Aston Martin Vantage GT8

from Supercar Driver Magazine Issue 39

by Supercar Driver

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T R U L Y SPECIAL

DRIVEN: ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT8

We spend the day with John McGurk and one of the rarest Aston Martins of the modern era.

Written by: Matt Parker

For sale at mcgurk.com £149,850 | 2017 | 1,900 Miles

As one of the most renowned Aston Martin specialists around, McGurk Performance Cars tends to be an Aladdin’s cave of Britain’s finest. Amongst the classics and modern classics in the showroom sits a special Aston Martin which is probably more suited to than any other, the stripped back, hardcore Vantage GT8. As a swansong of Aston Martin’s now retired naturally-aspirated V8, in this case sporting a sixspeed manual gearbox, we wanted to sit down with John McGurk himself to discuss why it’s so special and sought after. “The GT8 is based on the Aston Martin Vantage GTE car from 2016 and is a limited car with just 150 made”, John tells us, “It should be pointed out that there are special edition cars, and then there’s this. Of late, lots of manufacturers are continually churning out special edition cars that, in my opinion, aren’t what I would want as a special-edition car. They’re more like a wellspecced car with a lot of thought gone into it. There’s so much more to the GT8 than that.

“Being a tribute to a GTE car means that it’s all about aerodynamics, power and weight. They’re the three key things that make this so different from everything else, and make it a proper collector’s car”.

We often celebrate the likes of the Ferrari 458 Speciale as the last of the naturally-aspirated V8 Ferraris, as we have done in this very issue, but it’s easy to forget that the GT8 was exactly that for Aston Martin, “People are talking about the last true Aston Martins before they got into Mercedes-AMG engines, so the following that these late Vantages have is quite notable”, John explains, “We’re starting to see already on the marketplace that, in terms of value, the difference between the Aston Martin V8 and V12 engined cars and the Mercedes era is becoming quite clear. The older cars are very well sought after”. So, who is the GT8 for? Is it a track car, a cruiser, or just a collectable? “If you want to buy a track car, there are other cars you want to go and buy for a lot less money that you’d get great fun out of. I think this does both. Yes, there are sharper cars than it if you’re a track day fiend, but from a track point of view, a touring point of view and from a general fun point of view, the GT8 ticks all the boxes — it’s a great all-rounder”.

...there are special edition cars, and then there’s this.

John is keen to point out the enthusiastic following the GT8 has, so much so that there is a specific club for the 150 examples, “There are always manufacturer car clubs, but for one variant of one model to be so popular to have its own club, and I don’t mean a Vantage club or a DB9 club, there’s a GT8 club, and it’s a really great thing. The owners of the cars all know each other, they go off and do trips, you can only join if you have a GT8 and it’s a real nice and different thing”. A club for a specific model isn’t the only different thing either; you’ll be hard pushed to find any of the 150 GT8s that doesn’t stand out, and you might even struggle to find any two that look the same, “One of the things that’s so attractive about the GT8 is the colour scheme options, and the halo scheme is the most popular of choices. Everything is personal, there’s no right or wrong with it, but these two-tone finishes really make the thing stand out. You can choose something no one else has got, being Aston Martin, you can personalise everything and that’s one of the great things about these cars, they’re all different”.

Given the rarity in numbers and being the last of its kind, I personally think the GT8 looks like remarkably good value at the moment, but what’s John’s take on the market? “These cars get used for driving quite a lot, they go on tours and of course none of that really happened last year. Combine that with showrooms being closed and other factors, and last year was difficult for a lot of things, but the year prior to that we actually sold six GT8s which were all manuals, and they are still really sought after. “This one is £149,000, and anyone spending £149,000 on a car wants to know what it might be worth in a year or two years, and all I can say is that over the last two years, prices have been level, so that’s really comforting for me as well as the people who own the cars, and really encouraging for future values”. Since our chat for this feature, John has told us that there have been two GT8 sales which is great news for the market.

See more about this car in our DRIVEN video

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