The document provides a review of the 1986 Aston Martin V8 Series 5. It describes the car's powerful yet smooth V8 engine and effortless torque delivery. While large, the V8 handles well and its interior provides comfortable space for long journeys. The review praises the V8's refined grand touring character and notes it can be used as an everyday car despite high fuel costs. A brief history of the V8 model line from the 1960s onwards is also given.

1. Road test
34 | Classic Car Weekly | Wednesday 24 July 2013
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PHOTOGRAPHYMikeLeCaplain(motion);RichardGunn(statics)
The Aston Martin V8’s
swansong is the perfect
gentleman’s express,
reckons DAVID SIMISTER
Bulldogspirit
WhAT SHOULD I PAY?
n Project £20,000
n Usable £30,000
n Nice £50,000
n Concours £70,000+
1986 REMEMBERED
The year of the Challenger space shuttle
disaster and the announcement of the
Channel Tunnel project also saw Halley’s
Comet visit the Solar System for the
second time in a century, while across
much of the UK deregulated bus services
were brought into effect.
If you couldn’t afford a Series 5
V8 there was still plenty to keep you
entertained, with the Rover SD1 giving
way to the 800 and Volvo returning to the
coupé world with the 480.
Easygoing, but muscular Aston V8 is best suited to open, straight roads where you can unleash its prodigious torque
D
iscovering the Aston Martin V8 is
amusingly fast isn’t all that surprising –
it’s the way it delivers that speed that
makes you smile. Plant your foot into
the depths of that sumptuously trimmed footwell
and you’re greeted, not with a roar, but a distant
bellow from the 5.3-litre lion living under the
bonnet. You wait a moment for the Chrysler-
sourced three-speed automatic to acknowledge
your request for a deployment of oomph, giving
you just enough time to mentally prepare yourself
for the surge.
The V8 feels less like a racehorse galloping
towards the horizon and more like the distance is
being pulled towards you by a big, burly tug of
war champion. The fact that the injected V8’s
320lb ft torque is delivered at just 3000rpm
really is at the heart of this big Aston’s utterly
unstressed character.
Threading the V8 through narrow town centre
streets makes it feel larger than is entirely
comfortable, but it’s in its element on wider
country roads, leaving you to enjoy the niceties of
the leather-lined interior. In fact, the only
frustration is that you’ll only ever scratch the
surface of this GT’s straightline performance.
Peel off the main road, and you might expect
the business of threading the Aston through
tighter corners to feel rather like manhandling a
wardrobe up a set of stairs, but the assisted
steering makes easy work of it. In fact, if anything
it feels a little too light, although, perversely,
there’s plenty of feel. That said, this isn’t a classic
you chuck, hot hatch style, into a roundabout and
expect it to sort it all out for you; you guide it
through carefully, point that endless
bonnet towards the next straight, and prepare to
unleash that tidal wave of torque once again.
Despite its understated, slightly muscular good
looks, Aston always described the hard-top version
of the V8 as a saloon rather than a coupé, which is
testament to this powerhouse’s practicality. The
back seats won’t ever take a brace of adults in
comfort – this is definitely a 2+2 – but you’re
hardly hemmed in at the front of the cabin. Out
back, the boot is big enough to cater for a long
weekend away for two. Sadly, though, CCW
didn’t have a cello on hand to discover whether
the V8 really is as practical as the makers of The
Living Daylights (in which Bond uses a slightly
earlier Series 4 V8 as his getaway car)
made out!
The V8 isn’t the lightest and most thrilling
Aston there is, nor is it ever going to deliver a
definitive lecture on delicate handling or subtle
performance. What it does do, however, is charm
you completely with its sublime character. It’s also
reliable enough and comfortable enough – if you
can afford the fuel bills – to use every day,
particularly if the trips involved are long distance
slogs which need a little magic, Newport Pagnell
style, to liven them up.
Not unlike taking Helen Mirren out for dinner,
in fact, you know that taking an Aston Martin V8
on a tour is going to be big fun – in a refined sort
of a way.
Target price
£25k
CCW CELEBRATES
100 years

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Wednesday 24 July 2013 | Classic Car Weekly | 35
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VITALSTATISTICS
Aston Martin V8 Series 5
Engine 5341cc/V8/DOHC
Power305bhp@5000rpm
Torque 320lb ft@3000rpm
Top Speed150mph
0-60mph6.7sec
ECONOMY14mpg
Gearbox 3-speed automatic
oil capacity
n ENGINE 20 pints
n GEARBOX 15 pints
n GEARBOX N/A
oil GRADE
n ENGINE Castrol Edge Sport 10w/60
n GEARBOX Castrol ATF Dexron 11
Multivehicle
n Axle Castrol Universal 75w/90
...or how about this?
Bristol 603 Rare Brit bruiser uses the same Chrysler Torqueflite as the
Aston, but also packs the company’s enormous V8 engines
The V8 can trace its roots back to the
automotive star of another James Bond outing
– the 1967 DBS, which appeared alongside
George Lazenby in the film On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service. That car, however, used the old
DB-era Tadek-Marek-designed straight six, and
it was only when the (also Tadek Marek-
designed) 5.3-litre V8 became available, two
years later, that the two-door saloon really got
into its stride.
The V8-engined DBS evolved in 1972 into
the simpler-named Aston Martin V8. By the
time the Series 3 version arrived a year later,
Newport Pagnell had finally dropped the
engine’s troublesome Bosch fuel injection in
favour of four Weber twin-choke carburettors.
Externally, these cars were distinguishable by a
power scoop on the Series 3 and a bonnet
bulge on the Series 4. Aston also broadened
the V8’s appeal by introducing the pumped-
up, 390bhp V8 Vantage (which arrived in
1977) and the open-top Volante version.
The Series 5, launched in 1986, marked the
reintroduction of fuel injection, and the
subsequent loss of the bonnet bulge. Aston
aficionados regard this last model, available
either with Chrysler’s Torqueflite automatic or
the now ultra-rare ZF five-speed manual, as
being the easiest of the V8s to live with.
The V8 saloon and Volante gave way in
1989 to the curvaceously-styled Vantage,
which carried over the long-serving engine, a
car which later spawned the ferocious 550bhp
and 600bhp Vantage supercars of the ‘90s.
It was only in 2000 when the Sixties-
designed engine finally gave way when the
Vantage was replaced by the V12-hauled
Vanquish, although a new, Jaguar-derived
engine marked the return of V8-powered
offerings from the firm five years later.
BUY THIS CAR
Aston Martin specialist Desmond J Smail provided our
test V8, which is up for £54,000. For more details on
this car and others in stock visit the website.
n 01234 240 636 n www.djsmail.co.uk
Plenty of room and gadgets – though sadly no missile launchers – cocoon occupants on even the longest of trips
V8 powerhouse launched with fuel injection, went to carburettors, then by the late 1980s, returned to fuel injection
Bespoke luxury feel is rather spoiled by the presence of Mk1 Vauxhall Astra column stalks
Tadek Marek-designed V8 ousted earlier six-potSnowflake alloys less distinctive than earlier style Tail lights ape those of Rootes Arrow Hillman Hunter Single headlights boosted by quad driving lamps
HISTORY
Target price
£30k