the rear, in a transaxle system.