Aston Martin V8 Vantage V550: 10 quickfire stats as 550bhp brute turns 30

In the eight years of production, only 239 V550s were made. Though we should add, they were built slowly, very slowly…

At a time when the Ford Fiesta took around eight hours to build, production of a single Vantage was much slower. At its peak production was just two cars every week, but we’re reckoning no one took lunch, ever.

That glacial rate reportedly dropped to half a car per week at the slowest point. Only 239, remember – now we know why.

The inflation calculator tells us £177,600 in the early ‘90s converts to approximately £453,000 in new money. Today half a mill buys you not one, but two Bentley Continental GTs heavily customised by its bespoke coachbuilding team at Mulliner. Or a home. (Maybe two of them, if you went far enough into mid-Wales).

The world’s most powerful Aston had a monster 5.3-litre V8 engine, boosted by a pair of M90 Eaton superchargers. The package pumped out 550bhp and 553lb ft of torque, able to shift the two-tonne Vantage along at a fair old lick.

The real headline of the day was the in-house climb that the engineering team had made developing the quad-cam V8. It wasn’t that dissimilar to the 32-valve 5.3-litre in the Virage that preceded it, with that engine rated for 'just' 330bhp. Superchargers, huh.

The V550’s 4.6-second 0-60mph dash might seem pedestrian today, but in the Nineties that was enough to keep pace with a mid-engined Ferrari F355 (0-60mph in around 4.5s).

The V550 topped out at 186mph, which was apparently described as 'adequate' by its then-sales staff. Quite.

Massive, right? So massive, Aston fitted filling ports either side of the boot. For some context, Aston’s 630bhp DB12 has a 78-litre capacity.

The V550 is credited with a few production car 'firsts' and 'mosts', including the brakes. Aston tells us the 362mm front/310mm rear ventilated discs - saddled with with four-piston AP calipers - were the largest for any production car at the time. Probably get those on a Fiesta nowadays.

The V600 Le Mans version could be retrospectively applied to the V550 for a mere £43,000, and brought with it - that's right! - 50 more ponies to hit a nice, round 600bhp. It involved a complete strip down and rebuild from scratch, mind...