Top Gear's five favourite Aston Martins in videogames

Since 1913, Aston Martin has embodied a uniquely British marriage of stately, elegant chassis design and riotously powerful engines hidden within them. And since – ooh, the mid-’90s – videogames have been trying to capture the experience of driving one.

At least half the time, you’ve been dressed in a tuxedo and mentioning your surname multiple times to people, such is the longstanding association between Agent 007, Aston Martin, and Things That Are Generally Fun in Games. But there have also been iconic Aston Martins in the Gran Turismo series, forgotten classics that pop up in Forza, and race-spec machinery whose every nuance is captured by modern racing sims. So let’s pick out our favourites from the big racing green hat, past and present.

Gran Turismo games have been stacked with Aston options, but we’ve always had a soft spot for this one in particular.

Why? Well, the 1999 incarnation of Aston’s front engine, twin-supercharged V8 tourer has an uncouth, agricultural look befitting its former status as the world’s most powerful car that would raise many an eyebrow at Spectre HQ. Its boxy lines seem to be giving at least a passing nod to a fellow Gran Turismo icon, the R34 Skyline GTR. And even if its stock version wasn’t enough to scandalise Q and co, by the time you’ve slapped some street racing alloys and some engine tuning upgrades on it, the aftermarket monstrosity that A-Spec allows you to build is certainly enough to give those stiff upper lip labcoats a hernia.

Speaking of paradoxically famous secret agents and their daily drivers, 007 First Light recently announced that the ethereal, 1,000bhp Valhalla will feature in the upcoming immersive sim from IO Interactive, purveyors of those particularly fine Hitman games.

Which means, obviously, it already makes this list of our favourites. Not just because of its incredible performance, borne of a combustion engine working harmoniously with a trio of electric motors. And not because of the copious aero fins, either, which look equally ready to rock up to a GT3 race grid as hide an improbable array of hidden weapons. No, it’s – and call us simple-minded, many have – the ability to get in and out of it. Whenever a game gives us that freedom, driving just feels a bit more like driving.

Yes, that’s right, Forza Horizon 5. You know what your job is: to give us a car collection that not only ticks all the obvious hypercar-shaped boxes, but delivers us half-forgotten ‘90s oddities which we instantly become obsessed with upon establishing visual contact.

This giant wedge of futurism was too out-there for 1970s drivers, and both Time and Bloomberg were quick to name it among the 50 ugliest cars ever made. Which is exactly why we love it. The Lagonda doesn’t just serve up its beauty like a needy dog – it makes you work for it. You’ve got to study the lines, walk away, come back, forget about it for 30 years, and then see it again in a game, before you can truly appreciate it.

There’s a sense of inevitability about Mr Bond’s name cropping up a few times in this list, isn’t there? His 2002 PS2 outing 007 Nightfire might be low on polygons, but it does have (barely) enough of them to render a driveable V12 Vanquish – a novelty at the time worthy of breathless playground anecdotes.

The Vanquish granted to Pierce Brosnan’s gurning Bond approximation in this game is sheer joy on four wheels, used to ram-raid through expensive-looking Hollywood set-pieces and battle a helicopter on an ice lake. You know – secret agent stuff. Operations you’d undertake if you were looking to remain hidden.

Finally, a car whose place on this list is earned by being approachable and friendly, rather than magisterial and supernaturally quick. The Vantage V8 GT3 is one of Assetto Corsa Competizione’s most planted, beginner-friendly vehicle options. And in a game this demanding and competitive, that counts for a lot.

It’s the equivalent of the kid in the year above you in school who takes you under their wing on the school bus, shares you into the cool bands and makes sure the bullies don’t pick on you. An endurance race in ACC is all-out warfare, so having a vehicle on your side, trying its damnedest to stay facing in the direction you intended, that simply creates a special bond – no, the other kind this time – which we’ll never forget. Thanks for the lap times, V8 Vantage GT3.