It’s not that we’re saying ‘told you so,’ but three years ago the Virage-derived V8 Vantage came out as the top pick from our Aston Martins to Buy Now feature. At the time we pointed out that the best examples were making £120k – but they could still be found for less. Since then their values have accelerated at a rate to match their 4.6-second 0-60mph time. £125k doesn’t even get you into the game now, and the very best are now more like double that. Get a strong hankering for one of the special edition Le Mans or V600 cars and you can add another 30%.
With the kind of performance on offer, and one of motoring’s great badges, it’s really no surprise that this has become Aston Martin’s last hero car for the old-school pre-Vanquish era. Even if they have now vanished out of a lot more people’s reach, do all you can to try to drive one of these awesome roadgoing dragsters at some point.