1978 Aston Martin V8 “Canadian Vantage”

• Britain’s first super car, Aston Martins’ fastest road car, and at the time, the fastest road production car in the world

• Mostly original interior, converted to left-hand drive

• Rebuilt engine and converted to six-liter “big bore” specification
  

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage was a British grand tourer vehicle regarded in its February 1977 debut as "Britain's First Supercar,” Aston Martins fastest road car ever, and fastest production road car in the world; this was due to its 170-mph top speed. The carbureted ‘S’ V8 Canadian delivery cars offered higher performance from new over their Stateside Aston Martin V8 Vantages.

According to noted V8 Vantage enthusiast and author Kean Rogers, himself a prior owner of this car, light cars were built for the Canadian market with Vantage-type cosmetics: Front air dam, plugged bonnet bulge, and rear ‘Flip tail’ spoiler. The engines were to European Stage 1 specification (indicated by the suffix ‘S’ in the engine number) and the chassis number suffix LCA. Four cars were manual [including 11904] and four were automatic. These cars have been dubbed ‘Canadian Vantages’ while technically not factory Vantages, the term differentiates them from the standard specification cars.

Constructed in March of 1978, this V8 was delivered new through Grand Touring Automobiles in Toronto, owned by Canadian entrepreneur George Minden, who was a partner at the time in Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., UK. This car was sold new to a customer in Vancouver, British Colombia.

The nice original interior remained as found, save for re-padding the Fawn Connolly leather seats, installation of new Wilton carpets, and Fawn wool headliner. During the restoration, it was noted that the chassis was inspected and that there was no corrosion found, while the paint selected contained an epoxy rust preventative. The car was later sold to an Aston Martin collector on the East Coast.

In April 2005 during an annual service, the car received an engine rebuild and was converted to a six-liter “big bore” specification, utilizing authentic Vantage components supplied by the UK-based specialists at Aston Engineering. This improvement in displacement develops massive horsepower and useful torque that exceeds factory Vantage specification and makes for quite an exciting drive!

Specifications:

Engine: 4-stroke 6L V8, spark-ignition

Transmission: 5-speed manual

Horsepower: 390 bhp at 5,800 rpm

Torque: 406 ft lbs at 4,500 rpm