"Aston Martin's customers had been clamouring for an eight-cylinder car for years, so Aston Martin designed a larger two-door saloon for V8 applications. The engine was not ready, however, so in 1967 the company released the DBS with the straight-six Vantage engine from the DB6. Two years later, Tadek Marek's V8 was ready, and Aston released the DBS V8. With the demise of the straight-six Vantage in 1973, the DBS V8, now restyled and called simply the Aston Martin V8, became the company's mainstream car for nearly two decades. It was retired in favour of the Virage in 1989. The ‘Oscar India’ specification was introduced in October 1978 at the Birmingham International Motor Show. Visually, the former scoop on the bonnet gave way to a closed ‘power bulge’, while a spoiler was integrated into the tail. Most Oscar India cars were equipped with a Chrysler ‘TorqueFlite’ three-speed automatic transmission, with wood trim fitted for the first time since the DB2/4 of the 1950s. Just 352 Oscar India models were built from 1978 through to 1985.
This 1978 Aston Martin V8 was purchased by the current owner in 1982 from Stratton Motor Company, Norfolk with a speedometer reading of 19,973 miles. Returning to his London home he has had it fully maintained and serviced by Ian Mason Aston Services, then with Aston Service London when they took over Ian Mason in 2008. In 1987 it was sent to Ian Mason’s and the car was stripped and repainted, changing the colour from silver to white, but it has retained its lovely blue leather interior. While in his ownership this AM V8 has covered only 58,250 miles from new, less than 40,000 miles in his ownership and only 2,000 miles since 2007. This is due to the owner moving to Israel in 1993 leaving the car, garaged, at his London address but having someone checking on it regularly, taking it for service and MoT’s. This Aston Martin V8 is supplied with a number of V5 registration documents ranging from the current logbook back to 1982, an MoT test certificate which expires in August 2022, the original owners handbook and a file containing old MoT’s and other documents relating to the car. Requiring to be repainted again this Aston Martin has the potential of becoming a very useable classic Aston and certainly a very good investment for the future.
https://youtu.be/r1CgfMHBzZ4"