2008 Aston Martin Vantage

‘GW08 AML’ is a 2008 Aston Martin Vantage V8 that’s been honed over the years by some of the best names in the business including Niche, Maxton Design, and Aston Martin Racing.

It’s also got a strong maintenance record behind it too and comes to auction fresh from a £10,000+ service by marque experts Bamford Rose.

We are also told that it also drives as well as it looks, making it ready to thrill and delight its new owner in the same way as it has its current one.
 

The silver coachwork has survived the passage of 17 years with impressive aplomb, and assessing the mm-accurate shutlines and perfect panel alignment in conjunction with the clean HPI report suggests that this is a not a car with an, er, “interesting” past.

As you can see, it’s been subtly modified with the addition of a Maxton Design body kit comprising a front bumper assembly (including canards and a splitter), side skirts, and a rear spoiler cap. There’s an F1-style rear diffuser too, which was custom-made for this particular car.

A matt-black front-to-rear stripe and a windscreen sunshade add yet more interest, while the de-chroming session left the Vantage looking clean, a look that’s reinforced by the black exhaust tips, smoked rear lights, and tinted indicator lenses.

Oh, and the Aston Martin Racing lightweight front mesh grille you’ve been admiring would have set you back north of £500 if you’d been the one footing the bill.

The stars of the show though might be the 20-inch Niche Essen alloy wheels. No longer in production, a previous owner was so determined to fit them that he sourced the front wheels from America and the rear pair from Germany; how’s that for dedication?

Their 10-spoke design also allows you to appreciate the grooved brake discs and lime green brake calipers, a feature whose colour is picked up by the front strut brace under the bonnet, which can be glimpsed through the mesh bonnet vents, as well as a small pinstripe on either front wing.

The wheels are still unmarked. Free of even the slightest hint of kerbing damage, they’re also fitted with low-profile Falken Azenis tyres, with 245/35ZR20 on the front axle, and 285/30ZR20 on the rear. The former are date-stamped 2024, with the latter being 2023.  

We will never get tired of telling you that experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly.

The DRLs have been updated to 2012-specification.

The only corrosion we can see is between the two arms of the nearside door mirror, which means there’s nothing for the new owner to do other than to keep up the polishing regimen and bask in the approval of their peers.

 

By contrast, the interior has been left almost completely standard, which is no bad thing as we don’t think anyone did it better back in the day than Aston Martin.

And it’s very far from being the sort of beautiful-but-fragile interior some manufacturers were installing at the time because this one, like the coachwork, has survived almost two decades of use very well indeed.

Take the front seats, for example, which show little more than gentle creasing on their outer bolsters, bolsters that are, by the way, still firm and supportive.

They’re heated and electrically adjustable too, have a variable lumbar support, and the contrasting white stitching is still bright and clean.

The rest of the black leather interior is just as impressive with clean and undamaged door cards, an unsullied example of one of the nicest dashboards in the business, a cute pop-up sat-nav that still works, and a taut and undamaged headlining.

Flappy paddles too, plus recently refurbished air-conditioning and a good parcelshelf.

A Trafficmaster Trackstar is also fitted.

There are a few signs of it having covered 81,000 miles, although these are few and restricted to some marks on the driver’s door pull/armrest and a somewhat weathered boot carpet.
 

The Vantage has a good service history:

•    28.03.2008 and 23 miles – pre-delivery inspection by Stratstone
•    27.05.2008 and 1,125 miles – service by Stratstone
•    03.06.2009 and 4,777 miles – service by Stratstone
•    02.09.2010 and 8,106 miles – service by Stratstone
•    15.06.2011 and 13,257 miles – service by Broughtons
•    13.09.2012 and 21,081 miles – service by Lancaster Reading
•    03.06.2014 and 32,530 miles – service by Lancaster Reading
•    20.08.2015 and 38,894 miles – service by A.B. Autos
•    20.02.2018 and 50,882 miles – service by Jordell Ltd
•    02.10.2020 and 78,319 miles – service by Aston Martin Reading
•    07.08.2023 and 80,913 miles – service by Aston Martin Reading
•    20.03.2025 and 81,266 miles – service by Bamford Rose including a new twin-plate clutch and lightweight flywheel, camshaft and propshaft bearings, air-conditioning radiator and compressor, front brake discs and pad, sparkplugs, a short-shifter, ECU remap, handbrake pads, and a cambelt and tensioner at a cost of more than £10,000

That recent comprehensive fettling should reassure you as to the Aston’s condition, as should the detailed inspection report from Bamford Rose that’s online.

As for the twin-plate clutch and lightweight flywheel that Bamford Rose developed and fitted, it says:
“To save money the Vantage re-used a flywheel of Jaguar design. This flywheel was designed for luxury saloons and had those characteristics inherent in its design – slow, smooth ramp-up of power and a smooth drive-down on deceleration which are luxury saloon traits. Ideally, a sports car flywheel should facilitate energetic acceleration and deceleration.
“The impeccably engineered Bamford Rose flywheel is lightweight, but the correct weight for a sports car. This has the benefit of reducing rotational inertia allowing the engine to spool-up/rev-up faster. Our upgraded twin-plate clutch is a smaller diameter than the OEM single-plate clutch and also enables much quicker disengagement from the engine resulting in smoother shifts. Another added advantage of the smoother changes a twin-plate clutch provides is better longevity for the part. So not only do you get a much-improved transmission you won’t need to change the clutch as often either.”
The seller tells us that this isn’t hyperbole: “It is fantastic now, like a Ferrari. It’s transformed the way it drives!”

The same firm also replaced the gearbox pump at the beginning of June 2025 at considerable cost. The Vantage was also fitted with a new OEM dashboard-to-boot wiring loom in April 2024.

As for the suspension modifications, we understand these include B.C. Racing coilovers fitted at a cost of around £1,000 for the hardware alone. These were made especially for the Vantage model and are said to provide better handling while still being more comfortable than the factory springs.

The video shows that the 4.3-litre V8 starts with a bark before settling into an immediate and surprisingly subdued tickover. It’s a wonderfully tractable and civilised engine at low revs, but springs into life with an addictive exhaust note.

And what a range of exhaust notes it offers! Bamford Rose installed a hidden button on the centre console that gives the driver access to three levels of exhaust noise: quiet, wake the neighbours, and wake the dead.

The engine bay is clean and nicely presented. Sure, there are a few rusty fasteners and the like, but this is a strictly cosmetic issue that could be resolved easily and cheaply if it bothers you.

The underside looks straight and undamaged bar the usual light scuffs that are all but inevitable when you have traffic-calming measures to negotiate. 
 

The Aston’s MoT certificate is valid until March 2026, the recent Vehicle History Check is clear, and the history file includes three keys, two remote fobs, the stamped service history booklet, plenty of old MoT certificates, and a bunch of invoices and bills. 

With a guide price of between £20,000 and £25,000, we don’t imagine there are many Vantage V8s out there that offer better value than this one does.

Yes, it’s been modified but the modifications are subtle and work well, and if things like the bonnet stripe aren’t to your taste, they could be easily removed.

Because the underlying car is excellent – and you can’t discount the recent work by Bamford Rose that equates to around half of the guide price; the seller had planned for it to be a long-termer and invested accordingly, but ill-health now forces the sale of his beloved Vantage much sooner than expected. 

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at Bonhams|Cars Online HQ. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays between 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. To make a booking, please use the ‘Enquire About This Vehicle’ button on the listing. Feel free to ask any questions, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.