Footnotes

'On your first serious trip to the top of the Aston Martin Vantage's performance curve, you will make the last gearchange at 138mph. It will not occur to you until a lot later that this is as fast as a Lotus Esprit or Porsche 944 will go, however long the road.' – Car magazine testing 'PBM 744W' in 1981.

Retaining its original registration, chassis and engine numbers, this V8 Vantage was first registered to Victor Gauntlett, Aston Martin's chairman from 1981 to 1991. Veteran AML employee Frank Matthews hand built the engine especially for Victor Gauntlett. Accompanying registration documents show seven previous owners in total, marque specialist R S Williams being the owner prior to the current vendor, who acquired the Aston on 19th June 2006. Victor Gauntlett's first V8 Vantage, built by AML's engineering department to his own unique specification, 'PBM 744W' was used by two magazines - Motor (April 1981 issue) and Car (January 1982) - for road