This car, Lot 113, sold for $317,359 (€280,625), including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Milan, ITA, sale on May 22, 2025.
Ah, Britain’s “American muscle car.” Though the shape is generic ’60s super-coupe (you can see some Fiat Dino in there), park one next to a first-gen Chevy Camaro and the similarity of lines, proportions and angles is spooky — even though, as we know, the Camaro’s shape was compromised by its F-body platform, which shared some Chevy II underpinnings. It’s hard to believe the Aston’s designer, William Towns, hadn’t caught sight of early sketches from Henry Haga’s Chevrolet Studio Two. And of course, the Aston is powered by a 5.3-liter V8, nearly the same size as Chevy’s 327.
There the similarities end. Astons of this period were resolutely hand-built, and the V8 is a four-cam aluminum creation, both of which make it a considerably more expensive proposition than the mass-produced Chevy. The rear suspension is more sophisticated too, being a De Dion setup, coil-sprung and better located than the Camaro’s live axle on leaf springs. It’s just a shame the British car wasn’t significantly faster than the American.
Unless you ordered the Vantage, which came close to ticking some of Chevy’s RPO boxes. Cylinder-head work and larger carbs bounced the power output to around 380 hp. If you wanted more, there was the X-pack, which raised output to around 400 hp (Aston quoted 432, but that’s only with all the mods plus Weber 50s, which not all the cars received). In Vantage spec, quoted torque is 406 lb-ft, compared with a 350-ci Camaro SS’s 380.
A worthy example
“Oscar Indias,” as our subject car, are Series 4 cars. Series 2s are the first two-headlight V8 cars, built May 1972 through July 1973, with Bosch fuel injection. Series 3s, from 1973–78, are back on carbs, with a tall bonnet scoop to clear them. S4s like this have a closed bonnet bulge and a tail spoiler. Series 5s on Weber/Marelli fuel injection (1986–89) have a flatter hood.
Rather than one of those Astons bought for big prices between 2008–11 and then squirrelled off to the Middle East, this one was delivered new there, in Kuwait. All V8s supplied there were European spec, which helps explain the chassis plate in German. It has side-marker lighting but escaped the federal-style rear-panel treatment with its recess for U.S. license plates.
Being a Middle East returnee, it was no surprise there was no paperwork — not even a registration document. That means it was offered on a bill of sale, though it did still have its factory build sheet. Some time ago, a dealer who sold many of these cars to Kuwait sounded quite aggrieved as he told me that he went to some trouble to make sure they had good and complete history files when they left, which tend to have become mislaid by the time they return. The other issue is that our subject car had entered the European Union on a temporary import bond, which is normal, as you don’t know where a car at auction is going to end up. But staying in the EU incurs VAT (20%) and import duty (usually 10%) added to the final price.
It looked in good fettle, with a recent-looking exhaust system, though it had a color change at some unspecified time and at some time acquired a chromed airbox. It was obviously not put away when it arrived in Kuwait, as it showed 75,246 km, or a bit under 47,000 miles.
On the rebound?
My Aston dealer friend said, “All cars going to the Middle East were European cars, and this was German spec. As always with Kuwait cars, no documents, but we were not bothered if it went for the right money.
“After a X-pack coupe, the 580 Vantage with manual gearbox is the one to have, and this ticks all the right boxes, but it was a little rusty and needed a lot of work on the chassis. [Along with another buyer friend], we thought €180,000 was the max — he would have gone to €200k — and it made good money in the end.”
When the estimate was €165k–€200k, and considering the above, this counts as a very strong sale price. Had it hammered at top estimate, the final price would have been €230k, or about $260k.
Does this sale, plus a number of other encouraging recent transactions, reflect an upturn in the Aston V8 market? Regular V8s were going for little over $50k up to 2023, though often in poor repair due to their depressed values. Vantages have always fetched more, and real X-packs up to twice as much as that. Just about all the Astons that disappeared to the Middle East have now returned, so we don’t need to worry too much now about a glut flooding the market. And with a new demographic rapidly advancing the market for Next Gen cars, the V8’s long life span — until the end of the 1980s — could be an advantage in the marketplace.
Perhaps we need to look to the gain in prices of the Italian equivalents — Isos, Lamborghini Isleros, Jaramas and Maserati Khamsins — and ask if the old British bulldog is getting pulled along in their wake. Either way, this V8 Vantage was very well sold. For now. Will a Camaro out-drag it? Unlikely.
